ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO
Station: VE7FO
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80: 16 15
40: 49 28
20: 203 66
15: 151 49
10: 88 27
-------------------
Total: 507 185 Total Score = 279,720
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
Wow, what a slog. This is the 3rd anniversary of my return to Ham Radio and
contesting after a several decade absence. It started with VE7IN suggesting I
go to his place and do a M/S in the ARRL DX CW in 00, just for old times' sake.
If that contest had been like this I may not have continued. Too late to back
out now, I'm hooked. So, this is the beginning of year 4.
Thursday afternoon - just finishing a late lunch and thinking of getting ready
for contest. Let's see, find out why 80 dipole loads better on 40 than 40
dipole, set up TR, update cty file, update my TRMaster file, get a few hours cw
practice with a view to being comfortable at 30 wpm, make a list of easy mults
so I can be sure to look for them, review old logs, prepare prop charts, etc.
Oh, and have a good night's rest because I'm really tired. At this point my
wife asks, "Don't you have a contest that starts in an hour?" "No," I say, "it
starts on Friday." Her eyes widening noticeably, she says, "This is Friday."
Oh (expletive).
Rush down to the shack, clear a bunch of junk out of the way, set up TR, do a
quick scan of the bands and decide to make an S&P sweep on 10 to get whatever
mults are available before 10 dies. First Q at 0003Z. Whew, made it in time.
Except as noted, all times are PST (GMT - 8)
1726 37 Qs, 7 mults. Oh man, does this ever suck. Don't feel at all connected
to what I'm doing due to lack of mental prep time. Most Qs were JA but did pick
up A35RK which is a new one for me. Mostly S&P but did try running a bit
without much success. Did mange to work my first of several Ws. Figure I've
got all the mults I'm going to get here and switch to 15 in hopes of rate.
1935 91 Qs, 22 mults. So much for rate. From here, JA is 300 deg and S Am is
120 deg. Consequently, most Qs are JA and Central/South Am. Once again, tried
a bit of running but, due to a Tx problem I haven't got around to fixing, I can
only get about 50W on 15. Other bands are OK. So not much luck running but was
called by HM5INC. I figured that this was the same as HL so, when TR showed the
mult as HM I edited to read HL. After the contest, when doing a mult check on
the log it wanted to change it back to HM so I let it. So, HL is S. Korea and
HM is... hmm.... N. Korea. Well, I wonder who I worked. I'm sure that if there
was an HM station active in the contest that the 3830 stories would have been
full of excitement over this. My guess is SM5INC. Doesn't matter, HM is what I
logged so that's what gets sent in.
Those who read my WPX RTTY story may remember my enthusing over my audio patch
panel and audio mixer. For RTTY the MkV Main and Sub Rx audio from the AF Out
jack was fed to the L & R inputs of the mixer. The audio from my old 75A-4 was
fed to the other R input of the mixer. The L mixer output was fed to the sound
card to drive RITTY and the R output to a PK-232 TNC. The L&R mixer outputs
also drove a headphone amplifier into which the phones were plugged (i.e. they
are NOT plugged into the MkV phones jack). Hooked the A4 to the 40/80 dipoles
and used it to tune 20 for mults while working 10 or 15 with the MkV and RITTY.
So, no reason why I shouldn't be able to do the same thing on CW. Made the
appropriate connections on the patch panel and now have the MkV Main Rx in the
left ear and the Sub Rx and the A4 outputs in the right ear. By manipulating
the sliders on the mixer I can listen to any or all of the audio streams. If I
just want the Main Rx I hit the mono switch on the mixer and now the Main is fed
to both ears. So, auto cq on 15 and tune the A4 on 20 looking for a mult. When
I find one, I look at the A4 dial and tune the B VFO of the MkV to that freq.
When ready, I hit the swap VFOs button on the MkV, tune around a little (never
off more than 1-200 Hz) to find the mult, work him, swap the VFOs again and
restart auto cq. Well, that was the plan and it did work. However, whenever
someone answered my cq I had to ask for the call again as I was concentrating on
20 and couldn't get the call the first time. Being tired didn't help.
Obviously, this is going to take practice. I thought another difficulty was
that the A4 is on my left but I'm listening to it in my right ear. A simple
swap of patch cables took care of that. I was wrong, that isn't the problem, I
am. Well, in that time I did manage to make 4 Qs and 4 mults on 20. 15 is
petering out so switch to 20.
2145 126 Qs, 37 mults. Mostly JA with some S. Am. and UA. Get absolutely no
response to CQs so all S&P. Want to use the A4 to monitor 40 and also be able
to transmit on 40 so move the 40 dipole to the 2nd antenna input on the MkV and
put the A4 on the 80 dipole. Try it and, yes, I can hear stuff on 40. Quite a
lot of stuff. Switch to 40.
0210 181 Qs, 74 mults. Bounced back and forth between 40 and 80. Was pretty
happy to make 37 mults on these 2 bands. Best I've ever done, I think. All
S&P. My first hour rate looks pretty good at this point. Don't see doing 1,000
Qs this time. Even 600 looks like a reach. Go to bed.
0935 Back at it. A4 to the left of me. MkV to the right of me. Breakfast in
front of me. (I think it was W.C. Fields who said, "I'd rather have a bottle in
front of me than a frontal lobotomy.") Don't you just love cw - no operating
time lost while your mouth is full.
1010 187 Qs, 80 mults. Took a quick peek at 10 then started an S&P sweep of
15. Eventually realize that no Eu stations here, all Carib. If I want those Eu
mults, my only chance right now is 20 so I go there.
1325 257 Qs, 108 mults. Well, 6 Qs and 6 mults back there on 10 and 15 were
better than nothing but here's the main event, even though I'm 4 hours late.
Hey, this is great. Pretty well all S&P but did have a 1 hr run. Maybe wasn't
a good idea as my S&P rate was better. Still, all but 1 of the 70 Qs was Eu.
Had the 10 min rate meter briefly up to 84 which isn't bad for S&P. One thing
which pleased me greatly was that 21 of the 69 Eu stations were 200W or less,
including 2 QRP. This either means that I am able to reach that 2nd tier with
100W and a dipole or, less pleasing, that there's a mezzanine level of LP
stations with big aluminum farms. Never heard 4U1ITU in my life before so was
pleased to work him for a new one. Worked ES4BZ. Later, when I called EI4BZ I
got the QSO B4 finger so I put a note in the log to change ES4 to EI4. Of
course, because the change hadn't been made to the log yet, EI4BZ wasn't flagged
as a dupe. I don't know how many times he had to tell me to screw off over the
course of the contest, but it was several. Didn't hear many Slovenian stations.
When I first started in again a few years ago it took me a while to learn that
when I heard something like 15 dits in a row followed by a letter to put S55 and
the letter into the log. There were always a lot of them. Not this time. Did
at least 2 sweeps of 20. Hey, 28 Eu mults isn't too shabby. Not sure how many
are possible but this must be way more than half of what's on. Switch to 15 in
hopes of more Eu mults.
1415 270 Qs, 116 mults. No Eu, other than CT. C. and S. Am along with some
JA. Somewhere along the way I remembered one of the things in my list of
contesting to dos and that is to make sure I don't miss easy mults. So, hit
CTRL-O in TR and it shows me every mult that I have on 2 or more bands and which
bands I got them on. Write these on a sheet of paper except show bands I don't
have each mult on. I referred to this sheet throughout the contest and worked
hard at getting at least all the Carib mults on all 5 bands (no 160). Wasn't
entirely successful but there was no self-recrimination later for getting, say,
ZF on only 2 bands. Switch to 10 to run it dry before it dies.
1446 279 Qs, 119 mults. Yukk. Back to 15.
1600 302 Qs, 125 mults. Halfway. Looks like 1000 Qs is totally out of reach.
Unless things improve a lot, 500 is doubtful.
1710 326 Qs, 128 mults. All S&P with an occasional foray on 10. Pretty well
all C. and S. Am. & JA. There was one very pleasant exception, XT2WP, a new one
for me. Man, this is hard work. Switch to 20 hoping for rate. Good luck.
Better get down to 40 & 80 and try for mults.
2015 370 Qs, 138 mults. No rate. Better get down to 40 & 80 and try for
mults.
2205 370 Qs, 138 mults. S9 noise on 40 and 80, and that's in the 250 Hz
filter, so I watched TV for a couple of hours. I have never, ever done this in
a contest before.
2315 377 Qs, 141 mults. Came downstairs to shut the rig off but listened a bit
first. While listening, the noise vanished. Do a little bit of 40, little bit
of 80. Want to catch the Eu opening in the am so go to bed.
0805 Here we go. Got 8 hrs to make 233 Qs if I want to make 600 total. 30/hr
is certainly doable if cndx half decent. Start on 20.
0950 422 Qs, 151 mults. Actually ran Eu for an hour (perhaps "walked" would be
more descriptive). This time, more than half running 200W or less. Only made 2
2nd Rx Qs. Just too tired to be able to deal with 2 audio streams
simultaneously. Having troubles distinguishing between s & h. Eu fading away.
7 Qs behind target. Switch to 15 in hopes of finding some there.
1125 448 Qs, 163 mults. All S&P. 12 Eu mults. That'll help. 30 Qs behind
target. Not hearing any more Eu, switch to 10.
1235 462 Qs, 174 mults. All S&P. Pretty well all Carib. 50 Qs behind target.
Change Q target to 500. Surely I can do 38 Qs in 3.5 hours. Have been
crossing the mults off on my easy-to-work mult sheet. Some mults not yet worked
on 15. Go there.
1330 467 Qs, 181 mults. All S&P. 6 Qs behind revised target. This isn't
looking good. No more mults to be found on 15 but my sheet shows that I need
some on 20 so go there.
1430 480 Qs, 181 mults. All S&P. 4 Qs behind revised target. Not sure what
to do as pickings are so slim. Decide to move to 10, point the beam at JA and
try running as S&P has pretty well dried up.
1535 501 Qs, 184 mults. What a happy decision. Did a little S&P first and
picked up FO5RA then ran JA. Run dried up so move to 15 and try running
there.
1559 507 Qs, 185 mults.
It always feels good when you make your target.
The following happened several times. I'm trying to get through a pile up. I've
got the DX centered in my MkV 60 Hz DSP filter. He's S9 on the meter but this
is the only way I can hear him because some idiot is sending his call over and
over without listening. The DX comes back to him. The caller doesn't hear
because he is still calling. I think if I were the DX I'd just slide down 1 kHz
and say Up 1. The idiot caller would never know. Probably not good etiquette
in a contest though. Next time I'll note the calls when I hear this and publish
them in my story.
Altogether it appears that I made 9 2nd Rx Qs, most of them mults. Sure have to
do a lot more work on this. The potential is quite exciting.
Last year, 280 Qs and 52 mults on 10. Total 717 Qs, 187 mults
This year, 88 Qs and 27 mults on 10. Total 507 Qs, 185 mults
I attribute the small change in the mults to my mult sheet and to the large
amount of time doing S&P.
5 band stations
6D2YFM, FM5BH, JA3YBK, JH5FXP, KH7X, PJ4G, VP5LP, WP3R, ZF2NT. TI5N gets
honourable mention as we almost made it on 80 but the best he could do with my
call was VE7NO.
I was surprised to find that I worked 80 countries. Best I have ever done in a
contest is 100.
The S. American guys must have had a ball. Never heard pileups on them like
that before.
Thanks for the Qs everyone and see you next time.
Don't forget that the Pacific Northwest DX Convention 2003 July 18,19 and 20 is
being held in Vancouver. Keynote speaker is a world renowned Dxer as well as
being a member of both DX Hall of Fame and Contest Hall of Fame. How many of
these could there be? Check out the PNW DX Convention page at
http:\\www.bcdxc.org and find out. While you're there, you might as well
register.
73 de Jim Smith VE7FO
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