IARU HF World Championship
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 19.6
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 2 0 2 1
80: 137 2 14 22
40: 468 35 23 34
20: 491 247 34 33
15: 448 231 26 31
10: 32 0 11 10
-------------------------------------
Total: 1578 515 110 131 Total Score = 1,930,169
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
I had planned to do an involved writeup but have not had the time. My score is
probably a bit inclated - really more like ~ 1.8 meg due to a scoring error in
an old version of CT9.
Between WPXCW and IARU I was continuously very ill - a complication of my
current autoimmune illness. As a result I was unable to do even the most basic
antenna or station work. Actually I was completely unable to eat or digest the
most basic foods all during this time. Only now in mid-August am I regaining my
ability to eat simple foods.
It was tempting to not get on for IARU as I was not physically ready for a
contest or for any station work, but, it is IARU, so I couldn't NOT get on!
I awoke at 6 AM and began to hook up the station. Normally I would need to get
up at 5 AM to prepare but I needed the sleep. As expected, the contest started
at 8 AM and I was still working out basic station problems, so at ~ 1210z, I
turned the radio on and was s & p on 10 for a few mults that I would not
likely hear again. That would have been a good strategy if cndx were good -
but they were rather poor and 10 was only marginally productive. I needed to
take a shower and make food, so I qrtd early in the first hour and then was
ready to go ~ 1245z - except for the 2nd radio which I was attempting to hook
up as I operated on 15. That didn't go very well, and with poor cndx and high
absorption from the proton event + CME, my run on 15 wasn't going very well
either. So I took more off-time to hook up the radio properly with separate
keyer, footswitch and computer and was ready to go again late in the 13z hour.
But the 2nd radio was barefoot since my Titan 425 amp had zapped something real
badly just two days before. Barefoot was NOT cutting it on 20 while I tried to
run on 15. I heard some real nice mults that I could not work barefoot and
with the rapidly worsening cndx, I never heard them again. Apparently 20 was
the place to start in this contest and I had missed that opportunity. Cndx
were worse than at the bottom of the cycle - in fact - these were the worst
cndx that I can ever recall in IARU going back to the late 70's.
With 20 dying fast at ~ 14z, I was forced to stay on 15, but without Russia,
Northern Eu and Asia, rates were poor and mults hard to find. Even when 15
opened half-heartedly ~ 14z, I could bever get sustained rates above 130/hr. I
attempted on several occasions to move to SSB for a "bump" in rate,
but SSB was a wasteland of "quiet!". Lots of clear freq. and no
callers! Back to CW for better rate each time - Amazing! In fact, this was a
theme throughout the entire contest - I made more than 75% of my q's on cw!
Ordinarily I would be thrilled that so many contesters were staying on cw - but
when you are trying to maximize your score, you are better off with a more even
balance of stations on both modes - cndx were simply too poor for SSB to be
productive.
15 was not producing anything out of Asia except a few YB's and only two
Asisatic Russian zones - the worst that I could ever recall. 10 was not bad to
EU and good to SA, but many EU HQ sstations simply could not hear me even with
15 elements and a KW. PA6HQ got up to 589 but was stone deaf when I called
three different times on 10. 20 was productive later in the afternoon but
again, Asiatic Russia and Northern EU were completely absent. Amazingly, I was
not able to work even one JA (z45) on any band! That has never happened to me
before in any all-band DX contest - EVER!
40 was good for a few hours - and produced my best full hour contest rate of
152 at 23z. Even 80 got into the act with an 85 hour @ 01z - but with just a
single Inv "L" only 10' off the ground, I did not have any
"presence". It has been 6 years since I last used a 4-square on 80 -
I miss it terribly. I had hoped to put one back up for IARU - but that was
impossible under the circumstances. Likewise, I had planned to put something
up for 160 to get a few mults, but that didn't happen. I used my 80 Inv L on
160 for my 2 q's and was disappointed that both NU1AW and W1AW could not hear
me calling them.
Being seriously ill makes your contesting choices very simple. Operate the
best you can (without the normal "maximum overdrive gear") and then
go to sleep. And so I took off-time late ~ 07z and then got up around 10:15z
to find 20 barely open. It didn't improve much and Asia and Asiatic Russia was
virtually non-existent. Cndx were so poor that even though I had worked almost
no Asia, Russia or Northern EU on 20 on Saturday, they were not hearing me on
20 on Sunday either. I did not even work a z30 on 20 until 1113z! when RU9AC
called me.
With all that happened, it was still fun to operate and say hi to many old
frieends. For the first time in many years, I actually spent some time
reacquainting myself with very basic two-radio operating. Although I did work
quite a few mults on the 2nd radio, operating barefoot and with heavy
inter-station interference (filtering was not hooked up) and with no beverages,
it was mostly unproductive most of the time. I really missed that 2nd amp - it
would have helped out so much. Likewise, it would have helped enormously to be
fully station ready BEFORE the contest, rather than scrambling to fix things and
hook things up in the first two hours WHILE I operated. I also can not ever
recall taking off-time at the beginning of a contest to take a shower. :-)
Thanks for all the q's and the mults. I hope to see you all in the fall
contests and hopefully I will be in much better health.
73
Bob KQ2M
kq2m@kq2m.com
wwww.rlsfinancialgroup.com
www.kq2m.com
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