CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021
Call: 3B8M
Operator(s): G0CKV JK3GAD KX7M M0SDV W6NV
Station: 3B8M
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Mauritius
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 213 13 45
80: 690 32 76
40: 1988 36 111
20: 2989 38 118
15: 3392 37 125
10: 1927 31 101
-------------------------------
Total: 11199 187 576 Total Score = 25,444,524
Club:
Comments:
Some of us have to sacrifice the comfort of our homes, work through the covid
testing and travel bureaucrazy and on top of that suffer the distractions of an
azur-blue lagoon with 26deg water, the sun, the fresh fish, the curries, the
tropical fruits and to top it up, the head-banging pile-ups associated with
being a rare double multiplier.
After a couple of SOAB entries as 3B9HA over the years and then M/M operations
3B8MU in 2014 and 3B8M in 2019 and, sadly, a break in 2020, our 3B8 team was
back this year. In 2014 we were close to a moderate sunspot maximum and in 2019
we were at a deep minimum. The QSOs per band show a textbook comparison of
propagation. In 2014 3167 QSOs on 10 but in 2019 only 226. We were hoping for
better openings this year and our hope was somewhat full-filled. While 10 was
opening late and there was no opening at all to the E or NE and Japan on
Saturday, overall we can’t complain with 1928 QSOs. We also had a broad-band
interference that was chasing us up and down the band on 10, possible an OTH
radar, which we had to duck and hide from.
In 2014 15 was open, sort of, through the night. This year it opened 45 minutes
or so after sunrise and was then in good shape until it shut down 4 hours after
sunset. It was great to see 20 providing almost global coverage for hours
although at our latitude that band is very quiet for a few hours around midday
when solar radiation overhead is max and D layer attenuation increases.
The low bands are always challenging from Mauritius. We are far away from the
main ham radio population centres and signals are never strong while QRN from
the tropical thunderstorm belts set the noise floor. Top band is particularly
hard work. We had a fun opening to NA just before our sunrise on Sunday morning
while Saturday morning was not very productive. There are quite a few stations
on top band who would do so much better if they in stead of running high power
and pointing their 4-squares to south Indian Ocean when CQ-ing could improve
their receive antennas and listening skills. On the other hand, when we CQ, we
can frustratingly hear a layer of callers unreadable in the QRN. Local noise
level at our QTH is pretty low so our TX antenna is not bad as a receive antenna
but this year we also tried an RBOG and a K9AY, the latter with its feet in the
ocean. The RBOG didn’t help at all but the K9AY was marginally better for
receive and we ought to improve on that next time. Running on 160 is tough
though - when spotted on RBN we can quickly work a few stations but then
spot-clickers who can’t read us well and over-eager poor operators make
copying of our signal difficult and chaos descends and we move on to some DX-ing
with S&P or QSY to a new fq. Going split would not necessarily help - our fq
would still be jammed by the same happy crowd and split also raises other
issues.
3B8M is a 100% field-day-style operation and all radio gear, poles and wires
have to fit in airline checked luggage. Everything has to be installed and
tested in the few days before the contest. We are on a tiny land-connected small
outpost into the ocean surrounded by water from the SW around N to SE. This far
away from most other stations it is in simplest terms the lowest possible
elevation angles that count. Verticals are the obvious antenna choice and this
year we used three 18m Spider-Beam poles to support a top-band umbrella-loaded
vertical, an inverted-L for 80 and, new for 2021, an almost full-size vertical
dipole for 40 deployed on its own rock. On 10-15-20 we use single-pole
diamond-shaped Vertical Dipole Arrays. They have a broad pattern but we can
rotate them towards the NE in the mornings and then turn them towards NW. On 20
we actually had two such arrays fed via a stack-match.
We used four K3 radios with one KPA500 and three SPE amplifiers, all performed
flawlessly.
It is tremendously fun to plan and build a setup like this. Antenna modelling
with AutoEZ, SimSmith and EZNEC can keep you busy comfortably back home in front
of your fireplace through any pandemic. Every year we learn from each other and
gain new experiences and ideas for further improvements in coming years.
Observing propagation patterns is a never-ending source of fascination. It is
however not just plug-and play when you install four high-power stations on a
small dining-table. There are inevitably wiring matters, inter-station
interference issues, noise/emc problems and more that have to be solved.
In 2019 we took great pleasure noting that we beat K3LR without using a single
piece of aluminium - only quickly and simply erected wire antennas and some
fishing-poles (some larger than average though). Did we repeat that feat this
year?
Thanks to the team members for being fun, hard-working, focused and pitching in
wherever as they saw a need. And a big thanks to everyone who answered our calls
or called us from around the world - without you we would have felt lonely while
sitting here and staring out on the ocean and the lagoon.
We plan to be back next year again.
We did send thoughts to our EI/UK friends who suffered a bad autumn storm with
associated damage during the contest weekend while we were enjoying the
pile-ups only suffering the distracting views out over the lagoon and the
beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Water temperature 26C and above water 25-33
degrees moderated by the mild trade-wind breeze.
BAND QSO CQ DXC DUP POINTS AVG
--------------------------------------
160 213 13 45 4 635 2.98
80 690 32 76 15 2055 2.98
40 1988 36 111 31 5930 2.98
20 2989 38 118 95 8894 2.98
15 3392 37 125 71 10116 2.98
10 1927 31 101 35 5718 2.97
--------------------------------------
TOTAL 11199 187 576 251 33348 2.98
======================================
TOTAL SCORE : 25 444 524
The following 96 stations were worked on 6 bands:
DR4A RT5Z K1LZ 9A5Y DA2X P33W
RT6A ES9C W3LPL LZ9W K3LR HB9CA
LZ5R UA9BA II9P UA4S EA5RS IR4X
DP6A HG6N SP8R LY5W DQ1A IR4M
UZ2M SZ1A E7DX OM7M OK5Z K1TTT
K5ZD N4TZ TM6M SO4M M6T TM3R
UA4M SP1NY UT4U NR4M SJ2W N4WW
RW0A SM2U DL7ON RT4F RM9A TK0C
E7CW W2FU R5AJ K3AJ LY7Z YU5R
RA1QD DL3UB K1ZZ UA7K SK3W CR3W
AA1K OZ5E R2AA DF0HQ HG7T OL3Z
RA5G UN9L YT5A RL4A OK7O OH5Z
LN8W YL2KO TM2Y YL2SM HG8R HA8A
DF9LJ II2S YL9T LY2XW OZ4MD ED7R
OM7JG EA5KM LY5E UA2FZ LY4A ED1R
VY2ZM VA2WA N0FW R2QA OZ7YY ZS4TX
73 Olof G0CKV
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