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[3830] VP5EA CQWW-CW 15M-LP World Record - (long)

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Subject: [3830] VP5EA CQWW-CW 15M-LP World Record - (long)
From: DavidHarper@tx.slr.com (DavidHarper@tx.slr.com)
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 18:01:12 -0600
Following is the 1997 CQWW-CW results for VP5EA, with
single-band-low-power entries for two separate bands, 15M and 40M.
The Summary is followed by the Story (a novella?), then Continent and
Rate statistics.


                               CQ WW SUMMARY SHEET

       Contest Dates : 29-Nov-97, 30-Nov-97

    Callsign Used : VP5EA
         Operator : WD5N

         Category : SOSB-15M-LP & SOSB-40M-LP

 Default Exchange : 599 8

             Name : David Harper
          Address : 103 Osage Dr
   City/State/Zip : Leander, TX 78641
          Country : Turks & Caicos

        Team/Club : Central Texas DX & Contest Club

   BAND   Raw QSOs   Valid QSOs   Points   Countries   Zones
   ---------------------------------------------------------
  160CW        1           1          2         1         1
   80CW        2           2          4         2         1
   40CW      828               814           1977        76        21
8.5 Hours
   20CW        2           2          5         2         2
   15CW     2861              2776           6908        93        27
26.5 Hours
   10CW        2           2          6         2         2
 ___________________________________________________________

 Totals     3696        3597         8902       176        54   35 Hours


Entry:   SOSB-15M-LP =  828,960 points (World Record)

Entry:   SOSB-40M-LP =  191,769 points

     All-band Final Score =        2,047,460 points (FOR CLUB
COMPETITION ONLY)

Location: "Jody's Hamlet" on Providenciales Island, Turks & Caicos.
Equipment: IC751A 100W,  Mosley PRO-67B beam at 50'. Tower base
elevation 60' ASL,
           approximately 500' from beach on north shore.
           486DX/50 Laptop running TRLog v6.15.

 This is to certify that in the contest I have operated my transmitter
within
 the limitations of my license and have observed fully the rules and 
 regulations of the contest.

 Date __12/5/97_____   Signed __David Harper ______________  Call
_VP5EA_____
                                                                  (WD5N)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
STORY:
I had been fighting a bronchitis/pleurisy problem for over a month when
I
left for VP5. I was much better than I had been a few weeks before, but
I could not seem to get over the last of it despite 3 types of
antibiotics
and a variety of other medications. So my energy level was way down and
the drugs dulled me further, and I knew there was no way I was going to
be
competitive in my usual SOAB-LP class - usually try to get around 4 or 5
hrs
of sleep but knew I would probably need to at least double that this
year. In
retrospect, the bands were so good I think I could have beat my best
score
anyway, but keep up with VP2EEB?  I don't think so.

So before the contest, I studied the list of CQWW-CW records published
recently in CQ-Contest, and decided I could probably set a North
American
record for 15M-Low-Power, maybe even a world record. It was a definite
challenge in that due to the 2-point versus 3-point situation, there
were
no single band world records held by any North American stations for
either
HP or LP single-band categories. They were all held by South American
or African stations (except for 160M HP held by an OH0). I had
calculated
that setting a world record for 15M-LP would require me to make nearly
1000
QSO's more than the record held by an LU, set in '95.

I decided to also concentrate on 40M when 15M was dead, since that was
the
most active band at night, and the PRO-67B gave me gain on 40M. I had
checked
with K3EST before the contest and found out I could enter in more than
one
single band category, although of course 15M was the primary effort. The
log is scored as an all-band combined score for club competition
purposes.

15M was just awesome both mornings into Europe, with the entire
continent
all having strong signals for hours at a time. Of course this made high
rates a bit more difficult, although the first morning I went 10 hours
in
a row with nothing less than 120/Hour. QRATE says the best ten minutes
was 228/Hr at 1301Z and the best hour was at 1340Z with 176/Hr. I knew
things would be slower on Sunday since I had spent the entire day on 15M
on Saturday, and they were. In fact, Sunday afternoon it was painfully
slow. Boy was I tempted to hop to 10M or 20M and be fresh meat, but I
stuck with 15M. It was hard to know exactly how close I was to the
record
since I was operating on more than one band and the score calculations
in
the logging program only showed me the all-band score. In the final six
hours of the contest I had only worked a single new mult (ouch!) which
was
an OX calling in in the 18Z hour. So when 15 mins. of CQ'ing produced no
calls late on Sunday, I spent the last hour S&P'ing to get only 6 or 7
JA's, then after 10 minutes of calling finally snagged a weak DX1S with
only 2 minutes left to go, whew!  The condx to JA were great both days
although there weren't many left to work on Day 2. VP5 sunset and JA
sunrise occur very close together for a great grayline, and the openings
lasted for around 2 hours. It has been said before, but those JA's are
so orderly in their pileups that it is a joy to work them.

Operating low power is definitely tough with the 12-db deficit between
100W
and 1500W, and the mults are always much lower than the HP guys. But I
think
my mults were hurt even more by having a high-power Multi-Single
operating
on VP5 (VP5DX). Just one of those things (I met Ron and Jim - sorry
can't
remember the callsigns - on the trip down when I saw Ron's VP5DX cap).
Even
with all the time I spent on 15M, I never worked KP2 (heard WP2Z only
once
on Sunday, scatter signal was extremely weak and a huge pile of W's -
with
both of us Low-Power I never would have gotten him so didn't try), and I
never even heard KP4 even though there was a big M/S from there. This
was
my third year doing this contest from the Caribbean (WP2AHW in '95,
VP5EA in
'96 & '97) and seems to always be poor conditions to the Pacific and
SE-Asia.
In addition, the South Americans were all pretty weak for me this year
as
well. The hill behind me did block those directions somewhat.

Complaint Dept:  Several times, on both 15M and 40M, I would find a rare
mult (say, 9K9K or A61AJ, etc) with a big pile. I would dump my call a
few
times and the DX says: "VP5?" and I would repeat my call several times
then
give the report, but some jerks in W4-land kept dumping their high-power
signals on top of me. The DX would ask over and over again, "VP5?" but I
could never get through the lids, so finally the DX gives up and starts
working the pile again, so I would have to try to bust the pileup again.
I
always finally made the QSO, but it sure aggravated me. Sound familiar?

Actually made more Q's on 2 bands this year than 6 bands last year!
The older version of TRLog I have here at work gives me one less QSO and
one
less mult on 15M than the newer version on my laptop, so I need to
resolve
that, but it appears that I exceeded the 15M-LP North American record by
about
60%, and exceeded the World Record by about 21%. Now I just have to keep
my
fingers crossed for most of 1998 until I find out if some other South
American
beat me, hi!

I enjoyed the trip and went snorkelling twice, though I cancelled my
Scuba
plans and had to cancel a planned snorkel outing after the contest when
my
chest started hurting more. Jody, VP5JM, is a wonderful host, and really
helps make the stay enjoyable. With mixed feelings I gave up my CQWW-CW
slot there to go back to Windwood again next year to op as WP2Z. Before
you all jump on the phone to Jody, K5GN has snagged the Hamlet for '98.

QSL via WD5N ('97 CBA or later showing Leander address. Austin address
is
no good any more) or via W5 bureau.

73,
Dave WD5N  < davidharper@tx.slr.com >

WD5N/HC8 '93...6D2X M/S '94...WP2AHW '95...VP5EA '96 & '97.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------

      Continent List  CONTINENT DISTRIBUTION - VP5EA '97

                   160    80    40    20    15    10    ALL
                   ---    --    --    --    --    --    ---
  USA calls   =      0     0   425     1  1307     0   1733
  VE calls    =      0     0    20     0    79     0     99
  N.A. calls  =      1     2    18     0    26     0     47
  S.A. calls  =      0     0     4     1    23     2     30
  Euro calls  =      0     0   330     0  1136     0   1466
  Afrc calls  =      0     0     5     0    10     0     15
  Asia calls  =      0     0     8     0    21     0     29
  JA calls    =      0     0     2     0   169     0    171
  Ocen calls  =      0     0     2     0     5     0      7

  Unknowns    =      0     0     0     0     0     0      0

  Total calls =      1     2   814     2  2776     2   3597

--------------------------------------------------------------------

                             RATE REPORT - VP5EA '97


  HOUR  160CW    80CW    40CW    20CW    15CW    10CW    TOTAL   ACCUM
  ----  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------   -----   -----
    0       0       0       7       0      17       0      24      24
    1       0       0     163       0       0       0     163     187
    2       0       0     151       0       0       0     151     338
    3       0       0      88       0       0       0      88     426
    4       0       0      68       0       1       0      69     495
    5       0       1      85       0       0       0      86     581
    6       0       0       0       0       0       0       0     581
    7       0       0       0       0       0       0       0     581
    8       0       0       0       0       0       0       0     581
    9       0       0       0       0       0       0       0     581
   10       0       0       1       0       0       0       1     582
   11       0       0       0       0     120       0     120     702
   12       0       0       0       0     160       0     160     862
   13       0       0       0       0     155       0     155    1017
   14       0       0       0       0     163       0     163    1180
   15       0       0       0       0     129       0     129    1309
   16       0       0       0       0     138       0     138    1447
   17       0       0       0       0     140       0     140    1587
   18       0       0       0       0     148       0     148    1735
   19       0       0       0       0     144       0     144    1879
   20       0       0       0       0     134       0     134    2013
   21       0       0       0       1      41       1      43    2056
   22       0       0       0       0     140       0     140    2196
   23       0       0       0       0      77       0      77    2273

    0       0       0       8       0       2       1      11    2284
    1       0       0      66       0       0       0      66    2350
    2       0       0     151       0       0       0     151    2501
    3       0       0      13       0       0       0      13    2514
    4       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    2514
    5       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    2514
    6       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    2514
    7       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    2514
    8       1       1      11       1       0       0      14    2528
    9       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    2528
   10       0       0       1       0       0       0       1    2529
   11       0       0       1       0      76       0      77    2606
   12       0       0       0       0     141       0     141    2747
   13       0       0       0       0     122       0     122    2869
   14       0       0       0       0      64       0      64    2933
   15       0       0       0       0      83       0      83    3016
   16       0       0       0       0      54       0      54    3070
   17       0       0       0       0      91       0      91    3161
   18       0       0       0       0      89       0      89    3250
   19       0       0       0       0      93       0      93    3343
   20       0       0       0       0      95       0      95    3438
   21       0       0       0       0      86       0      86    3524
   22       0       0       0       0      66       0      66    3590
   23       0       0       0       0       7       0       7    3597

  TOTAL     1       2     814       2    2776       2  



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