CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K0RF
Operator(s): W0UA W0ZP W1XE K0AV K4EA K7NV KV0Q K0RF
Station: K0RF
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Colorado
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 185 22 40
80: 324 27 75
40: 1341 38 116
20: 1622 37 116
15: 934 32 114
10: 219 22 44
------------------------------
Total: 4625 177 505 Total Score = 8,038,734
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
That was a real experience. All remote except for me. Each of the other
operators had a Remoterig setup with a K3, a K3/0 or a K3/0 mini to access one
of my eight remote stations.
W0UA and W0ZP each connected to one half of the 20M station and worked as a
team. K7NV and K0AV did the same with the 40M station. K4EA and W1XE did the
same on the 15M dual station. KV0Q had 80M to himself and I shared my time
between 160 and 10M.
I had been planning to just be the troubleshooter and stay free from operating
but as it turned out I wound up doing as close to a single op effort as I have
in a long time. It is pretty demanding. My soon-to-be son-in-law helped me by
fielding remoting problems from the team and bringing them to me if he couldn't
dispatch them himself. That was invaluable since I wanted to do a reasonable job
on 10 and 160.
160 and 80 were way below par. I spend most of my hamming time on 160 and have a
regular group of friends in Europe, The Pacific and Asia that I contact almost
every day. I couldn't hear them at all. I only managed a few QSOs and they were
very difficult. 80 wasn't much better and Bill had to really work to salvage a
reasonable showing on the band.
Kurt in Nevada and Alan in Colorado Springs did a nice job remoting on 40 in
spite of very poor conditions to Europe. The JA opening was solid however and
they took advantage of it to wind up with a nice 40M score.
George (UA) and Wayne tackled 20M and though they were around 1500 miles apart
they worked hand-in-glove with the remote much as they have done side by side in
person at the shack. Compared to the long grind of 40M, 20 is more of a sprint
where a few 2-hour openings have to be handled to get lots of QSOs in the log
very quickly. This is where George excels. And, somehow Wayne stays out of his
way just enough to let him do his magic.
Neal, K4EA in Georgia and George, W1XE in the Colorado mountains remoted into
the 15 meter dual position and, although they hadn't operated a shared position
in the past, did a great job of making it all work.
Bill, KV0Q did his wonderful job of dogging 80 and making the best of very tough
propagation.
For my part it was pretty much business as usual. 160 was horrible. Ten was a
nice surprise. But, the really strange thing is that I just can't get past
feeling like the team is right here in their chairs at their stations. I keep
looking over to see them and I only see empty chairs. It is weird. It is like I
keep forgetting that they aren't really here. And each time I see the real
situation and correct myself I promptly go back to business only to find myself
being surprised again in a little while when I again realize that they aren't
really here!
I think we are all pretty pleased, if not surprised, that things went as well as
they did. when I consider the problems that we did encounter, my sense is that
it was maybe a 10% impact and I think we can better that in future efforts.
When the pandemic struck back in March, I decided that I wanted to be be
prepared to participate in my favorite contest in the fall so I started
gathering equipment with the idea that if the COVID was still active in the fall
I would do a Multi Single or something. From that, things evolved and I wound up
remoting all 8 operating positions. I was a big task and I had to learn a lot to
do it. For this I am grateful for the help and patience that my good friend,
Jeff, W2FU showed me during my effort to set the station up for the contest. His
Green Heron equipment really makes the job a lot easier. Along the way, George
and I operated WPX, Field Day, IARU and Sweepstakes contests to gain familiarity
and confidence in the remote setup. Having George to consult with and test
operate the equipment in a real-life situation was very helpful to me, not to
mention that it was fun.
Well, that is one more in the books. I guess I'll see what curves life throws
our way for the next contest. I thought the fire was enough of a test of my
commitment to this game but rebuilding from that was a small task compared to
the remoting adventure.
73 and Thanks for playing the game with me,
Chuck
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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