CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, W7ZRC, KL9A, KL2A, N7WR
Station: NK7U
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 107 14 29
80: 240 25 61
40: 279 32 100
20: 1256 38 132
15: 669 26 69
10: 9 3 3
------------------------------
Total: 2560 138 394 Total Score = 2,855,776
Club:
Comments:
Our goal this year was simple -- get NK7U back on the air. Joe went QRT in June
2007 right after WPX CW and moved into his current QTH. We were â??darkâ?? so
to speak for CQWW 2007. 2007 was only the second year since 1992 that NK7U was
not on the air during CQWW SSB.
For the last 18 months he has been tearing down his old place and constructing
his new station -- the fourth of his amazing radio career. In terms of total
height of towers erected, total antennas built, rebuilt, and installed, and
feet of coax, hardline, and control lines laid in a lifetime in building your
own station, Joe has got to be in the top 5 worldwide. If you have done more of
this -- you are probably a professional and do it for a living, and you do it
for others.
What is good about this is because of his experience, when he builds something,
it is going to work. And, though we literally were connecting most of the
antennas, coax, and control lines the week before the contest, everything
worked just fine. We actually had fewer problems than we have had in some past
years with stations that have been in place several years. The general station
setup is:
10M -- 7/7 both rotating
15M -- 5/5/5 top fixed EU, bottom two rotating
20M -- 5/5 both rotating
40M -- 4 element beam and a low rotating dipole, which is more of NAQP and SS
antenna
80M -- 4 square (his 3 element beam has been retired)
160M -- array of 4 half wave slopers
Tribanders -- a couple C31XRâ??s
Still to come next year are fixed 10,15, and 20 stacks on Japan and Europe as
well as a rotating 80M dipole.
We didnâ??t really have time for much live testing before the contest. KL9A got
on the air a bit Thursday night and Friday morning. On 20M while working Europe
a knowledgeable OM station asked â??How is the new station coming?â?? thinking
it was Joe/NK7U at the Mic. Before Chris could speak he answered it himself --
â??Stupid question -- you are 20 over 9.â?? Chris also got on 160M Thursday
night and found Europeans booming in which would continue all weekend. A
combination of the 4 sloper array and amazing propagation made 160 a really hot
band. Sunday night after the contest Chris again got on 160 while Joe and I
listened. We heard a very loud station CQing. Thought it must be a local W7. It
was OM3PC -- who was well over S9.
With this background NK7U, K7ZO, W7ZRC, KL9A, KL2A and N7WR assembled for the
2008 edition of CQ WW SSB.
In precontest discussions we really intended this year to be a â??shakedown
cruiseâ??. Just get on the air, see how the station plays, what interference
problems we might have, how well our signals get out, etc. Our goals were
rather modest and we achieved all of them:
* Make at least 1,800 QSOâ??s
* Beat K7ZSD for Oregon Mult-op honors
* Make at least one 10M QSO outside the US
* Work Europe on 160M -- though to the best of our knowledge we had never done
this before in a SSB contest.
When the last QSO went into the log our score even surprised us -- much better
than expected. As of the latest scores posted on 3830 our 2.85M is about 48% of
the top US score from K1RX. This ties our best finish ever when we had the same
relative result in 2006 from Joe's previous station.
A few highlights by band follow:
10M: As I saw in one posting â??Is this still considered an amateur band?â??.
The difficult conditions everyone experienced were amplified in the NW US where
we are even farther away from the good sources of N-S propagation the east coast
gets. For us, due south is somewhere out in the southeast Pacific Ocean, not LU,
PY, the Caribbean Islands, etc. We managed just a few QSOâ??s with LU and PY
when the signals rose up out of the noise for a few seconds before
disappearing. Things were so bad we even missed Zones 4 and 5. Except for 1996
when we didnâ??t have an antenna on 10M this is our worst year on record.
15m: Things were about as expected. We never really had any openings to Europe.
On Saturday we had a grand total of one 15M QSO with Europe. On Sunday morning
we had a 45 min period where we worked about 20 strong EAâ??s, CTâ??s and M6T
who somehow made it into the log. We did have reasonable openings to Japan and
put 101 JAâ??s into the log which was better than 2006 but well below 2005
which also was a low solar flux year with contest flux levels in the 73 range.
More on this JA observation later.
20M: Joe was worried how the new setup on 20M would play. For years he has had
a 5/5/5/5 stack on 190â?? towers. His current 5/5 is only up about 140â??. His
concerns were: â??Would we get out on 20M? and â??Can we hold a run
frequency?â??. From all experiences things are working very well. Our 38 Zones
on 20M ties our second best all time record only exceeded in 2004 when we got
all 40. From early reports on 3830 38 Zones is right up there with the best. I
have only seen one each 40 and 39 Zone report and both were out of Europe. We
also had our third highest QSO count ever on 20M though that was enhanced by a
much higher than normal count of zero point QSOâ??s.
As another measure of how well your signal gets out are those â??surpriseâ??
QSOâ??s you get from casual operators who predominantly S&P with small antennas
to the big signals they tune across. For example K7ZO had KH9/WA2YUN call in on
Saturday. He logged him then had that surprise moment and said â??Are you
really on Wake Islandâ??. Yep he is. We tried an immediate pass to 15M but it
didnâ??t work. KL9A during the Europe run on Saturday though he had what he
thought was another S52 calling him out of the pileups. The other station kept
saying â??negative, negativeâ?? as Chris repeated his call. Then it finally
dawned on Chris. The other station is saying ST2, not S52. And thus ST2NH went
into the log. Chris has a habit of attracting good mults.
As others have said 20M was certainly a zoo this weekend. It seemed like for
the whole weekend that stations were wall to wall. At one point I felt like I
could log IK2G3TLADL3E33BN as a call. All the stations just blended together.
My biggest chuckle of the weekend is when PJ2T came on frequency and said I was
QRMâ??ing him as he was 1.5kcâ??s below me. To think that anyone could expect a
frequency that was clear +/- 1.5kc is ridiculous. Heck there were probably 2-3
other stations between PJ2T and us anyway.
One of the goals of the weekend was to see if we could still get and hold a run
frequency into Europe on 20M with Joeâ??s new antennas. We proved this quite
convincingly with many good runs into Europe and a total of 404 EU QSOâ??s on
20M. We were quite loud and could make it through the East Coast Wall. That we
were effective was demonstrated when we worked GW4BLE at 13:26 UTC Saturday.
This was well before dawn and about 45 minutes before our next 20M EU QSOâ??s.
When Steve, always a smart op, came back to us he was both surprised to hear us
that early and impressed.
We did miss Zones 17 and 36 on 20M. We never heard a Zone 36 the whole weekend.
As far as Zone 17 at one point before dawn on Sunday morning we could hear five
different Zone 17 stations on the air at the same time: UP0L, UP2L, UP4L, a UA9
and one other. At times they were S9. We called them in total well over a
hundred times and never managed a single QSO. They were working the east coast
at steady rates but we could not get their attention. It is so maddening to
have someone who is S9 not be able to hear you when you call them with a 5/5
stack and a kilowatt. Some day I need to understand this one way propagation.
It was a pleasure though to have so many BYâ??s on the air -- we had a total of
37 BY QSOâ??s on 20M. Participation in Alaska also continues to be strong with
27 KL7 QSOâ??s on 20M.
40M: Now this was an interesting band. The changes in frequency allocations and
broadcast stations are really going to change the nature and use of 40M in SSB
DX contests. Changes for the better. It would be interesting for someone to see
how 40M scores changed in the last year. Conditions were also superb. Joeâ??s 4
elements at 150â?? seems to get out very well and we were able to work any
station we could hear. The band opened up before sunset for us to the east and
we worked Europe very easily. We could not get runs going into Europe but
nothing new there. One of the highlight Qâ??s was working 3DA0DJ on one call
late in the contest. We ended up with DXCC and 32 Zones on 40M essentially
tying our all time records.
One of the disappointments was how few JAâ??s we worked on 40M. A grand total
of 21 for the whole contest. During 2004-2006 we averaged around 200 JA Qâ??s
on 40M so this was a giant surprise to us. K7RLâ??s note suggests that
propagation to JA was not there. I am not sure that is the story. While
listening to 40M Saturday night I heard a giant JA pileup on 40M to T8IC. When
we asked the few stations that did call us how our signal was they said
â??59+â??. So, something else is going on. It seems like contesting in JA is
dropping off big time. Any comments from anyone in Japan?
And to echo the observations of K4XS I heard more stateside stations than I
remember calling DX simplex under 7100. And these were guys with extra class
calls who should know better. Not sure what is going on here. Maybe an article
or two in the ham magazines on the changing of 40M would be appropriate.
80M: One of the big tests of the contest was how well Joeâ??s new 4-square
would would play. Making the transition from his 3 element beam to the 4 square
has been hard. He really didnâ??t want to give up the beam but it is just a
beast to get into the air and maintain. Plus the expanded 80M SSB bands for the
US, Japan, and others really conspire against the narrow bandwidth of the beam.
You really need the wider bandwidth a 4-square allows.
Thanks to the efforts of W2VJN and N6LF Joeâ??s 4 square was all tuned up and
ready to go. This included an emergency trimming a couple feet off the element
lengths on Thursday afternoon. (Photos will be on an updated NK7U website
soon.)
By all accounts the 4 square works very well. We set an all time country total
record at 61 and came within 2 zones of our all time record with 25. The 25
zones looks pretty respectable compared to any of the big gun US stations --
even the M/M guys.
160M: Joeâ??s new 4 half wave sloper array are the best 160M antennas he has
had up in years, maybe ever. They just went up a few days before the contest
and the first time they were used was the night before the contest when we
worked several Europeans. This was a good sign and led us to our somewhat
jokingly goal of working at least one European on 160M during the contest. KL2A
dedicated himself to achieving this goal and got partly there the first night
with CU2X going into the log. But we have worked CU before and it is really not
mainland Europe so we didnâ??t give ourselves credit for it. The second night
Jon was at it again and this time succeeded with LY2IJ and YL2SM going into the
log. From K7RLâ??s post we may have missed a few other big signals or
propagation might have been so local that we could not hear them like he did.
But, no matter, this contest was one for the record books as far as 160M
between the west coast of the US and Europe is concerned. By the time the show
was over we had smashed our 160M all time records with 14 Zones and 29
Countries. Our previous records were 11 and 17 respectively.
Joe is pretty excited about his 160M antennas now and look for NK7U in upcoming
160M contests.
A few final tidbits
====================
Thanks to all you 5 Band QSO's: 6V7M, 6Y1V, 8P5A, AO8A, CU2X, D4C, FY5KE, HC8A,
HQ3Z, KH6LC, KH6MB, KL7RA, KP2M, KP4KE, PJ2T, PJ4E, PZ5Z, TI1R, V26B, V48M,
VC6R, VE3EJ, YV4A. You really contribute to our mult totals.
Stateside QSO counts -- Our stateside QSO counts are way up compared to past
years. This year I think we let it happen more than in the past just to keep
activity high when there was no DX around and to exercise the station. This
year about 24% of our QSO's were stateside way above past years as summarized
below.
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Tot Q's % of Total
2008 49 38 53 230 249 1 620 2560 24%
2006 4 104 21 173 101 4 407 2733 15%
2005 30 111 20 152 198 1 512 3140 16%
2004 9 31 3 146 146 19 354 3505 10%
Most years there seems to be some threadâ??s erupt about this on the
reflectors. I will wait and see. At NK7U we log everyone, thank them for the
QSO, help them with the exchange if they donâ??t know it and invite them to
call us in future contests. We need to be welcoming as many people to this
hobby/sport as we can.
JA QSO Counts -- Per earlier notes in the 15 and 40M sections we seem to be
seeing a steady decrease in JA QSO totals. Since the 2006 contest there has
been a large decrease in relatively similar solar flux conditions. I am hoping
the continued drop in JA QSO's is related to propagation and not a loss of
contesters in JA. Time will tell as spots return in next few years.
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Tot Q's % of
total
2008 0 65 21 241 101 0 428 2560 17%
2006 0 125 220 253 70 0 668 2733 24%
2005 0 77 191 266 220 0 754 3140 24%
2004 0 71 182 59 469 115 896 3505 25%
Thatâ??s it for now. See everyone in future contests. And -- NK7U is definitely
back on the air.
Scott/K7ZO
Our overall numbers
====================
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
AS 0 67 31 347 108 0 553 21.6
OC 2 23 24 34 17 0 100 3.9
NA 91 119 104 366 376 1 1057 41.3
SA 7 10 42 73 125 8 265 10.4
EU 3 12 66 404 25 0 510 19.9
AF 4 9 11 28 18 0 70 2.7
QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- 1/2 182/34 27/19 --+-- 210/55 210/55
D1-0100Z - 6/9 15/14 41/10 - - 62/33 272/88
D1-0200Z - 4/5 8/4 3/0 - - 15/9 287/97
D1-0300Z - 11/9 15/18 - - - 26/27 313/124
D1-0400Z 4/6 13/13 25/16 - - - 42/35 355/159
D1-0500Z 4/4 17/11 13/4 - - - 34/19 389/178
D1-0600Z 8/8 12/4 9/4 1/0 - - 30/16 419/194
D1-0700Z 10/0 31/11 15/8 - - - 56/19 475/213
D1-0800Z 16/6 20/1 11/6 --+-- --+-- --+-- 47/13 522/226
D1-0900Z 3/0 15/2 15/3 - - - 33/5 555/231
D1-1000Z - 8/2 9/4 - - - 17/6 572/237
D1-1100Z 10/0 8/3 18/3 - - - 36/6 608/243
D1-1200Z - 2/0 4/3 - - - 6/3 614/246
D1-1300Z - - 1/0 1/2 - - 2/2 616/248
D1-1400Z - 3/3 - 74/33 1/2 - 78/38 694/286
D1-1500Z - - - 60/28 1/2 - 61/30 755/316
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 59/7 21/21 --+-- 80/28 835/344
D1-1700Z - - - 31/6 45/17 - 76/23 911/367
D1-1800Z - - - 44/13 59/11 - 103/24 1014/391
D1-1900Z - - - 40/11 53/2 - 93/13 1107/404
D1-2000Z - - - 38/3 23/0 - 61/3 1168/407
D1-2100Z - - - 66/3 28/2 1/2 95/7 1263/414
D1-2200Z - - - 49/6 66/7 1/0 116/13 1379/427
D1-2300Z - - 6/5 57/2 21/2 - 84/9 1463/436
D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- 21/12 72/2 --+-- --+-- 93/14 1556/450
D2-0100Z 3/2 2/0 19/4 14/0 - - 38/6 1594/456
D2-0200Z 12/7 5/0 10/4 - - - 27/11 1621/467
D2-0300Z 5/3 5/3 8/1 - - - 18/7 1639/474
D2-0400Z 4/1 4/1 11/2 - - - 19/4 1658/478
D2-0500Z - - 9/0 - - - 9/0 1667/478
D2-0600Z 12/1 3/2 1/1 - - - 16/4 1683/482
D2-0700Z 6/3 9/0 3/2 - - - 18/5 1701/487
D2-0800Z 3/0 18/0 7/3 --+-- --+-- --+-- 28/3 1729/490
D2-0900Z 1/2 9/1 2/0 2/0 - - 14/3 1743/493
D2-1000Z 5/0 20/2 7/2 - - - 32/4 1775/497
D2-1100Z 1/0 3/0 3/3 - - - 7/3 1782/500
D2-1200Z - 1/1 2/0 - - - 3/1 1785/501
D2-1300Z - 9/1 5/3 - - - 14/4 1799/505
D2-1400Z - 2/2 - 22/0 - 1/2 25/4 1824/509
D2-1500Z - - - 66/3 5/1 - 71/4 1895/513
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 53/0 17/6 --+-- 70/6 1965/519
D2-1700Z - - - 30/2 17/2 - 47/4 2012/523
D2-1800Z - - - 21/1 73/0 - 94/1 2106/524
D2-1900Z - - - 42/3 79/0 2/2 123/5 2229/529
D2-2000Z - - - 33/0 68/0 4/0 105/0 2334/529
D2-2100Z - - - 47/1 21/1 - 68/2 2402/531
D2-2200Z - - - 69/0 31/0 - 100/0 2502/531
D2-2300Z - - 6/1 39/0 13/0 - 58/1 2560/532
Total: 107/43 240/86 279/1321256/170 669/95 9/6
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
3DA 1 1 1 3
3V 1 1 2
4X 1 2 3
5B 1 2 3
5H 1 1
5R 1 1
5Z 1 1
6W 1 1 2 2 2 8
6Y 1 1 1 2 1 6
8P 1 1 1 1 1 5
9A 2 7 9
9K 1 1 2
9M6 1 1 3 5
9V 1 1 2
9Y 1 2 3
BV 1 5 6
BY 1 1 37 1 40
C3 1 1
C6 1 1 1 1 4
CE 3 5 9 17
CM 1 1 1 1 4
CN 1 1 1 3 1 7
CT 1 1 12 4 18
CT3 2 2 4 2 10
CU 1 1 1 2 2 7
CX 2 9 6 17
D4 1 1 1 1 1 5
DL 4 62 66
DU 1 1 5 7
E7 1 4 5
EA 1 7 54 15 77
EA6 3 1 4
EA8 1 2 2 4 5 14
EA9 1 1 2
EI 1 4 5
ER 1 1 2
ES 1 1
EU 2 2
F 1 5 21 1 28
FG 1 1
FJ 1 1 1 1 4
FM 1 1 1 1 4 8
FY 1 1 1 1 1 5
G 3 3 24 1 31
GD 1 1
GI 1 5 6
GM 2 1 8 11
GW 1 3 4
HA 1 3 4
HB 1 4 5
HB0 1 1 2
HC 2 4 3 9
HC8 1 1 1 1 1 5
HI 1 1 2 2 6
HK 1 1 2 5 6 15
HL 8 4 12
HP 1 1 2
HR 1 3 2 2 2 10
HS 7 7
I 3 36 1 40
IS 2 2
IT9 1 6 7
J3 1 1
J8 1 1 1 3
JA 65 21 241 101 428
JD/m 1 1
JW 1 1 2
K 49 38 53 230 249 1 620
KH0 1 1 1 1 4
KH2 3 2 1 1 7
KH6 2 5 5 6 5 23
KH9 1 1
KL 4 9 2 27 22 64
KP2 1 2 1 4 3 11
KP4 1 2 2 3 5 13
LA 1 4 5
LU 8 14 40 5 67
LX 1 1 2
LY 1 3 4
LZ 1 2 3
OA 1 2 3 3 9
OE 2 7 9
OH 1 16 17
OH0 1 1
OK 4 8 12
OM 1 1 1 3
ON 2 7 9
OX 1 1 1 3
OY 2 2
OZ 1 5 6
P4 1 1 1 1 4
PA 1 7 8
PJ2 2 2 2 2 4 12
PY 1 14 23 44 3 85
PZ 1 1 1 1 1 5
S5 5 8 13
SM 1 15 16
SP 2 6 8
ST 1 1
SV 2 2
SV9 1 2 3
T32 1 1 1 1 4
T33 1 1
T8 1 1 2
TA 1 1
TF 2 2
TG 1 1 2
TI 1 1 2 2 2 8
TK 1 1
TR 1 1
UA 2 20 22
UA2 1 1 2
UA9 3 37 1 41
UR 1 9 10
V2 1 1 1 1 2 6
V3 1 1 2
V4 1 1 1 2 1 6
V5 1 1
VE 26 45 23 63 58 215
VK 6 6 5 3 20
VK9W 1 1 2
VP2E 1 1 2
VP2V 1 1 1 1 1 5
VP5 2 2 2 2 8
VP9 1 2 3
VR 1 1 3 1 6
VU 1 1
XE 1 4 4 11 10 30
XU 1 1
YB 2 9 11
YL 1 2 2 5
YN 1 1 1 1 4
YO 1 1 2
YU 1 5 6
YV 1 1 2 1 4 9
Z3 2 2
ZF 1 1
ZK1/s 1 1
ZK2 1 1
ZL 2 3 2 3 10
ZP 1 2 3
ZS 1 1 6 5 13
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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