Since Neiger quit team competition after the FIFTH Fleet forces wiped him
out last year, thought I'd throw a little gasoline on the fire (in the
interest of fair and balanced reporting, he says it's due to no more
reporting of team scores).
The following is actually a dupe of my 3830 post, so if you read that,
disregard.
Call: P40Q
Operator(s): K0DQ
Station: P49V
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 52 11 23
80: 431 17 66
40: 1109 26 88
20: 1371 36 102
15: 1362 30 102
10: 2243 29 101
------------------------------
Total: 6568 482 149 Total Score = 12,327,216
Club: South East Contest Club
Comments:
44 hour effort from P49V QTH (sleep: 3 hrs, repairs: 1 hr)
Well, the Great Iguana Shootout of ?02 is history. Based on initial
reports, it
appears that 3 of the top 4 or 5 in the ?Heavyweight? SOABHP class will be
P40?s. Jose, CT1BOH, operating from Jacky, P43P?s station, was the clear
and
undisputed champion as P40E. Jose?s superb score reflects his talent,
stamina
and the value of SO2R done right, as opposed to SO2R done poorly (me) or not
at
all (John, P40W).
This was my third operation from P4, and the second CQWW CW. Executed the
?Run
and Pass? game plan this year better than last year which turned into ?Run
and
Fumble.? Low band conditions poor and noisy, with only one European on 160
(CT8T).
Got an e-mail from Steve, N8BJQ, the Monday before contest advising that I?d
won
the CQ WPX CW 02 contest in SOAB HP, a great encouragement and, more
importantly, the penultimate step in my personal goal of winning the world
in
all of what I consider the ?Big Six? (both modes, SOAB HP, of CQWW, CQWPX
and
ARRL DX). Never mind that four of the victories were 30 years old (XE1IIJ
and
aliases). Thus, winning this one would have completed the Grand Slam.
It was not to be. In fact, it wasn?t even close.
Stripping away the difference in hours spent on the air, the major factor in
Jose?s margin of victory was multipliers. John, P40W, and I were roughly
equal
in multipliers while Jose had 100+ more multipliers. The difference was
SO2R.
I started the contest as ?SO1.5R? (two transceivers, no linear on second
radio).
Plan was to use second radio for passing easy multipliers and finding big
signal multipliers. Did that reasonably well, although didn?t do much
passing
first day. Due to antenna switch problems and what turned to be cockpit
problems (yes, the spot switch on the FT1000D stays ON if your keyboard
presses
it), I ended up SO1R for the second half of the contest.
The story is in the stats. In all, I had a total of 22 second-radio QSO?s,
of
which half were passes from another band or P4/PJ2 local multipliers. John
presumably had none, but Jose had about 130 second radio multipliers, NOT
INCLUDING passes from other bands. ALL were multipliers.
My 20 odd second radio contacts were theoretically worth about 300K points,
but
the dark side of that theory is that SO2R done poorly can be negative
influence,
i.e. a tremendous distraction, which manifests itself most notably in less
than
optimum rates on the first radio.
Frankly, on Sunday night, I was about ready to give it up, cede the field to
youth and energy and join the Multi-op ranks as 160M op where I could sleep.
I
could see making a few hundred more QSO?s and a few more multipliers but
could
not envision improvements of the magnitude needed to give the Jose?s of the
world a run for their money.
However, Jose graciously sat down with me Monday night and ran through how
he
does SO2R. Having ?done? SO2R from the states in 70?s and 80?s, I thought I
knew how to do it. But doing it at 180-200 per hour rates from DX is a very
different ball game. In particular, my homemade audio switching doesn?t
hack
it. Now, thanks to Jose?s tutorial, I can see my way forward to more
improvement and a shot at the win. Hope springs eternal and wait ?til next
year.
Other than that, as Jose noted the four hours from European to Aruban
sunrise
are notable mostly for their temptation to sleep. Waiting to hear from the
zone
33 crews.
Blessings and 73 from Aruba, where we?re having a family reunion! One Happy
Island, Mon!
Scott K0DQ / A92Q / P40Q
Scott Redd
Vice Admiral, U. S. Navy (Retired)
Chairman and President, JSR Associates, Inc.
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