CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021
Call: J42L
Operator(s): N5ZO
Station: SV2DCD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Kastoria, Greece
Operating Time (hrs): ~46.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 345 9 42
80: 802 22 58
40: 1713 24 82
20: 1728 29 74
15: 1070 31 75
10: 105 19 40
------------------------------
Total: 5763 134 371 Total Score = 5,353,000
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
Sometime in April I started to look for possible QTHs to operate CQWWs this year
from remaining zones (9) I had not yet operated the contest from. Due to
ongoing pandemic travel restrictions, there were only 4 zones accessible from
that list. SSB contest sorted out and last month I operated from TM2Y in zone
14. When looking for existing possible contest stations or QTHs to set up
field-day style operation in zone 20 I noticed many past results from J42L
station in Greece. I figured quickly that this station was in house of Leo
SV2DCD, who is same Leo we operated together from IG9A M/M in SSB 2001 when we
both were bit younger. We had no contact between us for 20 years, but he
immediately answered my email inquiry and offered his station not only to come
and operate but also for me to do SOAB and so maximize the experience from zone
20. In following months through several emails I gained good understanding what
to expect and plans came together.
I left Saturday and flew 10 time zones from SoCal to Thessaloniki with Covid
trimmings on me where I was met at airport by Leo and Thomas SV2CLJ. As we made
stop at local restaurant where we had big local BBQ meal I knew that this was
going to be good trip. I learned Thomas was going to also travel to contest
site in Kastoria region on Friday to do his 2nd job as contest cook for me and
Leo. Leo had already picked up 2nd K3 for me to use from Alex SV2BXA and I had
travelled with another K3 from home. Leo and I then travelled to his QTH which
is some 2.5 hrs by car and about 30 kms from Albanian border near mountain range
in the region. QTH is about 700 m from sea level on flat area of land with
mountains at distance.
On Monday we had already set up the station with my own SO2R boxes I travelled
with and most everything was working inside. We had some small problems like RF
getting into other stations amplifier relay on some bands, but we were able to
sort those issues out during the week. Only antenna work we really needed to do
took about ½ day as we took down 75 m vertical and extended it to 80 m CW band.
That antenna will probably now be known forever as “almost vertical”. We
also cranked down small tower with 15 m monoband yagi and Leo climbed up and
turned it to main US/EU direction. Rotator of that antenna was out for repairs,
but I still had Optibeam multibander at main tower which rotated. It was bit
compromised situation as that Optibeam was also main antenna for 10 m and the
antenna could only be used on one band at the time. The station is simple, with
no multiple direction capability on any band, but I thought it worked quite well
for what it had. During the week before the contest I gained good feel for the
station and I was able to make some 1500+ contacts across all 6 bands including
getting on in all 4 CWTs during the week as SV2/N5ZO. There was definitely some
interference especially between 40 and 20 and also between 80 and 40 and I
figured that probably trying to run on 2 bands with those combinations would not
work very well. Also, on high bands like 20 and 15 I did not have much
interstation interference, but limiting issue was beaming only single direction
(like US/EU) and interlopers from Eastern directions launching loud CQ on my run
frequency. So I was not able to keep frequency clear to try to run on both
bands in same time, except for few occasions on 20 and 15. Most of the time I
was running on single radio and trying to pick up few more Qs with other radio.
It was very good again to arrive to timezone early, but I still did not sleep
very well during the night from Thursday to Friday. Thomas also arrived to site
sometime during Friday afternoon and immediately proceeded to cook another great
BBQ outside and that meal then set me up for nice 4 hr nap in late
afternoon/early evening and I felt quite ready for contest when it started 2 am
local time.
Going into contest I had score in mind of about 5k QSOs and score of 5M.
Unassisted old Greek record from 20 years ago was just 2.1M, and it fell
sometime around 20 hrs into the contest. So next goal then was to try to match
assisted Greek record which was made from same station in 2019. At the end I
was able to make it. I focused more on QSOs with cost of mults, and also tried
to pick up North American stations from callers since that point difference
really makes big difference and score builds up much faster when working DX.
Multipliers built slowly for me but at the end I got to almost reasonable mults
compared to competition, but some easy ones were left on the table for sure. I
was able work almost 1900 NA stations, and 700+ of them on 40 and about 200 of
them on 80. Being pretty far East in EU that was surprising. Leo has 4 el
wirebeam on 40 m aimed to main NA and EU direction and it really worked well.
Rain came and went multiple times during Sunday afternoon and evening and
created some static noise at S9 level at times especially on high bands which
made those bands unusable for some periods. 10 m never really opened, but being
relatively South in EU helped to pick up some multipliers there even when most
everybody was super weak. I didn’t have too many technical problems other
than left computer seemed to be sensitive to RF from 10 m transmitting and it
locked up few times and required reboot. I think RF got into one of the USB
cables. Another reason to operate with 2 computers !
I had some struggle staying on chair and focused on Sunday morning after sunrise
and had to stop and walk around for half hour. Leo and Thomas told me that they
were somewhat concerned how I looked at the time. But walking around a bit
cleared my head and I was then able to keep going to the end with just small
breaks. Logging programs shows no off-time, but I estimate I operated 46.5
hours of the contest.
On Tuesday I took Covid test in local doctors office and writing this now in
Thessaloniki after another great dinner with several locals and flying back home
tomorrow Wednesday. This was my 33rd zone to operate from in October/November
CQWWDX Contest and that goal of working all 40 is closer than ever. Special
thanks to Leo for letting me to use his excellent station and renewing our
friendship after 20 years. And also big thanks to Thomas and Alex for great
support for this operation.
Stations set-up:
2x K3 radios, OM Power 2500 amp and AL-1500 amp
160 m inverted L
80 m “almost vertical”
40 m 4 el wirebeam aimed to NA/EU
20 m 4 el yagi
15 m 4 el yagi fixed to NA/EU
10 m 4 el yagi very low mostly connected to Flexradio used as 10 m panadapter to
see band activity
40-10 m Optibeam 12-4 multibander usable on one band at the time
Several beverage antennas used on 160/80
N1MM+ running on 2 networked computers with 2 keyboards, 2 winkeys, 2 paddles
Homebuilt “auto headphone switch” and other small interface boxes, some of
it designed by K6AM
73 de Marko N5ZO
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