CQ Worldwide DX Contest - CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s):
Station:
Class: SOAB HP
Operating Time (hrs): 39
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 35 11 29
40: 766 22 69
20: 676 30 78
15: 800 26 72
10: 655 29 87
-------------------------------
Total: 2932 118 335 = 3,899,424
Comments:
Station Description: FT-1000MP/Alpha 87A, FT-990/LK-550ZC, WriteLog
Antenna(s): TH-7 @70', C3E @50', 40M 4-square, 80M vee @ 65'
Club Affiliation: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Not bad for a wimpy antenna farm! My goal was to hit the 3,000 QSO mark and I
actually did it. I'm not rounding up -- I worked 68 dupes and removed 3
questionable QSOs from my log, for a total of 3,003. None of those QSOs show in
the above score. Due to the severe penalties from the contest committee's
computerized UBN log checker, the sage advice is now to work all the dupes
instead of sending "QSO B4". A frustrating experience, but hopefully worth it.
This year I finally discovered the secret of significantly improving my score:
fabulous propagation! At times, the conditions were as good as I've ever
experienced on the bands, especially Friday and Saturday. 40M was great for
sustained European runs on Friday night. I was having so much fun running
Europe on 10M Saturday AM that I missed going down to 15M and had to make up
for it Sunday AM. The 15M opening on Saturday evening, around 0100Z, was
something to behold. BA1PK very nearly blew the front end of my radio right out
off the desk and was followed by pounding signals from JA, 9M, Oceania, VK/ZL,
etc. I was grinning from ear to ear. The only real disappointment was 20M,
where there was frequent band noise and runs were tough to establish.
Propagation was so good that I had more sustained 100+ hours in this contest
than any other. On Sunday I had a four hour run of 100+ per hour, and on Sunday
I had a seven hour run of 100+ per hour (a mind boggler.) The best part was
more 110-125 hours than ever before. But I've still got to be a better CW op to
hit those 150+ hours I saw from the top operators.
There were several other important factors that contributed to the improvement
over last year of more than 1000 Qs and 1.5M points:
1. 10 more hours of operating (endurance, endurance, endurance)
2. Faster and better copy as a result of more contest experience
3. Better planning
4. The second beam (a C2E on a separate tower)
5. "Stacking" the beams
1. Endurance. I did lose an hour due to a self-inflicted software problem
(*never* use beta software in a major contest!) I slept a little more than I
had planned, 1.5 hours in the wee hour Saturday about 4.5 hours in two segments
in the wee hours Sunday. I can't figure out where the other two hours went.
They must've gotten chewed up in two showers, some bathroom breaks and some
food prep. Time to learn to live with the grungy feeling, install a
refrigerator in the shack, and research self-catheterization (just kidding...)
For you YCCC members out there: while splashing water on my face Sunday
morning, I realized the true meaning of KICK BUTT. It has nothing to do with
beating the competition -- it means kick *your own* butt to keep going when you
think you're going to collapse into a heap!
2. Copy. The more CW contests I work, the more the copy improves. I'm still not
satisfied because I had to ask for a lot of fills. But when I was in the
groove, I was very happy with the copy. At other times, when exhaustion was
paramount, my copy was simply horrible and all those Europeans must've thought
I was the worst op on the East Coast.
3. Planning. For the past year I've been trying to learn as much as I can about
contesting. I've been studying the score reports and comments posted by the top
operators. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about contesting,
antennas, equipment, etc. I joined YCCC and learned an incredible amount at the
two meetings I've attented so far and from the club publications. I worked CQWW
SSB at a multi-multi with *big* antennas and learned tons from the other ops
(not to mention learning how a flexible antenna system pays off.) I've even
done some research on what food to eat to promote endurance (for example, I'm
not drinking coffee at all anymore.) Perhaps one of the most important things I
did for this contest was to print out the rate sheets from some of last year's
top operators. I saw a clear and consistent pattern of moving from band to
band. There are certainly differences in the specific timing of band openings
due to location and variations in propagation from year to year, but I
developed a similar pattern for myself that seemed to work very well. The next
step is to study the less common propagation modes such as long path openings,
skewed paths, etc.
4. Second Beam. In the last few contests I was very disappointed in the
performance of the GAP Titan vertical for S&P on the second radio. It was
particularly bad during the summer contests -- WPX and IARU. I resolved to add
a second beam for this year's contest season, and found the perfect solution
for my XYL-challenged QTH: a C3E on a low-cost low-profile 50' portable
military surplus tower. I was able to put the tower and beam up by myself in a
few hours and have been extremely pleased with the results. For the most part,
I found this antenna to be equal to or superior to the TH-7 at 70'. Not only
did the rotatable gain antenna drastically improve performance on the second
radio, but it also added a lot of flexibility to the run radio: I was able to
go from EU to JA or SA with the flip of a switch.
5. "Stacking". I never would have believed it, but I found that it was possible
to make a WIDE stack out of the two beams, which are separated by about 200
feet, simply by paralleling the feedlines. I experimented with a "T" connector
and liked the results so much that I set up a switching system that allows me
to combine the beams with the flip of a switch. Amazingly, the SWR is 1.5:1 or
less on all three bands. Of course, there's no improvement in gain when the
antennas are pointed in the same direction (in fact, there's some loss on 10M
and 15M), but I was amazed to find that the signal loss was usually only
minimal when the beams were pointed in different directions. The main advantage
of this was getting a bigger footprint. This really helped for scanning the
band in two different directions during an S&P run. Also, there were a couple
of simultaneous openings into EU and JA where the combined beams allowed me to
run both continents at the same time. Not a true stack, but certainly a neat
option. I was inspired by using the big stacks at K1RX and by W2VJN, who told
me "just try it."
Finally, I have to say that I'm still very unhappy with my mult performance. I
did better than last year, but not much. I haven't been able to figure out if
this is a function of my lack of experience or my modest antennas. I spent a
reasonable amount of time searching for mults on the second radio (kind of
tough when running 100+ hours on the first radio) and spent some decent time at
S&P. I worked every new mult I heard. Either I'm not looking in the right
places at the right times, or my antennas just can't hear what's out there.
Maybe both. I think I can keep on boosting the QSO total just by doing more of
the same, but the mult situation is going to take some new insight and
techniques.
73, Dick WC1M
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