VP2EEB 1997
By Bud Trench, AA3B
My 1996 CQ WW contest expedition to Anguilla resulted in a score of
4.9M points. This score was enough to place me second overall in the
single operator, low power, unassisted category, behind the
outstanding effort by DL2HBX at 3V8BB. Uli?s 1996 score of 5.4M
points set a new world record in the Single Operator, Low Power
category.
I had not really given much thought about going back to Anguilla until
about July, 1997. Once we decided to go back, I decided that I was
going to do a much better job of preparing and planning for the
contest. My goal was to break 3V8BB?s world record for the single
operator low power category, which would require a significant
increase in QSOs to overcome the QSO point disadvantage from VP2E to
the USA and Canada.
I started out by carefully reviewing my notes from my 1996 expedition
and identifying everything that went wrong or could have gone wrong.
Murphy struck me in 1996, resulting in several hours chasing poor
mechanical connections and resolving thermal problems. I developed
risk mitigation plans for each of these areas, plus the ?near
misses? I had in 1996. I began working these plans off during the
fall, and had everything in place to avoid these problems when I
arrived in VP2E.
I also spent time reviewing articles on other contest expeditions. An
article that I found particularly useful was a membership profile on
P40W / W2GD in the July 1997 Frankford Radio Club newsletter in which
John discussed his to pre-contest planning, and his approach to
managing sleep and other biological issues during the contest.
Another article that was very helpful was ?The Contest Traveler?
in the September/October 1997 issue of NCJ; this article was an
excellent source for developing a packing list of things to bring with
me.
I believe that the most beneficial tool that I developed before the
contest was an hour by hour operating plan. I developed this plan by
carefully reviewing my 1996 logs and tabulating the rates,
multipliers, bands and operating strategy during each hour. I then
developed hour by hour goals for 1997. I developed a table that I
used to track my progress during the 1997 contest containing the
following data: Time; Hourly QSO Goal, Hourly Operating Strategy
(i.e., band, area of the world to focus on, run or search / pounce,
sleep, etc.), and comparison of 1996 vs. 1997 QSOs, Zones, Multipliers
and score. I entered the 1997 QSOs, Zones, Multipliers and score in
this table each hour and was able to easily track my progress. I
found this to be extremely helpful in measuring how I was doing in
real-time, as well as giving me a measurable objective for each hour.
My objective was 5.73M points, to be achieved by working 4700 QSOs,
109 Zones and 376 Countries. I decided that QSOs were more important
than multipliers and that I would focus on maximizing QSO rates. I
also decided to place a greater emphasis on working North America than
I did in 1996.
I arrived in Anguilla on Tuesday, 11/25/97. I had been to VP2E twice
before, with absolutely no problems clearing customs. However, this
trip there was talk of impounding the equipment; fortunately my
Hostess, Dorothea Evergates VP2EE, was able to talk them out of it.
It was interesting that VP2EST was also on the island while I was
there, and had no problems whatsoever with customs.
The station and antennas were very similar to the set up I had in
1996. I used my trusty TS 940S, into a Mosely PR0-67B at 50?,
160/80/40M inverted vees at 45? and a two element 80M inverted vee
beam at 60?. I used CT9 hosted in a 100MHz Toshiba lap top, which
was a real pleasure to operate.
I spent most of Wednesday 11/26/97 working on antennas. Everything
was pretty much ready to go by Wednesday evening, although I think I
over may have pushed myself too hard on Wednesday because I was
hurting by the end of the day. I spent Thursday (Thanksgiving)
relaxing. I had an outstanding Thanksgiving Dinner with Dorothea
VP2EE, Tom VP2EST and his XYL Spring, although I had Red Snapper
instead of Turkey! Debbie arrived late Thursday evening, and had no
problems at customs, particularly since American Airlines lost her
luggage!
We spent Friday driving around the island looking at the beautiful
beaches and checking out the restaurants. I rested for about 2 hours
before the contest, but was unable to fall asleep.
After a tough fight to find a clear frequency, I started the contest
on 40M. I spent most of the first five hours of the contest sitting
on 7.034 MHz running Europe and North America, resulting in 648 QSOs.
I was within one QSO of my pre-contest projections when I went to 80M
at 0449Z. I thought 80M was tougher than I expected; I had good runs
to North America, but I felt very weak to Europe and would often hear
European stations calling CQ underneath me. I went to 160M for the
first time at 0637Z (854 QSOs) and got a run going to the USA, but no
DX. It was back to 40M at 0712Z (905 QSOs) where I found excellent
conditions to Europe at their sunrise. I also found that the PRO-67B
40M element was hearing better than the 40M dipole I put up, and I
decided to use the PR0-67B for the balance of my 40M efforts. I went
back to 80M at 0810Z (1015 QSOs) to hopefully pick up some European
multipliers. I took my first break at 0835 (1067 QSOs), in accordance
with my operating plan. At this point, I was ahead of my 1996 effort
by 33 QSOs, 6 Zones, 9 Countries and 52K points. My general feeling
was that 40M had been great, but I felt that I was in the hole on both
80M and 160M.
After 100 minutes of sleep and a quick shower, I was back on the air
at 1025Z. I went to 20M which was wide open and I started a run to
Europe. I was almost immediately called by 5V7A who moved me to 15M
where I also heard loud signals from Europe. I went back to 20M and
stayed there until 1120Z (1194 QSOs) and then I went to 15M. Fifteen
was outstanding. I had an great run to Europe that lasted until 1639Z
(2051 QSOs). I tried 10M until 1714Z (2160 QSOs), working mostly the
USA.
I decided next to try to get a European run going on 20M, which
started out so strong that it was difficult to pull call signs out of
the pileup. The pileup seemed to fade very quickly at around 1758Z
(2245 QSOs), which was a real disappointment. I was somewhat
perplexed as to where to go now; I was hoping for a nice long run of 3
pointers on 20, but it just wasn?t there. I decided to try a North
America run on 15M; this resulted in a 211 QSO hour which is the
highest rate I?ve ever had. The North American operators were
outstanding during this run, which lasted until 1903Z (2469 QSOs). I
spent the next several hours moving between 10M, 15M and 20M. The
highlight of this period was a nice JA run on 15M at around 2200Z. I
also had some nice runs to the USA during this period.
At the half way point and my general assessment was that my results
were mixed. I had 3007 QSOs which was 450 QSOs ahead of my 1996
effort thanks primarily to some outstanding North American runs. I
had 84 zones and 236 countries which put my combined multiplier count
25 ahead of 1996. My score was also of ahead of 1996 by almost 600K
points. However, I was very concerned about my 160M and 80M results -
multipliers were low on both bands and my 80M QSO total seemed low as
well. Both 40M and 15M had been excellent and 10M had been what I had
expected. Twenty worried me in that I felt that my I felt my QSO
total was low, and I had been unable to sustain a long run into
Europe. The big question was whether or not I could sustain the margin
I could had over my 1996 score during the second half of the contest.
If so, I?d break the record!
I started my Saturday evening run on 40M by working 5A2A followed
shortly by OD5NJ and JY9QJ which I thought was a good omen. I stayed
on 40M until 0312Z (3320 QSOs); I then did a sweep of the bands
resulting in 12 multipliers. I went to 160M at 0350Z (3330 QSOs) and
spent the next several hours moving between 80M, 40M, 160M and 20M
generating short lived runs and hunting for multipliers. I took my
second break starting at 0628Z (3560 QSOs); I was 600 QSOS, 20 Zones,
24 Countries and 900K ahead of my 1996 effort when I went to bed.
Things were looking up!
I slept for 3 hours and woke up to the realization that I would break
the record if I didn?t self destruct. I started with a quick stint
on 80M and 40M to pick Pacific multipliers and then went to 20M at
1048Z (3593 QSOs). I had a decent European run which lasted until
1207Z (3755 QSOs). I then went to 10M and picked up 6 multipliers; the
band was open but not runnable, so it was off to the races on 15M. I
had a nice European run on 15M that lasted until 1418Z (4024 QSOs),
and then it was back to 10M. Conditions on 10M had improved, and
there were many European signals that resulted in a bunch of sorely
needed multipliers. I was finally able to get a run European run
going on 10M at 1523Z (4063 QSOs), which lasted until 1556Z (4124
QSOs). I did a quick multiplier sweep between 1556Z and 1617Z (4133
QSOs) resulting in 8 new multipliers.
I spent the next several hours running on 15M; first Europe and then
the USA. I was amazed that 15M remained so productive throughout the
contest. I spent most of Sunday afternoon moving between 15M, 20M and
10M generating short lived runs and hunting multipliers. At 2125Z
(4721 QSOs), I got a very productive run going on 20M to the USA,
followed by a big JA pileup. This JA pileup was the toughest part of
the contest for me. The signals were so loud that they were drowning
out North America, but there was so much flutter that it made it very
difficult to pull out calls. At around 2200Z, I broke 3V8BB?s
single operator, low power worlds record of 5.4M. I continued the JA
run until about 2307Z (4950 QSOs), at which point I decided to give
80M and 160M one last try. This was a disaster in that I wasted 10
minutes on these bands without making a single contact. I went back
to 20M for a short stint, and finished the contest on 40M. The last
hour of the contest is the only hour that I wish I had to do over
again; I should have definitely gone to 40M at around 2310Z.
The following is a comparison of my pre-contest goal versus actual
performance:
QSOS Zones Cty Score
Pre-contest Goal 4720 109 376 5,728,742
Actual 4989 115 345 5,732,060
Delta +269 +6 -31 +3,318
I?m real happy with my QSO total and believe that the reason I beat
my goal was because of better than expected North American runs.
I?m very disappointed with my country total, especially given that
I spent more time hunting multipliers than I originally planned. I
think the main factors behind my poor country total were my weak
signals on 80M and 160M, and the fact that VP2EST was also active
during the contest which reduced the demand for the VP2E multiplier.
My operating technique during the contest included sending my call
sign after each contact. I generally ran my keying speeds between 32
and 36 WPM. I started out sending an accelerated exchange, but I
found it to be unnatural from a timing point of view and went back to
sending the exchange at the nominal operating speed. I generally ran
the pileups simplex; when things got hectic I would listen up 200 to
400 Hz. I normally looked for open frequencies around 20 to 60 KHz up
from the bottom of the band. I tried to pull out full callsigns from
the pileups and would always resend a callsign if I made a correction
to it.
I virtually lived on bread and water during the contest. I sipped on
water almost continually, to replace the fluid I was sweating away. I
limited my food intake to one half of a whole wheat roll whenever I
started to have hunger pangs. I?m convinced that this was one of
the reasons that I experienced less fatigue this year as compared to
1996; I believe that digesting a lot of food makes your body work very
hard; its better to expend this energy working QSOs! I also avoided
coffee and caffeine; I did have one cup of coffee on Saturday morning,
but it made my head swim.
As I look back on it now, I believe that 6M to 7M is achievable in the
single op, low power category from the Caribbean, especially once 10M
gets hot. If and when I go again, I plan to spend additional energy
on antennas for the low bands.
My hostess, Dorothea Evergates VP2EE, was wonderful as always, and I
want to thank her for all her help with the apartment, license, rental
car and customs!
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES COUNTRIES
160 169 343 2.03 8 17
80 301 656 2.18 14 45
40 1264 3148 2.49 23 78
20 1012 2505 2.48 28 77
15 1979 5211 2.63 25 91
10 264 598 2.27 17 37
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 4989 12461 2.50 115 345 => 5,732,060
160 80 40 20 15 10 ALL percent
North America CW 165 249 651 532 728 194 2519 50.2
South America CW 3 7 7 13 19 15 64 1.3
Europe CW 1 46 602 359 1125 50 2183 43.5
Asia CW 0 0 14 98 91 0 203 4.0
Africa CW 1 1 5 11 16 5 39 0.8
Oceania CW 0 1 2 2 5 0 10 0.2
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults VP2EEB CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM
TOT
0 ..... ..... 92/21 ..... ..... ..... 92/21
92/21
1 . . 132/17 . . . 132/17
224/38
2 . . 156/9 . . . 156/9
380/47
3 . . 145/3 . . . 145/3
525/50
4 . 16/4 115/3 . . . 131/7
656/57
5 . 118/21 . . . . 118/21
774/78
6 34/4 69/11 1/1 1/1 1/1 1/1 107/19
881/97
7 10/1 2/1 87/3 . . . 99/5
980/102
8 3/2 50/3 21/0 ..... ..... ..... 74/5
1054/107
9 . . . . . . .
1054/107
10 . 1/0 . 67/28 2/2 . 70/30
1124/137
11 . . . 57/9 118/32 . 175/41
1299/178
12 . . . . 173/10 . 173/10
1472/188
13 . . . . 162/8 . 162/8
1634/196
14 . . . . 154/4 . 154/4
1788/200
15 . . . . 150/3 . 150/3
1938/203
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 100/1 63/2 163/3
2101/206
17 . . 1/1 85/8 1/1 47/4 134/14
2235/220
18 . . . 1/0 210/7 . 211/7
2446/227
19 . . . 97/2 11/3 14/4 122/9
2568/236
20 . . . 56/5 37/3 4/1 97/9
2665/245
21 . . . 109/1 32/1 . 141/2
2806/247
22 . . 7/0 . 93/0 . 100/0
2906/247
23 . . 70/2 3/3 2/0 4/0 79/5
2985/252
0 ..... 1/1 82/5 4/2 ..... ..... 87/8
3072/260
1 . . 124/2 . . . 124/2
3196/262
2 . . 97/0 . . . 97/0
3293/262
3 16/4 2/2 8/5 2/2 . . 28/13
3321/275
4 102/6 7/0 . . . . 109/6
3430/281
5 3/2 20/4 9/2 12/5 . . 44/13
3474/294
6 . . 61/3 . . . 61/3
3535/297
7 . . . . . . .
3535/297
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
3535/297
9 . . . . . . .
3535/297
10 1/0 15/0 16/3 29/2 . . 61/5
3596/302
11 . . . 124/6 . . 124/6
3720/308
12 . . . 10/0 88/0 4/4 102/4
3822/312
13 . . . . 138/0 . 138/0
3960/312
14 . . . 1/0 38/0 14/10 53/10
4013/322
15 . . . 2/0 18/1 67/8 87/9
4100/331
16 ..... ..... ..... 4/2 63/5 1/1 68/8
4168/339
17 . . . . 120/5 . 120/5
4288/344
18 . . . . 92/1 40/2 132/3
4420/347
19 . . . 92/3 3/2 4/1 99/6
4519/353
20 . . . . 142/1 . 142/1
4661/354
21 . . . 107/1 31/2 1/1 139/4
4800/358
22 . . . 109/2 . . 109/2
4909/360
23 . . 40/1 40/0 . . 80/1
4989/361
DAY1 47/7 256/40 827/60 476/57 1246/76 133/12 .....
2985/252
DAY2 122/12 45/7 437/21 536/25 733/17 131/27 .
2004/109
TOT 169/19 301/47 1264/81 1012/82 1979/93 264/39 .
4989/361
--
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