It was a contest like every other contest. It had its ups and it had its
downs.
The harbinger of things to come should have been 3 1/2 operators being unable
to make it! After a phone call to WC4E on Thursday night we agreed multi-two
was trashed and decided to go multi-single rather than several single band
entries...we had our m-s score from two years ago to beat.
With only two stations rather than the usual three to be set up it was a
piece of cake setting up Friday. The computers were conversing just
fine...no need for that extra com-port, etc.
While we set up the station I was making trips outside to undo the splice
points where a day earlier I had re-routed coax feedlines to go to the now
"not gonna be used" position three...it was windy and I kept watching the
KT34A getting violently shaken...it would go into oscillation it seemed, it
was VERY windy! On the way back inside after the last barrel connector to
jumper marriage was made I had the screen door ripped out of my hand by the
wind. We tried the antennas and all loaded fine, I thanked the fact that I
wouldn't have to be dumb enough to climb in the wind.
Friday evening's start was dull - 20 not being a factor I went to bed the
first night. When I got up Saturday morning the numbers stank, 40 just wasn't
playing and even though we were doing better than usual on 80 and 160 they
didn't take up the slack...and 20 wasn't running....WHAT......the 20 meter
QSOs were hard to come by, no running and two or three attempts were
necessary at S&P....%$*!@$%^
After sitting down in the chair I got very frustrated and thought about the
coronal hole of a few years ago...and then for kicks I thought about LP
beaming for EU, pointing the beam towards VK. As I spun the beam around the
signals immediately picked up and peaked with the beam West, on abouts KH6.
As you may have guessed, Friday's winds had spun the beam in the rotor so it
was about 120 degrees out of whack.....poop. With the beam "West" the
stations came just fine, but prime time on 20 had come and gone. About now
fresh operator G4BKI showed up and I greatfully turned it over to him, he
somewhat salvaged the morning by a brief but hot run on 15 into EU.
With the Saturday AM snaffu, a positive attitude for the rest of the weekend
was tough...but we put on the good face. The forty meter rates we are
usually blessed with never happened, but the new 80 meter wire worked great -
occassionally beating out "real" W1s in EU pileups. Unfortunately while we
were loud enough to run on 80 we still are deaf enough thanks to that
wonderful Florida noise...I was bashful to CQ and be an alligator leaving the
weaker stations unattended. Next time we will try a loop for RX maybe...there
has gotta be something that will give us the ears!
160 was like 80 in that we never had to wait in a pileup, IF, we could hear
the DX station! Many piles seemed to be on nonexistant DX stations...we just
had no clue they were there! The good news was that if we could hear it we
worked it.....the great news, and high point of the contest came Sunday
AM......
It was sunrise and I was tuning for any and all the juicy gray line
multipliers on the low bands, I wanted to get em quickly since I new we could
run hot on 20 when it opened, now that we knew where to point the beam, and I
knew we would be fresh meat for our Euro cousins....
A packett spot of a JA on 160 came across and only for kicks I tuned up to
1900 to see if I could hear a whisper of a signal, shoot after hearing only a
few Euros, Japan seemed like an impossibility.
Much to my surprise there was the JA, and he was loud! I fumbled with the
split VFO combination and voila I worked him...simple, on the first call! I
proceeded to work three more JAs in the next ten minutes, only having to wait
once, on K8MFO...it was a REAL HAM RADIO moment, not having any JA on 160
experience I never woulda known it was so easy....perhaps it was a freak
opening, but I do know those JAs were louder than JAs ever get on 80! I will
be sure to check for this path in every DX contest for the rest of my
years...it was right at 12:00 zulu...I wish I had had a tape recorder, the
JAs woulda loved hearing their signals booming in.
After the fourth JA was worked I went to 20, turned the beam "West" and as
expected took off like a bat outta Homestead...the rate meter soared....in
the next 50 minutes I made well over a hundred QSOs...with it still cookin I
relinquished my chair....I couldn't take not telling someone my Four JAs on
160 story any longer! Unfortunately W1CW was asleep, but I recounted the
saga to W1YL who would QSP it, and I went back to bed.
Sunday was uneventful, but Forty meters finally got hot, during the last hour
of the contest! WC4E had an 80+ hour...but despite the great close we ended
up way back of our Northern competition. Congratulations to WRTC team
K4BAI/KM9P on a great show from the South.
Totals, before adding in those funky multipliers I have been reading about,
are
160 41/31 The new tilted vertical seemed to go sour on the second
night...turns out the packett yagi was touching it!
80 162/59 We were loud to the Northeast-if we only could hear, I tested
the water and heard several stations calling.
40 374/80 I am at a loss here, normally we are really dominant on
40...mebbe next time
20 767/85 The mis-direction play by Murphy worked just fine, and
pointed out how directive the new yagi really is!
15 224/62 Tell me this is the bottom of the cycle and next year will
bring more than single digits worth of opening time.
10 11/6 And I thought condx stank for the ten meter contest weekend,
hah!
1.5 Meg
Despite the crappy conditions we had a good time, and the hospitality of W1CW
and W1YL continues to set the standard. The Daytona 500 on the big screen TV
Sunday along with home made beef stew is tough to beat...maybe we outta try a
different strategy and put a little shed in the back yard so we can play N2RM
(if we want better scores)....and, yes, we did beat two years ago's score by
several hundred QSOs!
de K1ZX, WC4E, G4BKI W1CW M-S
(Still looking for a room at the Dayton Stouffers!!!!)
bk1zx70sfl@aol.com
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