[SCCC] CQWW CW ZD8O(N5ZO) SOAB HP

[Marko L Myllymaki]

Late report below.  It got posted into Classic category listings at
3830scores due to my mistake, but I think it will be corrected sometime
soon and listed under SOAB HP.


                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: ZD8O
Operator(s): N5ZO
Station: ZD8O

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Ascension Is.
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   58     9       27
   80:  225    16       54
   40:  736    26       67
   20: 1070    38       99
   15: 1383    37      108
   10: 2268    36      112
------------------------------
Total: 5740   162      467  Total Score = 10,747,094

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

I've been so busy in last 2 months (less than 2 weeks in home with all the
travel to z17, z36 for CQ WWs and then immediately after WWs I had to make
last
minute personal trip to Brazil).  So my short report from this years
Ascension
Is. field day is coming bit late...
It was my 5th time back on Ascension, and this time after doing last 3
efforts
on SSB and reaching my SSB objectives finally last year we decided to swap
with
Oliver W6NV and he would do SSB and set up most of the station for high
bands at
least and I would do CW and tear down everything and pack and store the
gear.
Again Henri OH3JR/ZD8JR joined me for a trip to do WARC/RTTY DXing prior to
the
contest and it was once again great to have his considerable expertise and
help
available during set up of rest of the station needed for SOAB operation.
Plus
he makes his famous breakfast omelet, and so now I will not eat eggs again
for
some months...
We had to fly to ZD8 very early this year due to fully booked civilian seats
that are available on twice a week flights, so we got to the rock already on
Nov 13th and so well ahead the contest.  Upon arrival I had bit of flu for
few
days but was able to eventually shake it off.  We had to fix few things
during
2 weeks before the contest, some of the gear got bit banged in my luggage
and
some of the gear we have on island starts to show signs of its age and
island
climate is not helping, bit of repair and maintenance was needed.  During
the 2
weeks we had also power amp failure with Henri's K-3 (also my spare
transceiver
should something go wrong with my own K-3).  It turned out to be famous gold
pin issue and we were able to do field fix for it and it is now better than
new
one.
Since we had time, we were experimenting with 160 and 80 antenna set-ups.
These bands are always problematic already due to distance from South
Atlantic
but also because narrow slice of usable space at the QTH on mountain side
really does not have many good support structures or space available for low
band antennas.  Anyway, we were experimenting with elevated radials and
sloping
vertical wires for 80 and inverted L for 160 and location of those wires at
available space.  We 1st set up these antennas and actually they seemed to
work
and we made couple hundred QSOs on 160 during couple nights in the
beginning.
Then we changed those antenna locations and intention was to make it even
better, but we made it worse and did not have any contacts on 160 for a
week or
so.  Just before the contest we then changed the wires back to their 1st
locations and although there was not much time to test any more before
beginning of the contest, it seemed that we were able to replicate similar
performance on those bands as we had when we first spread the wires after
arrival.  It sounds simple but due to all kinds of space limitations and
obstructions at the QTH it always takes one full day from 2 guys to set up
these simple 80/160 wires at this QTH.  But at the end I felt pretty good
with
low bands (more so than any other prior 4 years) and before the contest
started
I had already made 900 DX QSOs on 80 and Henri had made 200-300 on 160, so
I was
getting out better than prior years, I thought.
We also had time to fix some of the antennas for local hams and there is now
some permanent activity on 6 meters from Ascension.  And 1st time ever we
also
had time to go and catch our own fish, and cook it fresh on the beach, that
was
great !
After going to ZD8 for 4 years I had gained already quite good
understanding of
available propagation and so I don't do much of the planning any more.
Just sit
down and operate and try to make best of it.  Bands were sounding great
although
when contest started 15 was almost closed already and so I went to 20
already
during 1st hour and stayed there until about 05 z, then to 40 for couple hrs
and then skipping straight to 10 m and then on afternoon starting to split
time
between 10 and 15.  During the Sat-Sun night I could have easily run entire
night on 20, but I had to work those low bands to get the basic mults in the
log.  So for sure rate suffered.  Then on Sunday it was typical struggle for
all morning hours with hallucinations and all until I was finally able to
get
out of funk maybe around noon time.  From there it is always downhill to the
end, with lots of multiplier moving etc.  At the end I was quite pleased
with
the score and it is by far my personal best on CW.  My own operating
capability
was clearly limiting factor.  I think myself as better SSB operator,
although I
have started to like CW more as I feel it is physically less demanding for
48
hrs contest, and I have been able to practice more on CW during last couple
years because I have now some station at home and it is no longer so that I
operate CW just couple times a year.  I try to get on bit all the time and
it
really has made huge difference on my comfort level on this mode.  Clearly
bigger score is still possible from our QTH and to get there I need to find
a
way to improve my overall rate on 2nd day and especially figure out how to
get
over the Sunday morning struggle and confusion faster.  But regarding this
operation I more or less reached the numbers I had on mind as a goal if
everything would go perfect and it is among better scores ever made from
ZD8.
One weak spot is my 40 m multiplier, which was just not happening although I
felt I was getting out very well with my 2 vertical array.
After the contest it was monumental job for Henri and me to tear down entire
station and pack it for next year.  It literally took us both 2 days with
very
little sleep, and we had to accomplish it before Tuesday evening flight.  I
really was dead after that, then travelling all the way to Califoirnia for
couple days and then to PY for 10 days.  Don't really feel like travelling
for
a while now...
This years antennas at ZD8O:
2 A3S yagis on 2 separate Spiderbeam masts about 30 ft high each rotating
independently, can be fed together for 2 directions
2 el vertical array for 40 m switchable either broadside or end-fire, each
with
30+ radials on ground.
80 m quarter wave sloping wire vertical with 3 elevated radials.
160 m inverted L with about 40 ft vertical portion and 2 elevated radials
K-3 + old Alpha 76

This was SO1R operation and my Classic overlay score after 24 hrs is around
4.8M with 3672 Qs, 117 zones, 320 countries.

Special thanks for our local help ZD8S, ZD8RY, ZD8KFC and several non-hams
who
are all essential to make these operations possible each year.

TNX for QSOs and CU next year !  73 de Marko N5ZO/ZD8O