CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: C4Z
Operator(s): 5B4AIZ
Station: 5B4AIZ
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MAZOTOS
Operating Time (hrs): 38
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 59 6 33
80: 173 14 53
40: 581 25 89
20: 413 26 76
15: 695 29 79
10: 26 10 13
------------------------------
Total: 1947 110 341 Total Score = 2,461,149
Club: Chiltern DX Club
Comments:
For the first time ever I got a good amount of sleep ahead of the contest, 6
straight hours but it didn't make it into the bank, I had to take 4 hours sleep
by 16z first day, so that's another theory out the window or maybe it is just an
age thing.
A great contest, not without problems in the shack. Last year, (cwww) no
problems with e'qp't but this op became sick just a few hours in so that was a
write off. This time, three hours into daylight first day, my rotator failed -
disaster, contest just started on higher bands and I saw all those mults
disappearing. Fortunately, if one can say that, the antenna was looking NW to
eu & usa, had it been to NE, where it was before I decided to check the long
path on 20m, I would have been right up the Swannee and definately changed to a
40mtr single band entry which was my first thought when the calamity happened.
As expected my mlt count to asia, pac, africa and carib was well down on
normal.
Next, in the 'silly me' dep't. I still work in the 1980's and don't have rig
control. Whilst I recorded band change on the logger I failed to equalise the
vfo's. I use the 2nd vfo as a poor manâ??s so2r, also along with the memories
on piles which are busy or out of control, for later visits. Consequently
whilst running 20mtrs, I saw to my horror that I was actually running 15mtrs. I
shall have to make a guesstimate about the qso time for the accidental change
but will no doubt lose a few points over that. On the plus side I had not
updated my country file so have mlts to be added for, TO3, TO5, the PJ's so
they should more than make up for the losses. My score as shown is still a raw
score.
Lastly I had a computer crash, mid second day, a major problem for a dumbo. I
managed to reboot and reload, convinced the data would be lost as I never
remember to 'dump' but, magic, it was all there where I left off, good old
'SD'.
On the low bands I share the problem of many others with small suburban plots,
and, trust me, mine is small with no more than 3 metre boundaries all around
the house of what would be garden were it not all concrete which also raises
the further problem of earthing as even the water supply is all polyurethane
type plastic. Accordingly 80 & 160mtrs are a major challenge and, to be honest,
I normally settle for the easy option and do a single bander on one of the
high bands. Whilst fun, especially when cndx are up, single band is not the
real deal for this major mega event of the year, for full satisfaction you need
to be in there with the big boys scrapping it out.
The 80 mtr wire I use is poor, a sort of quarter wavish half sloper which I
usually tie off onto the wing mirror of my car parked out on the street (with
precautions to make sure no one gets 'garrotted' if they attemt to walk by).
but it does get a few mults. I don't do 160. I asked my neighbours if I could
tie off my wires to their upstair balconies for the weekend, fortunately I have
never given them a trace of tv or audio interference so they both agreed -
great.
One of the new tieoff points was a good distance, not only gaining height but
also affording the possibility of extending the 80mtr wire to cover top band,
and, another bonus, would be end firing at eu & usa. The plan looked good,
after all, mults is the name of the game so even few contacts are very valuable
as most will be double mults. There was a downside, the extended 80m wire, it
would not now resonate on 80. As I could hardly take my ladder to someone
elseâ??s bedroom balcony in the middle of the night to effect a band change,
and in any case if I lost grip of the tie off twine trying to add or remove the
extra length of wire in complete darkness it would tangle in trees, around the
tower too if it was windy and it would be game over I decided to opt for one
of Moriarty's cunning plans, operate first night on 40 & 160 then, next day,
shorten the wire ready to work 40/80 second night. Not ideal but best I could
think of. In the event there were no fireworks on top band but 39 valuable
mults. I have read since that the first night there was not good, anyway I
shall certainly do it again probably in the same way, but try and locate an 80m
trap. If not no point in attempting to get a compromise length which will work
both bands as they are heavily compromised already with the handicaps
mentioned. An 80m dipole may be possible but would be in the wrong plane. There
was a big unexpected benefit from this ant, it was a great match on 40m, my
dipole there fires N/S, not good, this ant showed a 2/3 S point gain over the
dipole to the west gaining not just many more eu & usa callers (inc z3, which I
rarely get) but breaking carib, central america piles with some ease on many
occaisions.
80 mtrs that second night was strange, I had problems in copying, and being
copied by, many stns within 1500/2000km range, UK stns were much stronger with
less fading from the outer cusp of west eu. Those with dx antennas must have
had a ball on that band. The JA's were very strong early on and later I was
surprised, with my poor setup and low power, to be called by usa guys and,
when I called them, not being asked several times for repeats of my c/s.
Band cndx on 40/20/15m were great. No matter how well we did why do we think we
could have done better and will ask the same question next year and the year
after. This time I know I could have had many more q's. Unlike the ssb leg
there were many gaps in which to run and lots of guys to work due to the good
cndx, but I felt the need to spend more s&p time to make good those I would
lose due to the frozen beam. I try to limit time spent in any one pile and re
visit later which usually pays off but sometimes the dxer in me takes over if
it is rare and I hang around too long and often donâ??t make it anyway. 10m was
a disappointment with little or no activity when I checked up there. When I look
at scores of other 5b ops on that band I see I got my timing totally wrong, a
lesson there â?" even if a band sounds poor keep checking - and I didn't.
Long Calls. If your c/s looks something like SP92010ZZZ/P, a suggestion â?"
try the WARC bands next time around. Sleep deprived ops are hallucinating,
seeing the rig and other boxes transform into slow moving animals, the carpet
crawling with insects, and canâ??t handle it.
Cluster/Skimmer. Already past their sell by date if judged solely upon
usefulness in contests weighed against disruption and plain bad manners and
operating by some individuals. It is the mindless morons who do not read code
or ever wish to. They cannot take the instructions from the op on the sharp
end, all they are capable of is hitting the 'F1', or whatever button, non stop.
The only code they may know is their own c/s since I'm sure their screen
readers cannot cope with the qrm most times, or perhaps it is solely screen
readers hoping for a miracle waiting for their c/s to appear magically on the
screen out of the #*%$$$ mush. I lost count of the times I had to move on
simply never hearing the c/s of the stn being chased.
I used to consider that 'split' working in contests was anti social given the
pressures of space and inconsiderate to the guy whose freq is being dumped
upon. Yet another consequence of cluster etc, I can fully understand the need
for a sharp end op faced with endless simultaneous continuous callers. What
does he do? He has a hell of a job to pull out a c/s from the baying mob. If
he sends a partial? he is besieged again by every caller he didn't ask for. If
he sends the full call he has to do a repeat because his target couldn't hear
him due to those still calling idiots who don't, or can't listen. Not
surprising then that we heard a lot of split working this year and sure to
increase in future years.
Here is another gripe - those non identifying guys. Please remember there are
still very many unassisted ops whose time is just as important as your own, it
is bad operating not to identify regularly. I was surprised, breaking a pile
and having to ask for the c/s, a couple of well known ops who were guilty of
this. Strange thing was, whilst waiting in line in those situations, I never
heard another op ask for the call! Surely I can't be the last guy in the
unassisted class? Well according to 3830 reports this week I'm not!
Thanks to all who took part, particularly those I made contact with, who make
this event the greatest show on earth. Long may the organisers continue to
promote it despite all the criticism they get, cluster or no cluster we
wouldn't be without it!
Now - where do I find a rotator Santa?
73 Brian, 5B4AIZ/C4Z.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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