[SCCC] FW: CQWW CW 8Q7ZO M/M HP
Jim Price
jnprice at pacbell.net
Fri Dec 4 12:29:33 EST 2020
I was with Dick N6AA and Phil N6ZZ for Dick's 40th Zone - which happened to be TK4Z in Zone 15 in 2002! It was a very memorable trip for me and my wife Joan - my first "DXpedition" experience, and Corsica was a beautiful place to explore! Art Goddard got up to 30-something zones, I believe. All three of them had great stories about getting radios and antennas in and out of some "interesting" countries!
73 - Jim K6ZH
-----Original Message-----
From: SCCC [mailto:sccc-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dennis Younker NE6I
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2020 4:14 PM
To: 'Jim Neiger' <n6tj at sbcglobal.net>; sccc at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [SCCC] FW: CQWW CW 8Q7ZO M/M HP
I remember Dick having completed WAZ (operating from all 40) quite a few years ago. Didn't realize or I'd forgotten that N6ZZ had done it as well.
What about you, Jim? I know you've done quite a few zones over the years.
I agree with David and Tim, it's been fun reading about Marko's trials and tribulations during these expeditions.
--Dennis NE6I
-----Original Message-----
From: SCCC <sccc-bounces at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Jim Neiger
Sent: Thursday, December 3, 2020 4:05 PM
To: sccc at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [SCCC] FW: CQWW CW 8Q7ZO M/M HP
So easily forgotten that SCCC Founders N6AA and N6ZZ (SK) already
operated CQ WW DX from WAZ years ago. And Dick well on his way to
repeat. Marko will be No. 3. GL
Jim N6TJ
On 12/3/2020 10:28 AM, David Hodge wrote:
> I second that, Tim.
> Hearing about the trials and tribulations of making big scores from distant lands is fascinating.
> Keep the reports coming, Marko.
>
> 73,
> David N6AN
>
> P.S. 39 zones on 20 at ND7K. Sweet! FB total score.
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: SCCC <sccc-bounces at contesting.com> on behalf of Timothy Coker
> via SCCC <sccc at contesting.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 2, 2020 6:25 PM
> To: marko.n5zo at gmail.com <marko.n5zo at gmail.com>; 'SCCC Reflector'
> <sccc at contesting.com>
> Subject: Re: [SCCC] FW: CQWW CW 8Q7ZO M/M HP
>
> Thanks for the great write up... it’s become a tradition for me to read about your zone quest Marko!
> 73,
> Tim / N6WIN
>
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>
>
> On Wednesday, December 2, 2020, 13:59, marko.n5zo at gmail.com wrote:
>
> 73 from Dubai airport, 11 hr transit here. But bar is open 24 hrs.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: webform at b4h.net <webform at b4h.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2020 12:49 PM
> To: 3830 at contesting.com; marko.n5zo at gmail.com
> Subject: CQWW CW 8Q7ZO M/M HP
>
> CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2020
>
> Call: 8Q7ZO
> Operator(s): N5ZO W6NV
> Station: 8Q7ZO
>
> Class: M/M HP
> QTH: Maldives
> Operating Time (hrs): 48
>
> Summary:
> Band QSOs Zones Countries
> ------------------------------
> 160: 125 13 35
> 80: 352 26 64
> 40: 1403 32 98
> 20: 1224 31 97
> 15: 1896 30 101
> 10: 1015 24 84
> ------------------------------
> Total: 6015 156 479 Total Score = 10,049,510
>
> Club: Southern California Contest Club
>
> Comments:
>
> I had some plans to travel to zone 20 for this year’s WW CW contest, but due to pandemic those plans started to fall apart around SSB contest time. The only country in a new zone, I had not operated from in a CQ WW contest and where travel would be possible without the complications of a 14-day quarantine was the Maldives in zone 22.
>
> The Maldives required a Covid-19 test before travelling and tourists were only confined to their destination resort island. The Maldives is quite thorough in their COVID protection procedures and remains quite free of COVID infections.
>
> A quick skype call to Igor UA9CDC, who I knew from Zone 17 operations, set plans into motion to operate from Sun Island Resort, the home of many operations of 8Q7DV by the Russian teams. Although they had not been there for 4 years Igor had good information for operations on short notice.
>
> I quickly scrapped single op plans as setting everything a multi-band station up myself, without help, would require two guys to establish a competitive station on an unfamiliar island. I contacted trusted old warhorse Oliver W6NV who was immediately committed after his wife Ann said something like “have fun” and so from then on we planned to be multi-op to simplify the station design and provide unlimited flexibility and fun. A two-man MM was envisaged from the beginning and seemed limited only by antenna and station building activities.
> Licensing to Maldives was very easy and licensing authority answered overnight to my inquiry.
>
> After travelling about 30 hours constrained with COVID trimmings, we
> arrived by speedboat on Sun Island Resort, Sunday before the contest.
> Big surprise, we expected the water to be about 10 meters from our
> bungalow door, however, the shore was now something like 100 meters away. Apparently sometime during last 4 years there had been major land reclamation project. A wide beach in front of the best bungalow for ham radio in NW corner of the island. There were tourists walking and wading the shoreline and many reclining chairs on the beach. We quickly decided that due to shortage of coax and abundance of sunbathers, we would set our antennas close to the rooms, not the ideal ocean front situation enjoyed by the 8Q7DV Team.
>
> It took us about 3 days to set up our antenna farm which was mix of
> some gear stored by the 8Q7DV Team and VDAs and 5/8 wave 10 meter
> vertical carried in Oliver’s ski bag. The antennas consisted of a
> 160/80 meter combination inverted L, 40 meter center fed half wave, 20
> and 15 meter VDAs and the 10 meter
> 5/8 wave. The coax feed to the 160/80 antenna with a common feed
> point was over
> 300 feet. The VDAs were pointed North and provided wide coverage primarily to EU and the US. The systems worked out quite well, with only one mishap on Thursday before the contest when the 20 meter VDA blew down in a rainstorm over night. A Spiderbeam pole section was broken, but the problem was nothing two engineers could not overcome with parts for a splint and good old duct tape.
>
> We had 2 complete stations with 2x K3 radios and SPE 1.3k amplifier
> and Juma
> PA1000 amplifier, low power band pass filters etc. We both had to pay for one extra luggage each way to have everything we needed for this operation, and Russian coax, wire, rope, 3 Spiderbeam poles and other miscellaneous stuff we were able to use was essential for the operation. We had good internet connection in the room, but had some problems with our computer-ran hotspot networking crashing every now and then, probably because RF got into modem cables in the room or something, it seemed to be worse during nighttime when we were on low bands.
>
> The highlight was achieving about 6000 contacts and 10-million points,
> we forecasted. Of course, a 3rd or even 4th station with couple more
> operators could have produced another 2000 contacts and made operation
> somewhat more competitive in the MM category. There was always
> something going on at least on
> 3 bands. Openings to US and especially US West Coast were weak and short. QSB and multipath echo was heavy in most bands. Despite making a special effort to work 160 meters, conditions limited the total QSO count to approximately 300 before and during the contest.
>
> The low light curse are today’s constant callers who listen little and are often strong signals. These operators know well how to click spots and act like they are using code readers. It is difficult to put anyone in the log when many callers are on the spot frequency and just pushing the F4 key and being zero beat with dozens or often hundreds of other callers does not work. Split operation made things somewhat easier to handle. I personally definitely was in zombieland on Sunday evening and at times had difficult time on radio to understand what I was actually doing, it got better towards end of it again when I got out of funk. Oliver took short nap on Sunday before high bands opened to Europe, which was probably smarter than trying to operate whole thing. We both drove bicycle for half mile to restaurant for dinner on each day, for other food we stole crackers, eggs and cheese from breakfast buffet during the week to stock up.
>
> The contest ended 5 am local time on Monday. After a five hour rest we went to lunch at the buffet and began to take the antennas down. By Tuesday noon the antennas were disassembled and properly packed. We finally had the opportunity to take a dip in pool and in Indian Ocean (only time during whole trip) by sunset on Tuesday. We left Wednesday and now writing the 3830 post in the Dubai airport.
>
> Special thanks to Igor, UA9CDC, for the friendship, all advice and loan of stored gear that made this operation possible.
>
> This was my 31st CQ zone to operate CQ WW DX contest from. I’m happy that despite pandemic I was able to put perhaps the hardest ones from my missing zone list on air this year.
>
> Tnx for Qs; it appears that Cycle-25 is off to a good start. We both expect to see you next year from someplace interesting !
>
> 73 de Marko N5ZO
>
>
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
>
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