[SCCC] CQWW CW W4EF SOAB HP

[Michael Tope]

                   CQWWCW Summary Sheet

        Start Date : 2024-11-23

     CallSign Used : W4EF
       Operator(s) : W4EF

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
Assisted Category : NON-ASSISTED
              Band : ALL
             Power : HIGH
              Mode : CW
  Default Exchange : 3
        Gridsquare : DM14

              Name : Michael Tope
           Address : 11018 Cardamine Dr
    City/State/Zip : Tujunga  CA  91042
           Country : UNITED STATES

         Club/Team : Southern California Contest Club
          Software : N1MM Logger+ 1.0.10530.0

         Band     QSOs     Pts   ZN  Cty  Pt/Q
          1.8      19      45    9   10   2.4
          3.5     159     429   19   33   2.7
            7     300     847   28   70   2.8
           14     280     815   32   75   2.9
           21     610    1766   36  103   2.9
           28     691    1997   30   89   2.9
        Total    2061    5899  154  380   2.9


             Score : 3,148,464
               Rig : Elecraft K3S + Alpha 91B

          Antennas : Spiderbeam Yagi @ 50ft; 40M dipole @ 45ft; 55ft 
tall 80/160 vertical; SAL-30 Rx Array

           Soapbox :


Made a fairly last minute decision to do this one seriously and in 
person instead of via remote control (my remote control setup leaves a 
lot to be desired). I wanted to see if I could push myself to stay up 
for the full 48 hours. I remember nodding off the first night/morning a 
few times while sitting in the operating chair (as confirmed by some 
pretty big time gaps in my log), but I was able to keep going until 
Saturday night at 10 PM local before actually laying down to sleep. At 
that point, I realized that if I didn't get some real sleep, I wasn't 
going to make it through Sunday. I set my alarm for two hours, but I 
must have woken up and shut it off. I ended up sleeping 4 hours.

Since I was at the physical station and not remote, I am glad I took the 
time to replace the KPA-500 that I use for remote operation with my 
manually tuned Alpha 91B. When you consider how much work is required to 
get ~4 dB of extra transmit antenna gain from ones antenna farm, it was 
well worth the hour or so of fiddling around that it took get it hooked 
up and mark the tune and load knobs with presets. I was surprised I 
could run JA's on 40 meters with my dipole at 45ft (I had an actual 85 
hour). I was even more surprised to get a short run of JA's going on 80 
meters Sunday morning.

Twenty opened very early on Sunday morning. I checked it at 5 AM local 
and I could hear RA9P about S6. He couldn't hear me. Not quite an hour 
later he was S9++ with a truly amazing level of multipath echo on his 
signal. I checked 15 meters right at local sunrise and it was already 
wide open to Europe. Conditions were really stellar. I couldn't help but 
think at numerous times during the contest how having a 2nd radio would 
have been helpful. Anytime you are CQing, chances are good you are 
missing out on the opportunity to find new multipliers if you don't have 
a 2nd rig. And there were certainly a few times when 10 and 15 meters 
were good enough that 2BSIQ would have been effective even with my 
humble Spiderbeam, although I doubt my operating abilities would have 
been up to the challenge of capitalizing on that kind of capability. 
Whatever the case, it was great fun (albeit in a sleep deprived 
masochistic sort of way).🙂

73, Mike W4EF........