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

Tue Nov 30 19:16:27 EST 2021

Marko,

Great report and now you need a vacation to go lay on the beach to recover!

NX6T worked you on 20 and 40 and I am pretty sure I saw you spotted at
times on 15 but got a dididahdahdidit several times when I called...but to
no avail !

N6KI

On Tue, Nov 30, 2021, 10:58 AM Marko Myllymaki <marko.n5zo at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>                     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
>
>
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
>
>
>
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