[WWYC] CQWW CW

Tue Dec 2 16:59:19 EST 2014

Hola!

I worked G0MTQ the other day... thought for a moment it was you Lee :-)

Otherwise my most funny moment from the contest happened on Monday. I
was listening to some local guys chatting away on the 2 meter repeater
(in Español but I got most of it). One of them had visited HD2A during
the contest and he was explaining what he had seen: "A strange gringo
sitting alone in the shack typing very fast on his small laptop. He
hardly had time to talk with me... I think it was a digital mode....
but it could have been.. what is it called... CW. He said he had made
3000 contacts in 24 hours but I don't believe him. How is that
possible??? He put on the speakers so I could hear the signals and it
sounded like a machine gun. He looked very tired said he was planned
to spend another 24 hours in the chair. Very strange, very strange..."

I was laughing a whole lot :-)

I did manage to do 48 hours for the first time. I tried so many times
from OZ7YY but never made it past 46. I think it becomes easier with
age! Maybe not so bad to be 30+ after all :-)

ENNAT!

73,

Thomas OZ1AA / HC2OZT

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: HD2A
Operator(s): OZ1AA
Station: HD2A

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Guayaquil
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    9     5        7
   80:  304    21       48
   40:  821    24       69
   20: 1331    33       90
   15: 1174    30       95
   10: 2145    30       98
------------------------------
Total: 5784   143      407  Total Score = 9,430,850

Club: Worldwide Young Contesters

Comments:

A huge thank you to station host Alberto HC2AQ for making my dream come true.
Absolutely first class hospitality down here in Guayaquil, a few degrees south
of the equator.

I started contesting when I was 15. Back then my heroes were not football
players or movie stars but the likes of CT1BOH, N5KO, and N5TJ who were running
CQWW pile ups all day long from exotic DX locations. This year, like my teenage
heroes, I found myself in a 3-point location for CQWW CW - and what a thrill it
was.

I arrived at the HD2A QTH on Tuesday before the contest. Unfortunately the old
FT-901 DM radio in the shack would only work on 20 m and down so I didn't get a
chance to do much warm up running. Instead I spent a day putting up a low dipole
on 160. On Friday morning HC2AQ showed up with a Kenwood TS-590 which would be
the contest rig for the weekend. I was pleased to learn that the radio had some
kind of adjustable CW filter. After hooking up the SB-220 amp which would give
500-600 w of output, the setup looked like this:

TS-590 + SB-220
160: Inv V
80: Inv V
40: 2 el.
20: 5 el.
15: 4 el.
10: 5 el.

A few photos over at https://www.flickr.com/photos/oz1aa

I final test on Friday revealed that the 40 m beam had some kind of loose
connection as the SWR would occasionally go sky high. Most of the time it would
be OK, but I ended up not using the amp on 40. The SB-220 also doesn't cover
160.

I managed a 45 min siesta Friday afternoon, and at 7 pm local time the race
began. I started running JA on 10, then moved to 15 and 20 for US. The rate
quickly climbed to 180 and I was indeed having lots of fun. 40 m seamed to work
OK even with the 100 w, but things got tougher on 80. With 59+ local noise I
could only hear the strongest EU callers. I imagine my frequency would have
sounded like quite the zoo over there - sorry if you called and I couldn't pick
you up. As expected the Inv V on 160 was no DX antenna, but with 100 w I
struggled to work even my neighbors in HC8 and HK1NA. I managed 9 QSOs and
decided I would have to be content with that.

During the day 10 and 15 were almost unbelievable. I have never experienced
such deep openings into EU and the US. The 60 min rate peaked at 204 Q/hr which
was nice enough but could have been higher if the EU guys would have listened
more and transmitted less. I liked NN1N @ KL7RA's comment about sending 20 sec
of dits to calm things down :-) Can only imagine what the EU pile up would have
sounded like through the "AU blender" in KL7...

I have tried to do 48 hours for a number of years but never made it past 46.
This year I changed a few things. I don't normally drink a lot of coffee and a
week before the contest I stopped all caffeine intake. My contest diet
consisted of water, sandwiches, and a few pasta/chicken plates ready to eat. No
chocolate, no biscuits high on sugar etc. Also being very fit probably helps. On
the 2nd night as I started to feel really sleepy I had a diet coke and cup of
coffee. This woke me up and I was able continue until sunrise without big
problems. Just before the high bands would open I had another coffee and I knew
I would be able to make it until the end. This in itself was a huge motivation.

On Sunday the rates slowed down considerably compared to Saturday. In the
middle the day it felt as if I was running out of US stations. I should
probably have kept the beam on EU and JA somewhat longer. Another mistake was
not moving multipliers around right from the beginning. I started too late and
not aggressively enough. There is easily another 2-3 mio. points (or more?) to
be found from this location.

All in all it was an absolute blast. Normally a SOAB entry in CQWW, at least in
my experience, requires a certain amount of suffering. Not this time! I never
wanted to quit. In fact I would happily have continued for another couple of
hours to break 10 mio points, or done the contest all over starting on Monday.

Thank you all for calling in and for being a part of this amazing event. Some
huge scores already posted and even more to come. Congratulations to all!

Back then as I teenager my mind had not deceived me - it is good to be doing
CQWW from an exotic 3 point location. I will be back for more in the years to
come.

73,

Thomas OZ1AA
--
http://www.cyclingtheglobe.com
---
http://www.cyclingtheglobe.com

On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 10:39 AM, Lee Volante <g0mtn1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> All quiet here after the contest. From 3830 and Facebook it seems like records were falling everywhere, or if not, there was certainly a lot of fun to be had.
>
> So, don't just copy and paste your 3830 scores, tell us a story.
>
> 1) Best moment travelling to / from contest station.
> 2) Best hallucination or tiredness related mistake on Sunday evening. :-)
> 3) Food and beverage summary. :-)
> 4) Oh yes, best QSO or in-contest moment.
> etc.
>
> You get the idea.
>
> I went to see Santa on Saturday, and did a lot of chores. Didn't even get to #wwyc to see who had worked 41 zones yet.  Next year...
>
> 73,
>
> Lee G0MTN
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Lee Volante
>   To: wwyc at contesting.com
>   Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2014 1:10 PM
>   Subject: CQWW CW
>
>
>   Hi lords, ladies and lids,
>
>
>   It's that time again - CQWW CW.  What are your plans, and where are you going?
>
>
>   I'm not sure I'll even be QRV but I wanted to seize the opportunity of starting off this thread for once :-)   After the contest perhaps we should talk about getting more life into the reflector and the group generally.  It's been 10 years since 9A2004YC - where has the time gone....
>
>
>   73,
>
>
>   Lee G0MTN
>
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