[SCCC] 9m6w notes in 3830 site.
Bruce Horn
bhorn at hornucopia.com
Wed Nov 1 15:59:18 EDT 2023
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: 9M6W
Operator(s): OH6DO
Station: 9M6W
Class: SOSB10 HP
QTH: East Malaysia
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10: 1524 32 94
------------------------------
Total: 1524 32 94 Total Score = 560,700
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
Sometime early summer Jim N6TJ put me in contact with Saty 9M6NA who then
involved Kom 9M6KOM to investigate about possibilities to operate CQWW contest
from 9M6 to check zone 28 from my list of missing zones. I then met Saty also
in WRTC Italy where we were both competitors and plan was formed with Kom for me
to operate the SSB contest from QTH of Eddy and Claire, 9M6CED and 9M6CMS. Club
callsign 9M6W was made available for my use (tnx 9M6ZAE).
Not too many details were available prior to travel of the exact situation at
the station, mainly because locals don't really operate HF contests often. But
I knew that there was tribander 50 ft high, IC7600 radio and perhaps some
amplifier and some space for low band antennas that would have to be installed.
I travelled to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah about week before the contest and after
arrival gained better understanding of the situation at the station. Tribander
(11 element Optibeam clone) was really close to very large metal roof and one
could clearly see the impact of the roof on sweep of the antenna on 20 meters as
effective height of the antenna was probably just few meters and proximity of
roof really impacted it on 20 meters. During the week I made few hundred Qs on
CW and beam seemed to work quite OK on 10 (it had 5 els on 10) and 15, although
on both bands it was tuned way below the band and I had to use MFJ tuner that
was at the station. Saty also came over and visited us Tuesday-Wednesday and he
brought small solid state amp for me to use and also trained me on using N1MM+
with 7600 and with audio files stored in computer for voice keying. Apparently
7600 cannot receive command from logging program to use internal voice keyer of
the radio like 7610 can.
Kom had 22 meters long never used Spiderbeam pole available to use for low band
antennas, but then neither of the 2 open spaces at front of QTH (training area
for horse riding biz) or back of QTH (neighbor owned empty lot) was available to
set the pole for low band antennas. There was small open area next to house
with tall (maybe 80 ft) tree next to it and Kom's brother came over and using
small quadcopter drone was able to install rope over the tree. On Thursday we
then installed 80 and 40 m kind of sloping wire verticals hanging from drone
installed rope, both with couple elevated radials. I already knew low bands
were going to be noisy, so on Friday just before dark I installed kind of low
wire trying to get some kind of listening antenna to work, but it never really
heard much. Problem was limited space as Eddy also suggested that it may not be
good idea to stretch the wire to uncleared jungle around the house due to
possible critters in there. I also was not excited to survey local snakes.
Whole week before the contest I was debating myself if I should just do 10 m
SOSB or do AB. On 10 meters there were peculiar very loud birdies everywhere on
the band that appeared soon after sunrise and lasted until sunset. Think of it
like few hundred guys somewhere in South China Sea having each transmitter and
turning VFO knob back and worth at various speeds all day long. One could
clearly see that also in badscope as horizontal signals all over the band. It
was very hard to copy anything weaker if birdie was at top of you at the moment.
It was also not local to QTH as Saty had same in his far away contest QTH in
Labuan Island and same birdies were also heard in Sarawak (9M8). I also felt
couple times during the contest that birdies grew stronger at my frequency and I
actually had to move few times. I keep wondering if it all was some kind of
giant experiment organized in South China Sea by someone to see how
communications could be disrupted... But those birdies were really reason why I
decided to do AB contest, although I also knew it was going to be rough 48 hrs
without aircon in shack.
I started the contest as All Band 8 am local time operating mostly 10 and some
15. Both bands were OK but not great. I gravitated towards 10 as it just felt
more productive. Later on the day I tried 20 m which never felt good and also
as sun started to go down I went to 40. I worked few stations from US West
coast and it felt very good, some reported I was loud and I also heard them well
but it was still impossible to get any kind of run going other than to YB. But
as sun went down further there was like switch turned on and S9+10 powerline
kind of noise appeared, same on 80. Low bands just were unusable all night. So
I quickly decided that OK, I need to revert back to 10 m Single Band plan. I
still worked some contacts on other bands after it during 1st day as by that
time 10 m was almost dead. I went to sleep 4-5 hrs (6 hrs off time) in nearby
resort I was staying and when I came back around 23 z first day from then on I
only stayed on 10 meters. I made total around 550 Qs on other bands than 10
meters, and I think I could have made almost same amount of additional contacts
on 10 if I would have just done single band operation from the beginning. While
10 wasn't super great and especially down on Sunday, I think 2000 Qs would have
been possible from this location. On 2nd night I took 10 hrs off as band was
just dead after dark. Then I just returned for short 1 hr last morning run to
US. I was able to work zone 5 multiplier only during that last hour with only
few zone 5 stations in the log.
This was my 36th zone I have now operated CQWW contest from. In CW I will be at
CW5W almost on the other side of the planet to also operate 10 m SOSB, so it
will be interesting to have done it from both sides of the world month apart.
Big thanks to all who made this operation possible: N6TJ, 9M6NA, 9M6KOM, 9M6CED,
9M6CMS, 9M6DO, 9M6ZAE and others if I forgot anyone.
73 and tnx for QSOs de Marko N5ZO (OH6DO)
----- Original Message -----
From: "marko n5zo" <marko.n5zo at gmail.com>
To: "SCCC Reflector" <sccc at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 1, 2023 12:53:39 PM
Subject: [SCCC] 9m6w notes in 3830 site.
<https://www.3830scores.com/listeditions.php?arg=nuccqRzHvvqvx> CQ
Worldwide DX Contest, SSB 2023 Oct 28
<https://www.3830scores.com/editionscores.php?arg=nuccqRzHvvqvx> Claimed
Score
Call: <https://www.3830scores.com/findcall.php?call=9M6W> 9M6W
Operator(s): <https://www.3830scores.com/findcall.php?call=OH6DO> OH6DO
Station: 9M6W
Class: SOSB10 HP
QTH: East Malaysia
Operating Time (hrs):
Location: Other Oceania
Summary:
<https://www.3830scores.com/comparescores.php?arg=nuccqRzHvvqvx&call=9M6W>
Compare Scores
Band
QSOs
Zones
Countries
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
1524
32
94
Total:
1524
32
94
Total Score
560,700
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Sometime early summer Jim N6TJ put me in contact with Saty 9M6NA who then
involved Kom 9M6KOM to investigate about possibilities to operate CQWW
contest from 9M6 to check zone 28 from my list of missing zones. I then met
Saty also in WRTC Italy where we were both competitors and plan was formed
with Kom for me to operate the SSB contest from QTH of Eddy and Claire,
9M6CED and 9M6CMS. Club callsign 9M6W was made available for my use (tnx
9M6ZAE). Not too many details were available prior to travel of the exact
situation at the station, mainly because locals don't really operate HF
contests often. But I knew that there was tribander 50 ft high, IC7600 radio
and perhaps some amplifier and some space for low band antennas that would
have to be installed. I travelled to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah about week before
the contest and after arrival gained better understanding of the situation
at the station. Tribander (11 element Optibeam clone) was really close to
very large metal roof and one could clearly see the impact of the roof on
sweep of the antenna on 20 meters as effective height of the antenna was
probably just few meters and proximity of roof really impacted it on 20
meters. During the week I made few hundred Qs on CW and beam seemed to work
quite OK on 10 (it had 5 els on 10) and 15, although on both bands it was
tuned way below the band and I had to use MFJ tuner that was at the station.
Saty also came over and visited us Tuesday-Wednesday and he brought small
solid state amp for me to use and also trained me on using N1MM+ with 7600
and with audio files stored in computer for voice keying. Apparently 7600
cannot receive command from logging program to use internal voice keyer of
the radio like 7610 can. Kom had 22 meters long never used Spiderbeam pole
available to use for low band antennas, but then neither of the 2 open
spaces at front of QTH (training area for horse riding biz) or back of QTH
(neighbor owned empty lot) was available to set the pole for low band
antennas. There was small open area next to house with tall (maybe 80 ft)
tree next to it and Kom's brother came over and using small quadcopter drone
was able to install rope over the tree. On Thursday we then installed 80 and
40 m kind of sloping wire verticals hanging from drone installed rope, both
with couple elevated radials. I already knew low bands were going to be
noisy, so on Friday just before dark I installed kind of low wire trying to
get some kind of listening antenna to work, but it never really heard much.
Problem was limited space as Eddy also suggested that it may not be good
idea to stretch the wire to uncleared jungle around the house due to
possible critters in there. I also was not excited to survey local snakes.
Whole week before the contest I was debating myself if I should just do 10 m
SOSB or do AB. On 10 meters there were peculiar very loud birdies everywhere
on the band that appeared soon after sunrise and lasted until sunset. Think
of it like few hundred guys somewhere in South China Sea having each
transmitter and turning VFO knob back and worth at various speeds all day
long. One could clearly see that also in badscope as horizontal signals all
over the band. It was very hard to copy anything weaker if birdie was at top
of you at the moment. It was also not local to QTH as Saty had same in his
far away contest QTH in Labuan Island and same birdies were also heard in
Sarawak (9M8). I also felt couple times during the contest that birdies grew
stronger at my frequency and I actually had to move few times. I keep
wondering if it all was some kind of giant experiment organized in South
China Sea by someone to see how communications could be disrupted... But
those birdies were really reason why I decided to do AB contest, although I
also knew it was going to be rough 48 hrs without aircon in shack. I started
the contest as All Band 8 am local time operating mostly 10 and some 15.
Both bands were OK but not great. I gravitated towards 10 as it just felt
more productive. Later on the day I tried 20 m which never felt good and
also as sun started to go down I went to 40. I worked few stations from US
West coast and it felt very good, some reported I was loud and I also heard
them well but it was still impossible to get any kind of run going other
than to YB. But as sun went down further there was like switch turned on and
S9+10 powerline kind of noise appeared, same on 80. Low bands just were
unusable all night. So I quickly decided that OK, I need to revert back to
10 m Single Band plan. I still worked some contacts on other bands after it
during 1st day as by that time 10 m was almost dead. I went to sleep 4-5 hrs
(6 hrs off time) in nearby resort I was staying and when I came back around
23 z first day from then on I only stayed on 10 meters. I made total around
550 Qs on other bands than 10 meters, and I think I could have made almost
same amount of additional contacts on 10 if I would have just done single
band operation from the beginning. While 10 wasn't super great and
especially down on Sunday, I think 2000 Qs would have been possible from
this location. On 2nd night I took 10 hrs off as band was just dead after
dark. Then I just returned for short 1 hr last morning run to US. I was able
to work zone 5 multiplier only during that last hour with only few zone 5
stations in the log. This was my 36th zone I have now operated CQWW contest
from. In CW I will be at CW5W almost on the other side of the planet to also
operate 10 m SOSB, so it will be interesting to have done it from both sides
of the world month apart. Big thanks to all who made this operation
possible: N6TJ, 9M6NA, 9M6KOM, 9M6CED, 9M6CMS, 9M6DO, 9M6ZAE and others if I
forgot anyone. 73 and tnx for QSOs de Marko N5ZO (OH6DO)
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