CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: ON9CC
Operator(s): ON9CC, PC5A
Station: ON9CC
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 29
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1112 State/Prov = 25 Countries = 64 Total Score = 555,805
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
TRX: IC7800 + Alpha 91B
ANT: TX Dipole @ 65FT/20MTR
RX 1x Beverage 790FT/240MTR 120deg, 1x Bev 490FT/150MTR 40 deg both
unterminated, K9AY loop
Utils: headphone amplifier/distributor to split main and sub VFO audio between
(left/right side) headphone and/or operators.
Every year before the Xmas holiday season Frank and I start discussing the
upcoming contests. Of course first in line is the CQ160CW.
Looking back at last years final score (885k) we set a target of 1M points
which we hoped to achieve given the extra RX antennas Frank planned to set up.
Six weeks before the contest the 300 deg Beverage was build, placed and
compared against the K9AY loop. Although the QTH already has an amazing low
noise level the S/N on the Bev was even better, especially in the directions it
was put up (WNW - ESE). Towards the NE - SW most signals were better on the K9AY
loop so another Beverage was planned and put up just the last day (eh.. hours)
before the contest. This one pointed NNE - SSW, but was not so long as the
other one (150 vs 240 mtr). We had high hopes for these two extra RX antenna's.
Initial testing on topband revealed (much) weaker signals from the NE-SE
directions on the short Beverage than the on longer one. Same on 80mtrs, but on
the AM radio band it was amazing when switching between the two. You could
literally hear two different radio stations on the same frequency when
switching. What was wrong with the short Beverage on topband...?? We decided
just to go ahead and see where we would end up the first night.
QSO wise we were doing pretty good the first few hours, QSO rate was almost
double from 2011, the multiplier number was lagging a bit. 6 hours into the
contest we were already at the break even point... hmmm.... As everyone
experienced, that first night was awful, just 12x NA in the log and only
because of the Beverage. Running total score was 43% of 2011 at Saturday's
sunrise, not good for our goal. What happened? Was it the X-class solar from
Friday or the nearly M class from the beginning of the week? We stayed
optimistic though, topband can be bad one day and great the other.
The short Beverage was worse every time compared to the long one and the K9AY
during the first night. Something was wrong. After some 3 hours of shut-eye
Frank rushed to the local "Radio Shack" store and bought new coax for the short
Bev. Also another ground rod was hit into the ground. Hey...? From now on the
short Bev was noticeably better with stations from Scandinavia and Spain than
the long one. YES! moral got a boost, now we only needed a good JA opening...
Ahum... wishful thinking as it would turn out.
Saturday evening was definitely better. A thrill was being called by VK6LW, but
still not a single JA was heard despite the numerous spots. It was not meant to
be. We then focused again towards the west. Aha, NA was there much earlier with
louder signals. We had heard CE1 the first night but were unsuccessful. The
second we were! The second 11000+ km QSO this contest. The number of NA
stations gradually increased but the opening did not progress towards the mid
west or west as we had hoped for. Furthest station we heard and spent too
little time trying to work was AC6DD, a pity. At 0400Z we were only 70 QSO's
behind of last year, could somebody boost the propagation please!?
At sunrise we were at 58% of last year, not enough multipliers. The goal was
definitely out of sight. The final Sunday evening hours were a struggle, as
expected. A few new mults were worked and the final score increased a little
bit to 60% of last year. We're convinced this was thanks to the extra RX
antenna's. Without them it would have been much worse.
A few statistics
- highest number of QSO's per country was with the neighbors from DL: 220
(20%)
- followed by USA: 104 (9%)
- 143x 10 point QSO's (13%)
- Best DX: VK6LW and CE1/K7CA
- Best hours: first 3 hours that brought 251 QSO's into the log
Next contest: PACC
73
ON9CC-Frank & PC5A-Aurelio
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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