CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: XM3A
Operator(s): LZ5VV N2WQ VA3EC VE3WB SP4Z
Station: VE3EID
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: FN05GK
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 250 13 32
80: 683 17 73
40: 1742 32 113
20: 1616 36 124
15: 1853 31 126
10: 1015 28 109
------------------------------
Total: 7159 157 577 Total Score = 13,289,070
Club: 1/5 YCCC, 2/5 CCO
Comments:
This is the first time we did a true M/2 effort with enough operators and use of
an in-band radio. It was not only fun, but also a great learning experience for
all of us, no matter how much contesting we had done in the past.
Pre-contest preparations, with Wes SP4Z and I busy with hardware and wiring
until 3 pm on Friday, left limited time for briefing and strategizing when
Dennis VA3WB and Harry VA3EC arrived at 1 pm. A few hours of rest, and we were
ready to dive into the contest. The crunch in prep time became evident later
on.
For the most part, the station performed as expected (or least the way I
expected it). The bands are whisper quiet in rural Ontario and except for 160 we
could hear quite well. Likewise, we were loud as indicated by numerous RBN
spots. There was some Aurora that distorted EU signals, but we had plenty of US
stations and rates didn’t suffer much.
Watching the live scoreboard was a lot of fun and added some extra motivation.
We tried to maintain our initial lead against HQ9X, but lost that battle late
during the first night. Ditto for competing against VA2WA and K9CT. Big “Thank
you!” to all ops and team that post their scores live and make the contest
event more fun.
Not everything went without a challenge:
1/ The biggest issue was a (likely) bad connection somewhere along the 40M
signal path where all 3 radios would act as if a 30 dB attenuator was activated;
a single dit on the paddle would restore normal RX. We estimate we lost a couple
of hundred QSOs because of this.
2/ We lost one of the amps’ ability to produce power on 160 and 80M. Not a big
deal as any op position can operate on any band, but still a nuisance and wasted
time troubleshooting.
3/ N1MM randomly switched databases, resulting in one of the ops going offline
until we figured out what happened. We know what happened, but not why it
happened.
4/ Running 3 amplifiers resulted in a lot of heat! At some points the shack
temperature exceeded 30C/94F and we all felt quite sleepy.
5/ There is some residual interference that would require further antenna
separation and training on managing ICOM 7610 RF gain.
As this is our first contest as a team, I only see opportunities ahead of us to
grow:
1/ Different ops have different background, levels of M/M experience, and
experience with different radios. Taking the time to “train” all of us and
develop the same shared understanding of how the station works is critical.
Capture all that training content in some sort of a manual. Get together for
contest planning sessions on Zoom and record the sessions for future reference.
2/ Agree on clear shared goals. Having fun and great run rates is certainly
important, but as a M/2 team, *winning* is the ultimate goal, which requires a
different state of mind and operating style.
3/ The concept of an in-band radio does require training and practice as SO ops
don’t have the opportunity to experience an in-band operation. Even something
as simple as F key messages require tweaking for use of an in-band radio.
Last but not least, it is very important to me personally to recognize the hard
work, mentorship, and sound advice of many who made the station a reality-
Charlotte KQ1F, Dennis W1UE, Harry VA3EC, Ian VE3JI, Ivo LZ5VV, Lou W1QJ, Paul
K1XM, Ross (my neighbor), and Wes SP4Z.
As the “proud father” of HQ9X, I couldn’t help but smiling watching HQ9X
score, making more QSOs that W3LPL. Congratulations team HQ9X!
Rudy N2WQ
Radios: 3 x ICOM 7610
Amps: OM Power 2000A+, OM Power 2501A, and Alpin 200
160M antenna: Inv-v at 90’ apex
80M: Wire 4SQ suspended from the 90’ tower
40M: 4el M2 yagi at 90’
10-20M: KT36XA @ 105’, KT36XA @ 67’ (fixed on EU), and Optibeam 11-3 @
35’
Antenna switching: MOAS II controlling 3 x 10 OM Power switching matrix
Filtering: 160-10 set of VA6AM HP BPFs and 3 x OM Power LP BPFs for each 7610
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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