[SCCC] W4EF CQWW SSB Single-Op 10M HP

[Michael Tope]

CQWWSSB Score Summary Sheet

        Start Date : 2011-10-29

     CallSign Used : W4EF
       Operator(s) : W4EF

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
              Band : 10M
             Power : HIGH
              Mode : SSB
  Default Exchange : 59 3


         Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   ZN
------------------------------------------
           28    1022    2889  120   35

             Score : 447,795

               Rig : Ten-Tec Omni6+ and Drake L-7
          Antennas : 3-band Spiderbeam at 50 feet (4 active elements on 10)
                     40/20 meter parallel dipoles at 45' for quickly 
listening "off beam"
                     A Cushcraft R7000 at 10' rendered totally useless 
by line noise


I was going to try a SOAB, but my wife had me digging a hole in the 
backyard early Friday morning to plant a tree, and when I got up to 
Littlerock I ended up having problems with the 160 meter RX array which 
I thought I had fixed the weekend before. I got it fixed eventually, but 
because of the delay I didn't get settled down in front of the rig to 
make any QSOs until 0020 UTC.

There was also a lingering problem with the Spiderbeam on 20 meters. One 
leg of the 20 meter driven element had tangled with the 15 meter driven 
element. It didn't seem to effect 10 or 15 meters, but it sure screwed 
up 20 meters. I ran 10 meters until it died and then went down and 
played with 20 meters to see how bad the beam was degraded. It was still 
quieter than the dipole, but signals were no longer stronger on the beam 
and it didn't have much of a pattern. I did manage to work A73A, but it 
was a struggle (K6NA blew through with one call). This pissed me off 
enough that I went outside, lowered the tower and set about to fix the 
tangled wires.

The AB-577 comes down and goes back up surprisingly fast and can be 
handled by one person when there is no wind. The problem with the 
antenna was easy to fix I was able to get it back up and running at full 
height in a few hours. By that time, however, I was so tired that a 
serious SOAB seemed like a fools errand, so I figured I'd stay with 10 
meters to see how it would play out.

I've got some noise issues up here which have a rather interesting 
characteristic. Before sunrise, 10 meters is dead quite no matter which 
way I point the Spiderbeam, but as soon as the sun comes up I start 
getting QRN when I am pointed east or west. Luckily when I am pointed at 
Europe or Japan the noise is mostly not there. The blanker in the Omni6+ 
takes some of it out completely and is situated behind a roofing filter 
so it doesn't get modulated by the whole band (i.e. I can actually leave 
it on during the contest). However, sometimes the noise, although 
somewhat similar in sound (it sounds like line noise buzz), isn't 
impacted by the blanker at all. I think this might be multiple sources 
all buzzing at the same time. It comes and goes in intensity all day 
long. At times it can be quite strong whereas at other times it is next 
to nothing. Fortunately, it is worst in the directions with the least 
impact.

In any case, I had a great time and was able to use the dead time 
Saturday night to catch up on my sleep. I heard zones 16, 21, and 39, 
but wasn't able to work them (not a peep from 17 and 22). There were 
also a handful of countries that I heard which got away (Z21, 5R8, UA, 
etc). The highlight of the contest was on Sunday morning when I was 
doing S&P on the second VFO between CQs when the rate had dropped real 
low. I heard a big pileup and a strong signal responding to callers with 
"59 34". This had to be a new one, so I dumped in my call once and he 
came right back to which I responded "59 03, could I have your call?" He 
responded with "ST2AR" and I immediately jumped back to my CQ frequency 
just in time to hear a loud "Is this frequency in use" to which I 
replied "yes" and started CQing again. That whole sequence couldn't have 
been choreographed any better. I just doesn't get any better than that. :-)

Congratulations to the W6YI team on their tremendous effort and 
especially their outstanding ten meter numbers. All I can say is - WOW!

73, Mike  W4EF........................