CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: PI4COM
Operator(s): K7GK
Station: PI4COM
Class: SO(A)SB80 HP
QTH: SW NL
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80: 1963 29 102
40:
20:
15:
10:
------------------------------
Total: 1963 29 102 Total Score = 366,276
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
The weekend has been such a joy most of the time, it is difficult to describe.
Of course, it could not all have been without some disappointment, could it?
Once the plan was put in place to go SOSB-80, while Alex, PA1AW, was doing
another single-band effort at the station, thinking has started on how to
optimize the setup. In addition to the permanent vertical and a traditionally
used East-West beverage, it was decided to add a low dipole for local contacts
and a short North-South beverage for JA/Far East/OC. Putting things together was
a relatively straightforward task, until we started to check things in the shack
and realized that there is a strange problem. Once the RX antennas are switched
on by the button on the radio, as soon as the transmission starts, the amp goes
into arc fault protection and turns off. This was a real head scratcher and we
still don't know how to deal with it. What ended up happening is that beverages
were put as the ANT 2 and I had to push a button on the radio quickly to use
them and then back once I needed to transmit. This proved to be a real pain and
resulted in me barely using the beverages. This, perhaps, was one of the reasons
why I ended up with the multiplier numbers that are a bit low. Last year, as a
part of M/2, we ended up with as many zones and 17 more countries on this band!
It surely would have been more if we had a dedicated station for 80.
The contest itself was a blast. It may be painfully obvious, but is still bares
repeating, what a difference it is to operate in EU versus the West Coast. It IS
a different world! Another reminder of this was having worked only one single
NCCC station among a handful of Zone 3 QSOs this weekend, N6WM @N6RO.
Highlights
- The number of Qs. Never thought I could get this close to 2K. Was shooting for
1800 or so.
- Being called by double mults. Not once. Not twice. Three times in one contest!
Not only that, but they also ended up being the only contacts in those zones. It
truly is better to be lucky then good. A big thank you to RI1ANL, HC5M and
CE2LR.
Lowlights
- Disappointing propagation to Asia and Oceania. I know a lot of people were
blown away by the conditions this year on 80, and, yes, it was good to the US.
But last year, as a part of M/2, we worked 5 different countries in zones 28,
29, 31 and 32. This year I haven't heard a peep out of any of them, other than
working ZM4T.
- Activity towards the end. I know, it's the first world problem, I could barely
imagine ever working so many stations on 80 based on my West Coast experience,
but the rate in the last 8-9 hours was really quite low.
Many thanks to PA3BWD and PA1AW for your tremendous help and the rest of the
PI4COM club for their support.
73, Denis - PA/K7GK
P.S. I wonder where the others are regarding what brings more joy - busting a
huge pileup for a juicy mult or being called by one out of the blue. Someone
ought to run a poll of some sort to find out, I would be quite interested in the
stats and opinions on that.
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