[UK-CONTEST] Fw: Commonwealth ZL1AZE Open HP

[Brian Miller]

Hi everyone

Here is the 3830 write up of my activity in the Commonwealth contest.
Quite a different experience to what I was used to at ZL6QH, where
there was NIL noise and it was easy to run stations. Since I had
trouble running stations from my home QTH, I put a lot more effort
into working multipliers and moving stations around the bands - this
seemed to pay off with the final score being better than anticipated
for a relatively small number QSOs.

Congratulations to Chris ZL4CT who has produced an impressive QSO
tally and score this year. I will be working hard to find a way to
catch up with him next year :-)

Many thanks for all the QSOs and see you again next year.

73, Brian ZL1AZE

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <webform at b41h.net>
To: <3830 at contesting.com>; <brianmiller at paradise.net.nz>
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 11:22 PM
Subject: Commonwealth ZL1AZE Open HP


                  RSGB Commonwealth Contest, CW

Call: ZL1AZE
Operator(s): ZL1AZE
Station: ZL1AZE

Class: Open HP
QTH: ZL2
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   58
   40:  172
   20:   61
   15:   17
   10:    2
------------
Total:  310  Total Score = 5,060

Club: WARC

Comments:

Equipment:  FT1000MP (MkV Field) + AL80A amp
Antennas:  Half wave dipoles supported from a 15 metre pole

It was good to be back in this contest after missing it in 2008. In 
earlier
years I have entered the contest from ZL6QH, so I did not have great
expectations this year for achieving much from the modest set up at my 
city
QTH. As expected, the total tally of 310 QSOs is well down on ZL6QH 
numbers,
but the score is better than anticipated due to a high number of bonus 
QSOs. It
was difficult to run stations from my home QTH so I had no choice but 
to spend
more time moving around the bands and working bonus QSOs.

As usual there were some unplanned events that I could have done 
without!

Just before the contest started I found that the Writelog Commonwealth 
Contest
module would not start up correctly on the computer that I normally 
use for
radio logging. This was a surprise as I had already checked that the 
software
worked correctly on another computer. After reinstalling the Writelog 
software
several times and trying various other modules I eventually ended up 
using the
CQ WPX CW module. This module does not identify Commonwealth bonus 
QSOs or
apply the correct scoring, but these are not essential features and I 
could
live without them. Overall I ended up with over an hour of downtime 
between
1000z and 1200z while I was trying to sort out this problem. The 
lesson here
(even though I should have learnt it well from previous experiences!) 
is to set
up the actual contest log well in advance of the start time, not 30 
minutes
beforehand.

The level of local man made noise level was also much higher than I 
had
anticipated. A new noise source (or sources) showed up over the 
weekend, just
in time for the Commonwealth contest. This noise was particularly 
troublesome
as it raised the noise floor for the entire contest on all bands by 
about 20 dB
and wiped out several layers of weak signals.  Consequently there were 
many
occasions when I could hear stations calling but it was impossible to 
copy them
through the local QRN. I was determined to try tracking down the 
source of the
noise on the Monday after the contest, but there was no longer any 
trace of it
to be found!

Propagation seemed very poor on the upper bands, and not helped by the 
low
dipole antennas at my home QTH.  I only ended up making two QSOs on 
10M (thanks
to ZL2IFB and ZL2AZ) and heard no other stations on this band. 15M 
QSOs were
limited to ZL/VK stations and 9 VE stations. The 80M and 40M bands 
were in much
better shape, although 80M QSOs were often difficult due to S9 
lightning QRN.

My city QTH is about 100 metres above sea level on a steep hill side. 
The east
facing downhill direction provides a good clear takeoff for the long 
path to
Europe, and the short path to America.  However the takeoff for the 
short path
to Europe and Asia is poor as it is in the west facing up hill 
direction.
Consequently, as expected, I struggled to make QSOs via the short path 
to UK
and to the Asian areas, especially on the upper bands where a low take 
off
angle is more important.  The fact that I only made 2 QSOs on 20M 
prior to
1921z is evidence of this constraint. The good news is that there were
excellent 80M and 40M long path openings on Sunday evening, and I made 
use of
these to put some G QSOs in the log. Of particular note were the very 
early
QSOs with G4BUO and GM0GAV on 80M at 0550z, one hour before our 
sunset.
Unfortunately there was no 20M long path opening, except for a few 
isolated
QSOs on Sunday morning with G4MEM, G6PZ, G4BUO, G4TSH and G4BJM.

I was pleased to work all of the stations in the â?~Rest of The 
Worldâ?T team
as well as 3 stations from the VU team. The only African station 
worked was
VQ9JC, on 80M and 40M. There was no sign of 9J2BO in the usual 0530z 
slot on
20M. I did hear a weak ZS1 station working VE stations on 40M around 
0530z but
decided not to waste premium QSO time trying to get through the QRM.

The noise and software problems were very frustrating but overall I 
enjoyed the
contest and reckon it is still one of the best events on the 
international
contest calendar.  I plan to be back next year, hopefully from a new 
ZL6QH
station, or from another location which is less noisy than my home 
QTH.

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs, especially those who travelled to the 
more
remote parts of the globe.

73

Brian ZL1AZE


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