IARU HF World Championship
Call: GW7X
Operator(s): GW3NJW
Station: GW7X
Class: SO CW HP
QTH: Cardiff
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Mults
---------------------------
160: 18 0 18
80: 77 0 29
40: 257 0 40
20: 643 0 55
15: 340 0 40
10: 9 0 6
---------------------------
Total: 1344 0 188 Total Score = 916,876
Club: Contest Cambria
Comments:
IARU 2002, what can I say? I really wasn't supposed to be on parade, and in some
ways, wish I had not been.
In early May, my Westie bitch, Maggie, was mated, and a happy event was expected
in the NJW household on July 11th. This meant that IARU, IOTA, and probably WAE
CW would be off limits for me. In the event, mother nature took a hand, as she
often does, and it transpired from a scan that there would be no puppies on this
occasion. I had already declared ny non-availability to Contest Cambria for the
aforementioned events, and Ed/G3SQX had taken up the challenge of IOTA, by
scheduling an expedition to the Isle of Arran, EU123, when GW7X will become GM7X
for 24 hours later this month.
However nobody had taken up the IARU challenge, and it was with reluctance that
I picked up the baton. In view of the scenario described, I had decided to take
the opportunity to ugrade my antenna system. I live in a conservation area,
which means that all antennas are notionally proscribed, but I have a pair of
Butternut HF9Vs nestling amongst the trees, away from prying eyes. The compost
heap provides further camouflague for a DX88 vertical used on the S&P radio, and
on the chimney, below the TV antenna for obvious reasons, is a 212ft centre fed
doublet, with its ends drooping to about 15ft. This serves for 160m, and also
fires well to the West, off its ends on 28Mhz, one of which is generally to the
West. That is to say, it does so when the band is open, a rare occurence of
late! The pair of Butternuts are spaced 40ft on a NE/SW axis, and can be
operated broadside or end-fire on 14 and 7Mhz. The broadside mode works well on
14Mhz, and the end fire ditto on 7Mhz. On other bands, there is little to no
advantage. This setup is modest by any standards, and qualifies me handsomely
for the antenna challenged brigade! However I decided that I could add another
Butternut, in an equilateral triangle, in a sort of W1CF array, to provide extra
compass directions, if little extra gain. This antenna is already erected, and I
am still trying to get my head around the switching and phasing arragements. I
speculated that there would bound to be some parasitic effect from the extra
radiator, on one band or other. It became clear from casual listening that this
was deefintely the case on 21Mhz, and EZNEC modelled this well. The effect was
broadly one of a reflector to the West/North West, but equally left large holes
in the polar diagram in the direction of Europe. With conditions as they are on
the North American path, this seemed serious.
At the start of the contest 28Mhz was virtually dead, and 21Mhz did not sound
encouraging. I quickly became aware that I was close to the back of the queue in
every pile-up on 21Mhz, and running was not a viable proposition. Thus it was
after 3 hours, that I had already lost over 150 QSOs. compared to the 2001
event. What should I do? I did think seriously of quitting there and then, but
knew I'd never live it down. Since the rot had alteady set in, and since I
genreally do not make the mults that I should. despite SO2R, I decided *not* to
chase the QSO game, but to comcentrate on the mults for a change. The QSO target
continued to fade in the distance, until it was time to go down to 14Mhz, when
they started to come back a bit, and overnight I managed to cut the deficit to
45 QSOs down. However come morning, and time to get back on 21 and 28Mhz ( 28 no
chance!), it all went pear-shaped again, and I ended the session off almost 150
QSOs. However the mults were several up, on this reeduced tally, so some benefit
must have accrued from the extra SO2R effort. The overall final score was only
down 9,000 points out of 925,000, so I suppose I have to be pleased about that
in the circumstanes. Of course it does not pay to be a hostage to fortune in the
antenna department, but the received wisdom, is that antenna work should be done
in the summer. However having been at turns, frozen, and soaking wet over the
month of June, I do now question such wisdom!
Station:
______
Run radio TS870S, Alpha 78
HF9vX2, 212ft inverted vee doubley at 30ft maximum
S&P radio TS870S, FL2100Z
Hygain DX88
Writelog 10.30, W5XD keyer/SO2R box
Home brew phasing box
73
Clive
GW3NJW
Contest Cambria
http://www.gw7x.org
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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