[SCCC] FW: CQWW CW J42L(N5ZO) SOAB HP

[marko.n5zo at gmail.com]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021

Call: J42L
Operator(s): N5ZO
Station: SV2DCD

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Kastoria, Greece
Operating Time (hrs): ~46.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  345     9       42
   80:  802    22       58
   40: 1713    24       82
   20: 1728    29       74
   15: 1070    31       75
   10:  105    19       40
------------------------------
Total: 5763   134      371  Total Score = 5,353,000

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

Sometime in April I started to look for possible QTHs to operate CQWWs this year from remaining zones (9) I had not yet operated the contest from.  Due to ongoing pandemic travel restrictions, there were only 4 zones accessible from that list.  SSB contest sorted out and last month I operated from TM2Y in zone 14.  When looking for existing possible contest stations or QTHs to set up field-day style operation in zone 20 I noticed many past results from J42L station in Greece.  I figured quickly that this station was in house of Leo SV2DCD, who is same Leo we operated together from IG9A M/M in SSB 2001 when we both were bit younger.  We had no contact between us for 20 years, but he immediately answered my email inquiry and offered his station not only to come and operate but also for me to do SOAB and so maximize the experience from zone 20.  In following months through several emails I gained good understanding what to expect and plans came together.

I left Saturday and flew 10 time zones from SoCal to Thessaloniki with Covid trimmings on me where I was met at airport by Leo and Thomas SV2CLJ.  As we made stop at local restaurant where we had big local BBQ meal I knew that this was going to be good trip.  I learned Thomas was going to also travel to contest site in Kastoria region on Friday to do his 2nd job as contest cook for me and Leo.  Leo had already picked up 2nd K3 for me to use from Alex SV2BXA and I had travelled with another K3 from home.  Leo and I then travelled to his QTH which is some 2.5 hrs by car and about 30 kms from Albanian border near mountain range in the region.  QTH is about 700 m from sea level on flat area of land with mountains at distance.

On Monday we had already set up the station with my own SO2R boxes I travelled with and most everything was working inside.  We had some small problems like RF getting into other stations amplifier relay on some bands, but we were able to sort those issues out during the week. Only antenna work we really needed to do took about ½ day as we took down 75 m vertical and extended it to 80 m CW band.
 That antenna will probably now be known forever as “almost vertical”.  We also cranked down small tower with 15 m monoband yagi and Leo climbed up and turned it to main US/EU direction.  Rotator of that antenna was out for repairs, but I still had Optibeam multibander at main tower which rotated.  It was bit compromised situation as that Optibeam was also main antenna for 10 m and the antenna could only be used on one band at the time.  The station is simple, with no multiple direction capability on any band, but I thought it worked quite well for what it had.  During the week before the contest I gained good feel for the station and I was able to make some 1500+ contacts across all 6 bands including getting on in all 4 CWTs during the week as SV2/N5ZO.  There was definitely some interference especially between 40 and 20 and also between 80 and 40 and I figured that probably trying to run on 2 bands with those combinations would not work very well.  Also, on high bands like 20 and 15 I did not have much interstation interference, but limiting issue was beaming only single direction (like US/EU) and interlopers from Eastern directions launching loud CQ on my run frequency.  So I was not able to keep frequency clear to try to run on both bands in same time, except for few occasions on 20 and 15.  Most of the time I was running on single radio and trying to pick up few more Qs with other radio.

It was very good again to arrive to timezone early, but I still did not sleep very well during the night from Thursday to Friday.  Thomas also arrived to site sometime during Friday afternoon and immediately proceeded to cook another great BBQ outside and that meal then set me up for nice 4 hr nap in late afternoon/early evening and I felt quite ready for contest when it started 2 am local time.

Going into contest I had score in mind of about 5k QSOs and score of 5M. 
Unassisted old Greek record from 20 years ago was just 2.1M, and it fell sometime around 20 hrs into the contest.  So next goal then was to try to match assisted Greek record which was made from same station in 2019.  At the end I was able to make it.  I focused more on QSOs with cost of mults, and also tried to pick up North American stations from callers since that point difference really makes big difference and score builds up much faster when working DX. 
Multipliers built slowly for me but at the end I got to almost reasonable mults compared to competition, but some easy ones were left on the table for sure.  I was able work almost 1900 NA stations, and 700+ of them on 40 and about 200 of them on 80.  Being pretty far East in EU that was surprising.  Leo has 4 el wirebeam on 40 m aimed to main NA and EU direction and it really worked well.

Rain came and went multiple times during Sunday afternoon and evening and created some static noise at S9 level at times especially on high bands which made those bands unusable for some periods.  10 m never really opened, but being relatively South in EU helped to pick up some multipliers there even when most everybody was super weak.  I didn’t have too many technical problems other than left computer seemed to be sensitive to RF from 10 m transmitting and it locked up few times and required reboot.  I think RF got into one of the USB cables.  Another reason to operate with 2 computers ! 

I had some struggle staying on chair and focused on Sunday morning after sunrise and had to stop and walk around for half hour.  Leo and Thomas told me that they were somewhat concerned how I looked at the time.  But walking around a bit cleared my head and I was then able to keep going to the end with just small breaks.  Logging programs shows no off-time, but I estimate I operated 46.5 hours of the contest.

On Tuesday I took Covid test in local doctors office and writing this now in Thessaloniki after another great dinner with several locals and flying back home tomorrow Wednesday.  This was my 33rd zone to operate from in October/November CQWWDX Contest and that goal of working all 40 is closer than ever.  Special thanks to Leo for letting me to use his excellent station and renewing our friendship after 20 years.  And also big thanks to Thomas and Alex for great support for this operation.

Stations set-up:
2x K3 radios, OM Power 2500 amp and AL-1500 amp
160 m inverted L
80 m “almost vertical”
40 m 4 el wirebeam aimed to NA/EU
20 m 4 el yagi
15 m 4 el yagi fixed to NA/EU
10 m 4 el yagi very low mostly connected to Flexradio used as 10 m panadapter to see band activity
40-10 m Optibeam 12-4 multibander usable on one band at the time Several beverage antennas used on 160/80
N1MM+ running on 2 networked computers with 2 keyboards, 2 winkeys, 2 
N1MM+ paddles
Homebuilt “auto headphone switch” and other small interface boxes, some of it designed by K6AM

73 de Marko N5ZO


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