CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: 3B8M
Operator(s): 4O3A G0CKV G3XTT K0AV KX7M M0SDV WD6T
Station: 3B8M
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Mauritius
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 52 9 30
80: 361 25 71
40: 1502 34 122
20: 2687 38 129
15: 3076 37 135
10: 2668 35 130
-------------------------------
Total: 10346 178 617 Total Score = 24,504,285
Club:
Comments:
We enjoyed another installment of our 3B8M contest expeditions in 2023. The
trade winds provided air conditioning, unknown birds sang for us, the ocean
waves hitting the reef added a soothing noise effect, the views and the sunsets
and sunrises and the full moon over the lagoon distracted us.
A great team with some new operators meant more know-how and experience shared
and also new dynamics. Antennas went up quickly and were taken down at record
speed. The problems of the world were discussed and sorted under the stars on
our verandah/shack.
3B8 is very far away from amateur population centers. Low elevation angles
matter. The large majority of our QSOs are towards the NW - same direction for
EU and NA. Our QTH is right on the ocean and we use simple wire verticals to
benefit from their superb low-elevation pattern when they look out over
salt-water in the Fresnel zone.
Being far away also means long journeys and jet-lag. Then there is only so much
you can carry in your luggage. Good planning is required. On an in/out
field-day-style operation there is no time to find bits and pieces locally and
they would probably not be available at any rate.
There is no chance to win the world from such a distant location as 3B8 - the
bands are just not open enough hours and the distance means weaker signals in
general. So we don’t do this to win but to have some competitive fun, to learn
from each other and then find ways to improve year by year.
As an upgrade this year we used broadside arrays of 2-element VDAs and an omni
vertical dipole for 20-15-10. The operator could select one broad VDA towards
NW, two phased VDAs towards NW or an omni vertical dipole.
On the low bands we have used the same setup for a few years. For 160 we use a
vertical on an 18m pole top loaded with 4 wires, on 80 another 18m pole with an
inverted-L and for 40 a vertical dipole on a third 18m pole placed out on a rock
in the lagoon. Strong winds one day and high tide another day required some
retuning Saturday before sunset and radial work
on Sunday before sunset.
To improve our low-band reception and more quickly pull callers out of the noise
we again experimented with receive antennas. A single K9AY was placed out on a
rock in the lagoon. The prepared termination box for the K9AY was the only item
that we (that is I) somehow forgot to pack so we improvised using a large FT43
toroid and a resistor kindly donated by a local 3B8 ham. The K9AY was fed to a
40-80-160 triplexer followed by separate preamps for each band. We also
experimented with diversity receive on our K3 radios.
Propagation at our latitude was fine but not as good as last year. 10 opened
later and closed earlier than expected, 15 did ok almost around the clock, 20
was dead midday +/- 3 or 4 hours, 40 was good as usual an hour or so before our
sunset until 1-2 hours after sunrise. The low bands performed much worse than
last year. Noise on the bands was actually lower but the signals we heard were
also low. We called and called but the stations we called didn’t seem to hear
us. Was this all an effect of the high solar flux providing increased
attenuation on our latitudes right under the sun in local summer?
With our small team we had planned to run six stations but given the poor low
band condx here we shared 80/160 on one station. As usual we used K3 radios with
SPE amplifiers but this year we also used a Flex6700 with a 4O3A amplifier. We
had no technical issues during the contest. With the help of our filters and
stubs and carefully planned antenna placement we had almost no inter-station
interference issues at all. The harmonics from 40 into 20-15-10 were as always
the most obvious but that could easily be handled by operating higher in the
band on 40. High tides messed up our 80 and 160 radials but we spotted that and
adjusted; strong winds broke loose a top-loading wire but was also spotted and
easily fixed.
Our major problem is getting the balance right between antenna ambitions and
making time available to relax and enjoy the exchange of radio stories in good
company and in a quite exceptional setting. We had the opportunity to meet up
with local 3B8 friends a couple of times - a great way to learn more about a
fascinating and beautiful country.
Thanks for the QSOs and c u agn nxt yr.
Olof G0CKV
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