TopBand: OT7T 160 TEST : THE STORY

[John Devoldere]

CQ WW 160 M CONTEST AT OT7T
---------------------------
SCORE      : 934,500 POINTS
QSO        : 1,119
DXCC       : 76
STATE/PROV : 49
Station    : ON4UN
Operator   : ON4UN
Equipment  : FT1000 and 2 KW amp.
TX ant     : 1/4 wave full-size verical with 250 radials
RX ant     : 12 beverages (1 per 30 degrees)

The story:

This one is going to be different. I am tired even before the contests
starts. I have slept an average of maybe 5 hours per night in the last 10
days, and that is too little at my age! This Heard island venture is taking
ALL of my time. At one time I even thought of not enter-ing the contest! But
I was able to take a nap from 20:00 to 21:20, just before the contest. 

Judging from the way the VK0 guys have been coming through here in Europe on
160, almost day after day, this should be a good contest, at least as far as
conditions are con-cerned.

It starts as usual: trying to get my JA-multiplier, just in case the band is
dead on the second day. It's always a big struggle to work the JA's from
western Europe. Even the Ger-man station, just maybe 300 miles East seem to
have a big advantage. It takes me almost 15 minutes before I have my first
QSO in the log, but this is no reason to panic. It's like that almost every
year. After having worked one JA, I just start working anything I hear,
which is QRM and European stations. As usual, you don't work any DX in the
first few hours (apart that one JA, of course). But you have to work the
Europeans s as well, so anyhow...

JY9QJ is my first DX , and as always VE1ZZ my first NA station. W2GD was
probably the loudest NA station, and also the first US sta-tion in the log.
Nice surprise to have FM5BH stopping by, and 9X4WW  (23:52). Boy was he
loud. I have my Beverage switched to the South East a lot, because I kind
off expected VK0IR to surprise me with a multiplier. The first Caribbean
station worked was 8P9DX with a big signal. US stations started to come in
around 01:30. VQ9SS was very loud here in Europe. But not  a very good
opening. More Caribbean worked the first night: P40WA, PJ9JT and KP4/K4UJ.
As the night progressed the skip lengthened, and AA0RS (Co) was the first W0
worked, followed by NR0X (Ia) and K0HA (Neb). The first W7 was Jim, N7JW
from Utah Utah once used to be of the two most difficult States to work from
Europe (with Idaho), now I work Jim almost every day! Surprise (no, it
really should not be!) to hear K4VX with a super signal from Mo. But no West
coast, and no Deep South Mid West., except just one station: K5GN in Texas.
The band goes dead at 07:28 z. Same time year after year after year. Anyone
knows why???  Normally that's the time I go an hit the sack. Not this time.
I have some 250 messages on the internet waiting for me to read and to
answer..... Two hours later, I AM in bed... Ten second later I AM sound asleep.

I usually start again around sunset (approx. 16:00z). Big surprise a solid
S9 signal from XX9TR at 16:24. Maybe conditions will be good the East
tonight. And yes they turned out to be quite good to the East. The best
proof is my all-time new country on 160: XU6VW.  And HE called ME!! KC6VW I
had to go and get in a large pile-up. My technique is, while I run on a
frequency, to scan the band with the second receiver, not really trying to
copy calls, but just looking for large pile-ups. That's how I found a good
number of good multipliers. The trick is then to call in the pile up and
still keep your run frequency going... After a while you develop a technique
for that. The bands are good to the East: it's been years ago since I worked
Mike, VK6HD in a contest, but this time he called me with solid 579 signals.
The default direction for my Beverage is now Seat East. And yes, at 21:00,
there they are: VK0IR. Tks guys!  Nice multiplier. I am really excited now.
Maybe try some JA's, although it is tough from this far West. And yes,
between 211:20 and 22:00 I worked about 15 of them. I have a big problem
with working JA's on 160. These guys never give the call of the station they
are calling. This make it very possible that you think you are working a
station, but the guys is working someone else. I think it should be
mandatory that the calling station, in case of split frequency working,
sends the call of the station called at the beginning of his call and at the
end of the contact. How about having that in the rules? 
Normally the band should open up around 230 to the US. But signals are very
weak. They remain very weak, and get even weaker as the night progresses. I
work nothing but Euro-pean stations... Between 00:00 GMT and 01:00 I work a
grand total of 16 stations! That's enough. I switch off, and go on internet.
There at least I have a pile-up, a good number of VK0IR related messages
waiting for me, which I try to take care of in the next 30 min-utes.

When I get back, it is still very quiet, but I manage to catch V47KP, but it
took me about 5 minutes calling. Then, at 02:30, someone must have flipped
the switch: propagation is ON now. Suddenly I find myself working
US-stations at a rate of one a minute.  New State multipliers are rolling
in: In, Tn, Fl, ND (W0ZTL), Mn, N.M. (N5UL), Az (KC7V), Ks (N0JK), K5YG
(Miss), K5YAA (Ok), etc..). Boy, what an opening... Let's hope ity stretched
out all the way to the West coast.
In the mean time I find pile-ups for PJ7AA, ZF2QM and TI2C and manage to
work those as well.  Amazing little detail: while in the ARRL 160 meter test
I could not work a single station from the state of Arkansas (one guy told
me that all the friends of the president were all "doing time"..), I now
worked about 5 of them (are they all free, maybe on parole?)
First signs of "stretching" skip comes from W7ZTL (Mt) at 06:17. At 06:30 I
log W7GG (Ore) and at 07:13, about 15 minutes before my sunrise I finally
get my California multi-plier: KA6V. I never heard N6TR nor the Rainbow
ridge station.  One of the nicest surprises was being able to break a US
pile up with VE5RA!. My last morning-QSO is made at 07:40. In the afternoon
I work another 20 European stations before going QRT at 16:00 z. My last QSO
(5 seconds before the end of the test) was with my good friend Hannu, OH1XX!

The results: let's compare with 1996, when condition were really quite a bit
better, at least to the US:

             1996      1997
             ----      ----
QSO'S        1275      1119
COUNTRIES      79	76
STATES/PROV    47	49
SCORE       1.133 K    934 K
		
% EU           38       29
% N.A.         58       66
% AISA          4        5

It is clear that the difference in score is due to the bad first half on the
second night, when the US was very weak. I worked only 340 NA stations vs.
490 last year!

The Window was of little if any use (why is it so different from what I
experienced in the ARRL 160 meter test?). 

The only DX station I could not work was and XE2DV, who had a very good
signal, but had only ears for US-stations. I tried to attract his attention
or the attention of a "friendly" US station by sending EU EU EU for 5
minutes, but no avail! 

As in every contest there were a couple of guys that did not care starting
up on a busy frequency. It took me 3  minutes to make clear to DJ5CL he came
on a busy frequency. With SN3A it took 20 minutes (17:30 -17:50). That op
was a real LID! I did not make any QSO's but he neither. Finally he moved.
The worst case was undoubtedly UA9XFY. He did not move. After 20 minutes I
moved. This a...... ought to be disqualified!

An amazing other little detail, which made me loose almost 5 minutes: I call
SK1BL. He signs "QSO B4". He is not in my log. Maybe he thinks he worked me.
So I go back "NOT IN MY LOG, SRI, PSE QSO". What follows is a "discussion"
taking almost 5 minutes.... Incredible. I never care to tell anyone he is a
dupe. Why should I? This takes much more time than to log them (CT will logs
them as a dupe, so no problem). And, maybe the first QSO I logged was not a
good one. Maybe he had my call wrong. Maybe this is, after all, the first
good QSO.

Thats was it for 1997. See you all next year. Sorry we missed the 1,000,000
mark this year, but the new country (XU6VW) compensated this very well. See
you in the Phone section.

John, ON4UN

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
john.devoldere@innet.be
Call us in all major 1997 contests: ON4UN or OT7T
John Devoldere (ON4UN-AA4OI)
POBOX 41
B-9000 Ghent (Belgium)


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