Category: writeup

ZW5B (opr. K5ZD), Single Op 28 Mhz, High Power

By Randall A. Thompson, K5ZD k5zd@contesting.com

Summary Sheet

                   CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1998

      Call: ZW5B (opr. K5ZD) @PY5EG   Country:  Brazil
      Mode: CW                       Category: Single Operator
      Zone: 11                                 28 Mhz, High Power

      BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES

       10     3869    11467     2.96     37     148
     ---------------------------------------------------

     Totals   3869    11467     2.96     37     148  =>  2,121,395

Operating Time: 46 hours (20 minutes sleep)

Equipment: FT-1000D + Alpha 77 to 7/7 stack @ 20m/10m

The Trip

After years of business travel in all types of domestic and foreign conditions, I deserved one like this! I had originally planned to visit our parent company in Israel and do the CQ WW CW from there. At the end of October, my boss informed me that our Brazilian distributor was holding a conference Nov 25-27 at a resort hotel on the coast. He felt bad that he was asking me to be gone over Thanksgiving… but I knew I already had my wife’s clearance for the Israel trip!

I immediately thought of CQ WW CW and hit the e-mail to track down a station. Oms, PY5EG, gave an immediate invitation and I accepted it. I really wanted to do single op all band, but Oms had already promised the station to Marcelo, PY1KN. Jim, N5FA, was very helpful in making phone calls and giving me some background info. He recommended that I do 10 meters single band as there was a real chance to claim the world record.

I flew from Boston to Rio de Janeiro on Monday night Nov 23. Plane was almost empty – everyone on board got their own row for sleeping! Most of my flying is East-West so it was a pleasant surprise to get off of a 10 hour flight and not be jet lagged out (Rio is only 3 hours ahead of Boston).

Spent Tuesday afternoon walking around Copacabana beach. Nicest beach I have ever seen and it is right in the middle of a huge city. PY1KN lives in Rio and we met for dinner. It gave us a chance to get better acquainted. Marcelo is an avid CW operator and contester who normally operates low power. 15m is his favorite band so we had no trouble deciding who got what band.

Wednesday I took a bus to the resort hotel where the meeting was. All of the first day was in Portuguese, so I went horse back riding instead. Thursday (Thanksgiving day) I went sailing in the morning. Then sat on the beach and enjoyed a book all afternoon. My two presentations were in the evening and went without a hitch. The dinner buffet even included turkey!

Friday morning I went sailing again. Wind was fairly quiet so it was very peaceful drifting around the bay looking for breeze. I know that I have NEVER been this relaxed and rested before doing a major contest.

It was 3 hours back to the airport in Rio where I met Marcelo at the airport. We flew together on the one hour flight to Curitiba where PY5EG is located. Curitiba has a beautiful new airport and Oms had someone waiting to drive us over to his station which only takes about 20 minutes. We arrived there about 7:30PM local time, with the contest starting at 10PM.

Setting Up

Arriving at PY5EG is quite impressive. You don’t see any antennas on the way. You drive under huge electric transmission lines and wonder how you are ever going to hear anything through the line noise. About a half mile up the drive way you arrive in a clearing with five towers. Each tower supports big big antennas that are perfectly straight. You immediately recognize that this is a well engineered place.

The PY5EG “shack” is a large cabana located next to the swimming pool. It is a 10m by 8m room with the radios in one corner. There is a pool table in the middle of the room (when rates get slow?…) and a fire place in one corner.

There were two FT-1000 radios with amplifiers set up and ready to go. Each had Top Ten band decoders. Either station was wired to get to any of the monobanders outside. Any category would have been easy for us to do.

The computers had Windows 98 installed and a batch file to start CT as a full size DOS window. CT was version 9.10A with an old country file. In the rush to leave home I had forgotten to bring new CTY and Master.DTA files.

We had just under two hours to get ready. Oms was away on business and was expected to arrive soon after the contest started. I listened to 10m and it sounded really strange. Signals were weak and fluttery from the US. I thought it was going to be a long weekend.

N5FA had warned me that I might want to bring a keyer if I had any special requirements. I didn’t want to carry the extra weight and figured I would just wing it. The radio had a Bencher paddle wired up to the internal keyer and a W1WEF keying interface, but you couldn’t use them together. I had brought some cables for getting from the computer to the radio so it didn’t take long to get where the computer could send CW. But now I needed a keyer.

PY5CC showed up to help us get set up and pulled a Morsematic MM-3 out of a closet. The setup was kind of funny so I pressed the overall reset command. Only to discover that the keyer paddles were now wired backward! No manual in sight. I recalled that this keyer had a way to reverse the paddles through the keypad, but couldn’t figure out the command. Contest starts in 45 minutes!

Above my head on a shelf were 7 rotator control boxes. Two were marked for 20 and one for 40. That left Marcelo and I trying to figure out which pair was which for the 10 and 15 stacks. I went outside, looked up at a pair of 8 over 8, and just “assumed” that had to the be the 10m stack. I figured out which box turned them and was ready to go.

With 10 minutes to go, N5FA calls on the phone to see if everything is OK. I tell him about the MM-3 paddle problem and he says, “I have a manual for one of those around here.” Wow, probably the only guy in the world that can help and he calls me! Command was something like *7612. I would have never guessed it. I couldn’t figure out how to program a message into the keyer, but decided I could just use the computer.

Marcelo set up on the second station which was about 10 feet away. He would have to get up to reach the rotator controls. We were facing away from each other so there wasn’t much visual interaction between us as we were operating. It really was two completely independent single band efforts. We probably shared about 10 sentences all weekend.

The Contest

Finally ready to go just as the clock ticked 23:59. That gave me one minute to find a frequency and start CQing. The run was immediate even though signals were very fluttery. The USA East Cost was very weak. Had a few Caribbean stations call in that I never heard again – V47KP and FG5EY. Very quickly the band started to go to JA. 9M2TO called in for another good mult. Near the end of the first hour, RU0LL, DU3NXE, ZM2K, and BV4QW were some nice surprises.

Stateside was gone after the first hour and it was mostly JAs on the band. JA is almost at the antipode from PY5EG and N5FA had warned me that they would come in all night. I took a spin across the band and worked XX9X who had a good signal and XU2A.

Around 02Z, the band went even deeper and I worked 3W5FM, HS0AC, and a weak AT2UR. Worked about 15 BV and BY stations which is more than I even knew existed. They had great signals!

At 03Z I snagged 8Q7DV. A few minutes later A61AJ came in. In between all of this DX were more JAs. It seemed that if I called CQ they could work me. But with all the flutter, if I called them they could not get the call correct. 7W5B is not right! Only 16 QSOs this hour but they were interesting ones. A small JA run erupted in the 04Z hour. I would tune around occasionally and it was wild to hear an almost quiet band with things like XZ1N and A45XR coming in. XZ1N always had a huge pile-up every time I heard him.

During the 05Z hour, it seemed like the band was almost dead. I decided to visit some of the other bands to see what they sound like. YCCC was really pushing to make a big club score and I figured I could build up a few extra points for the club. I went to 40m from 0534-0601Z and worked 51Q/12Z/15C. The band was packed and it was a real battle to dig out calls compared to 10m. Decided that I better save my energy.

Back to 10m where I found CP6UH for a multiplier at 0612Z (that’s 0412 local time!). Not much else around so I listened down on 80m and realized why SOAB is difficult from deep South America. It was noisy and signals were weak. It would have been a real struggle to make much of a low band multiplier.

After a short break, I was back on 10m during the 07Z hour. Found JT1A with a big signal. Started a great run of Europeans about 0730Z. At the time, I thought they were coming in from the Northeast on direct path. Rates were really good in the 08Z and 09Z hours. Local sunrise was about 0750Z.

At 10Z it was like someone threw a switch. I couldn’t get any answers so had to do some S&P. The OH gang was booming in, but not much else. Worked OH0RJ for a good one. I really thought we had experienced a SID event and had no idea what to expect. At this point I felt any chance at a record was slipping away. The 11Z and 12Z hours were in the 50’s. It was obvious that the path from the USA to Europe was great! Tuning around I was lucky to find TA2IJ for a new one.

About 1245Z the band started to recover and I could get a run going into Europe again. 9G1TB and HZ1HZ called in. Plus 4K7Z, TZ6DX, GD4UOL, and 5H3US (my only zone 37) during the 14Z hour.

Things slowed down during the 15Z hour so I took the opportunity to run up the band looking for multipliers. 3V8BB and CN8WW were easy. Back to running Europe during the last half of 15Z and all of 16Z. GM0TTY gave me Shetlands. ZB2EO caught my attention in the pile-up for another good one.

The first USA stations started to come through about 1645Z. I kept the antennas on Europe figuring I would have plenty of time for USA later. 17Z was a mix of Europe and NA. With Europe going out, I took from 1745Z to 1800Z to scan for multipliers. I was rewarded with ZP9X, EA9EA, HI8/DL1HCM, and P40W. The Caribbean guys were weak all day and there were many of them that I called that I just could not break through the big NA pile-ups.

18Z and 19Z are when the real fun began. Having 199 and 192 hours back to back was a thrill. No question that the USA ops are the easiest to run in the world. They send things only once, they are loud, and they are fast. 5N3CPR and VP5M each called in to give me new ones. At 1911Z VE2/N6ZZ helped me out with zone 2. That was a relief. At 1941Z KL1R gave me zone 1.

The 20Z and 21Z hours continued to be big. I had Geoclock running on my laptop and could almost watch the band close as darkness moved across the USA. JJ1DJW became the first JA of the evening at 2133Z. The next hour was a mix of JA and USA signals – all about the same strength.

The 23Z hour was mostly USA West Coast plus JAs. V29QQ gave me a very good multiplier.

Somewhere during the 23Z hour, Oms walked into the shack and noticed that Marcelo was turning the “wrong” rotator. I could have died – we had just worked the first 23+ hours with me turning the 15m rotator and Marcelo turning the 10m rotator. What a low point. I think it was just coincidence, but immediately upon recognizing the problem the JA signals came up and a nice run started!

I felt really bad for Marcelo. Since he had to get up to turn the rotators, he usually pointed them at Europe and NA and left them. Since I was sitting right next to them, I would often turn the high beam in some unusual direction just to see what might be out there. When you are dealing with such big antennas, the wrong direction is like putting the lights out! What was amazing to me is that I had not missed a multiplier that I had heard up to that point.

Side note: I knew my competition during the contest was LU5CW at LT1F. We did not compare any scores until the end of the contest, but I was worried that I had lost at this point. It took all my concentration to keep pushing. I actually tried to use it to my advantage as a motivator. At the end of 24 hours, LT1F was 289 QSOs ahead of me. I am very happy I did not know this!

Day 2

At the half way point I had 2208/35/125. The record required something like 3750 QSOs and I didn’t see any way this could be reached. Since I usually do all band where there are lots of multipliers, it was agony to realize that in a single band effort, each QSO was only worth about 480 points. Nothing to do but keep running and looking for countries.

The 00Z and 01Z hour were mostly JA with a few West Coast and some Pacific. I got YB5QZ at 0148Z. I took 30 minutes out during the 02Z hour to go take a shower. This is midnight local time and I was still surprisingly awake. I figured I would catch a few hours of sleep after the shower.

Back on at 0245Z with big signals from 9M6NA, B7K and BD4EG. Just wild to hear all the loud Asians in the middle of the night. The next two hours were slow, but JAs kept calling so I postponed going to sleep. Worked N5XT at 0446Z so you never know when the band will be open to where. Now that I knew where the antennas were really pointing I could get a better idea of where the openings were actually coming from.

During the 05Z hour the band began to open to the middle of Asia. Mixed in with the JAs were EX8MZ, AT2PTT, and UK8OM. Then it went deeper into European Russia about 0530Z. I finally figured out that this opening was via the long path beaming over the South Pole. The next two hours were good rate and had a very interesting sound to them. The log is almost all zone 16 and 17 with a few JAs mixed in.

At 0900Z it stopped. Instantly the band just went away to Europe. Signals from zone 26 were still booming in, but not much QSO volume there. I took a quick spin up the band and caught 3A/N9NC just before he faded out. Heard VQ9IO but could not figure out what path he was coming in on. He was the same strength in almost every direction! This was the only multiplier I heard and could not work all weekend — and it would have been a double.

About 0915Z I decided there was little I could do except put the CQ repeat function on and wait for the band to recover. Must have dozed off because 20 minutes later I wake up to find Z31RB calling me. NH0E is my only QSO for the next 30 minutes. For those scoring at home, that is a 6 hour during 09Z!

Things finally return about 1030Z and I get a run started to Europe. The 11Z and 12Z hours are great and give me some hope that I can still catch the record. UA2AW and OY1CT give me a lift.

At 13Z things die again. Probably the result of the USA to Europe opening. I tune around and work D44BC and the loud Europeans who are CQing. Decide to do a serious multiplier sweep and start at 28000 and go up. 6V6U, 3DA0CA, TU2MA, and JY9QJ are the reward. Again there are a lot of Caribbean guys that I can’t break through. I know there are 10 easy multipliers that I am missing. Work my last QSO up on 28160.

Probably wasted some good rate time because had no trouble getting a run going at 14Z. Worked Europe the next few hours. SP1NY/MM gave me zone 40. As loud as the OH’s were all day, I was surprised it took so long.

Took another multiplier sweep at 16Z and got 4U1VIC with a nice signal, JX7DFA who was working split, and ZF1A. That took 10 minutes and I was back to running.

The 17Z hour was a mix of Europe and USA. I was prepared to just run out the contest since my math indicated that QSOs were the only hope of getting to the record. With 6 hours to go, I had 3494/36/141. Still needed about 350 QSOs for the record so I was hoping for some good USA runs like the day before.

At 1803Z I just about fell out of the chair when a very loud 5A1A called and gave me a double mult. I quickly switched the antennas to make sure he was coming from the correct direction. He had the right sound. Wow, never expected that. Ten minutes later GJ3YHU hands me another surprise. At 1830Z I decide to search for Caribbean stations again. Work P40E, 8P9Z (beautiful job of digging me out on a tail end), and HK6KKK. I heard TF3DX calling the HK6 in the pile-up. So as soon as I worked KKK, I moved up half a KHz and called the TF3. TF3DX came right back. You have to love it!

Decide I better get back to CQing and am astounded when OX3SA answers my first press of F1. Four new countries in 10 minutes.

The next several hours aren’t fast but they pull me closer to my goal. It is almost all North America stations in the log. At one point, I can actually watch my appearance on packet as it moves around the country. First there was a little burst of W8’s, then some W9’s, then some W3’s, and finally up to W1. Really cool to hear.

Band almost dies about 22Z. Ernesto at LT1F stops by to ask how I am doing. I tell him 2 Meg. He tells me he has 1.9M. Because of the low points for each QSO, I figure this puts me about 200 QSOs ahead of him with 2 hours to go.

Band doesn’t seem to be quite as good to JA as it was on Saturday. First one in the log is JO1VRL at 2218Z. I am getting anxious and bored and get the crazy idea that I would like to get one big rate hour on 20m before the contest is done. I toy with this thought for awhile, and then at 2253Z make the decision to go for it. From 2254Z to 2311Z I work 52Q/8Z/9C on 20m. It wasn’t as much fun as I expected and I started feeling guilty that I might loose the contest while I was playing.

Made 51 QSOs on 10m in the last 45 minutes of the contest, mostly JAs, and realized that I should have never left. Lesson learned!

Finished with 3869/37/148 for 2,121,395 points. Breaks the 1990 world record of 1,890,607 set by CX0CW (op CX8BBH). The high country count was the difference for both the record and beating LT1F.

Notes

• ZW5B is not the best CW call in the world. Didn’t seem to be much of a problem when I was running but it was funny in pile-ups. You could almost see the other op as he tried to figure out what was calling him. They almost always came back to Z? or ZW? or 7W? Then it would take as many as 10 repeats to get the call correct. I really appreciated the good guys who could copy it correctly on the first try.
• I don’t think I sent faster than 38 WPM all weekend. I felt that people would really blow the call if I went too fast. I usually sent my call after every QSO. At one point on Saturday into the USA, I finally had the pile-up to the point I felt I could send my call every other time. So after a QSO, I just sent TU. Sure enough, my next QSO is N2MM who asks me for my call!
• PY5EG is about the same south latitude as Orlando, Florida is north. Why don’t we see these all night openings and long path from W4? Brazil has the fortune to be almost due south of both major radio population centers and at the antipode of the third. When you get great conditions like this, it is a hard place to beat! (see comments below)
• Neat trivia: The beam heading from PY5EG to Europe is 30 degrees. For the USA/JA it is 330 degrees. Almost like being at home in W1!
• All night, when the band was really open to zone 24 and 26, I felt like I was operating a CW contest in the middle of the phone bands! SSB, AM, and FM signals were everywhere. Didn’t really cost me any QSOs, but there were a few times I had to move my run frequency a kHz or so to get away from a heterodyne. I suspect we are going to discover new levels of encroachment this sunspot cycle – even greater than we could have imagined.
• Oms has an awesome station. There was no interference between Marcelo on 15m and me on 10m. There is no local noise. Running JA on Saturday night I was amazed at how weak signals could be easily copied. One of the quietest places I have ever operated from.
• I was surprised at how awake I was during the contest. Other than the 20 minutes where I crashed, it was really easy to stay awake. I suspect this is due mostly to the relaxed nature of my week leading up to the contest. It also could be due to only using one rig on a very quiet band — didn’t have to waste much brain power digging weak stations out of the LF QRN.
• Am I hooked? The experience of operating outside the US is a seductive one. I can’t get the thought out of my head that I want to do something like this again!
• I don’t handle any QSL cards for the operation. Send them direct to Oms.

View a photo tour of PY5EG.

73,

Randy Thompson, K5ZD

Continent Statistics

                    160   80   40   20   15   10  ALL   percent

North America   CW    0    0    0    0    0 1432 1432    36.3
South America   CW    0    0    0    0    0   63   63     1.6
Europe          CW    0    0    0    0    0 1805 1805    45.7
Asia            CW    0    0    0    0    0  574  574    14.5
Africa          CW    0    0    0    0    0   26   26     0.7
Oceania         CW    0    0    0    0    0   46   46     1.2

Rate Sheet

HOUR    160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

  0    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....   115/41   115/41  115/41 
  1      .        .        .        .        .      51/13    51/13  166/54 
  2      .        .        .        .        .      27/10    27/10  193/64 
  3      .        .        .        .        .      16/4     16/4   209/68 
  4      .        .        .        .        .      47/9     47/9   256/77 
  5      .        .        .        .        .       5/1      5/1   261/78 
  6      .        .        .        .        .       1/1      1/1   262/79 
  7      .        .        .        .        .      85/22    85/22  347/101
  8    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....   141/8    141/8   488/109
  9      .        .        .        .        .      93/5     93/5   581/114
 10      .        .        .        .        .      65/7     65/7   646/121
 11      .        .        .        .        .      50/7     50/7   696/128
 12      .        .        .        .        .      58/3     58/3   754/131
 13      .        .        .        .        .     107/2    107/2   861/133
 14      .        .        .        .        .     139/6    139/6  1000/139
 15      .        .        .        .        .      58/3     58/3  1058/142
 16    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....   164/3    164/3  1222/145
 17      .        .        .        .        .     101/5    101/5  1323/150
 18      .        .        .        .        .     199/3    199/3  1522/153
 19      .        .        .        .        .     192/4    192/4  1714/157
 20      .        .        .        .        .     156/1    156/1  1870/158
 21      .        .        .        .        .     166/1    166/1  2036/159
 22      .        .        .        .        .      95/0     95/0  2131/159
 23      .        .        .        .        .      77/1     77/1  2208/160
  0    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    79/0     79/0  2287/160
  1      .        .        .        .        .      37/1     37/1  2324/161
  2      .        .        .        .        .       5/0      5/0  2329/161
  3      .        .        .        .        .      28/0     28/0  2357/161
  4      .        .        .        .        .      25/0     25/0  2382/161
  5      .        .        .        .        .      59/3     59/3  2441/164
  6      .        .        .        .        .      92/0     92/0  2533/164
  7      .        .        .        .        .      90/0     90/0  2623/164
  8    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    92/1     92/1  2715/165
  9      .        .        .        .        .       6/1      6/1  2721/166
 10      .        .        .        .        .      66/0     66/0  2787/166
 11      .        .        .        .        .     172/1    172/1  2959/167
 12      .        .        .        .        .     142/1    142/1  3101/168
 13      .        .        .        .        .      21/4     21/4  3122/172
 14      .        .        .        .        .      73/1     73/1  3195/173
 15      .        .        .        .        .     103/1    103/1  3298/174
 16    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    78/3     78/3  3376/177
 17      .        .        .        .        .     118/0    118/0  3494/177
 18      .        .        .        .        .      71/7     71/7  3565/184
 19      .        .        .        .        .      56/0     56/0  3621/184
 20      .        .        .        .        .     122/1    122/1  3743/185
 21      .        .        .        .        .      50/0     50/0  3793/185
 22      .        .        .        .        .      25/0     25/0  3818/185
 23      .        .        .        .        .      51/0     51/0  3869/185
DAY1   .....    .....    .....    .....    ..... 2208/160    ..... 2208/160
DAY2     .        .        .        .        .    1661/25      .   1661/25 
TOT      .        .        .        .        .   3869/185      .   3869/185

Top Countries

    K           1303        
   JA            405         
   DL            331         
   UA            191         
    G            122         
   UR            115         
    I            103         
    F            102         
   OK            101         

QRATE Report

1704:    5 per minute (300/hr)
1819:   41 per 10 minutes (246/hr)
1912:  223 per hour

K5ZD (opr. W2SC), Single Operator, All Band, High Power

By Tom Georgens, W2SC
w2sc@arrl.net

Summary Sheet

          CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1998

Call: K5ZD (opr. W2SC)          Country: United States, Mass.
Mode: SSB                      Category: Single Operator
                                         High Power

 BAND      QSOs      ZONES COUNTRIES

 160       59         11      30	GP with raised radials
  80      338         19      77	Inverted Vee
  40      317         24      83	402CD @ 110'
  20     1060         35     116	5/5  100'/50'
  15     1070         32     110	5/5   
  10      264         25      76	TH7 @ 90, TH7 @ 45
---------------------------------------------------

Totals   3108        146     492  =>  5,683,304

The Station

• Radio 1 – FT-1000 + Alpha 76CA
• Radio 2 – IC-765 + Drake L-4B

Tower 1 – 100′ Rohn 45G

• 40-2CD @ 110′
• 205CA @ 100′ / 50′
• 5-el 15 @70′ on rotary sidemount
• 6-el 10 @75′ fixed south
• 80m Inv Vee with top at 95′
• 160m 1/4-wave GP with 4 elevated radials

Tower 2 – 90′ Rohn 25G

• Stack of TH7DXX at 90’/45′ using WX0B StackMatch
• 40m 1/2-wave sloper to west
• 80m 1/4-wave elevated GP with 4 radials
• 160m Inv Vee with top at 88′

The Story

Early this year Randy asked if I was interested in defending my CQWW SSB title from his station and it did not take long to say yes, as last year’s CQWW was probably the best contest I had ever operated. The station worked well as usual, I made good decisions, and used the second radio as well as ever. In the end, I finished with a big lead in Q’s and multipliers. This year K1AR would be on and I was looking forward to the challenge. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the weekend proved to be full of poor preparation, operating blunders and I ended up not much of a match for K1AR.

Living in Kansas without a station makes it hard to get a feel for the bands. My only operating this year was ARRL CW as 8P9JG and about an hour in the NAQP. The last DX QSO from the US was at 2359Z in last year’s CQWW. I had been told that 10 meters would be open but had little other insight into what to expect.

This year I needed to be in California for a full day meeting on Tuesday so any possibility of arriving on Wednesday night was eliminated. In addition, Randy had a trade show in Texas and would not be home until Saturday night so it was not appropriate to arrive any earlier than necessary. Randy’s wife Connie was remarkably accommodating and I really appreciate her tolerance of my operating.

I arrived Thursday night and began the setup. I had built a two radio switching box over the summer that I had sent ahead for Randy to setup. When I arrived, Randy had the computer set up and most of the switching was ready. After a minor cable change to get the two radio switching to work with CT, it appeared that everything was ready. I also spent some time learning the new antenna switching scheme. We had added a second TH7 this summer for 10 and Randy bought a WX0B SixPak to allow any antenna to reach either radio. His station had been relatively intuitive and now it was even easier.

I eventually cycled through all of the antenna/radio/amp combinations to check for RF and interstation interference especially now that there were several new combinations. Every combination seemed to work OK except that the secondary antennas on 80 and 160 would trash the audio. Randy called that evening to see if everything was all right and I let him know the issues. I also had a minor computer problem and, having had a bad experience with this in the past, I let that go and focused on the RF issue. Randy had a couple of ideas but we agreed to wait until morning to finish the job.

After several hours of troubleshooting I managed to solve the problem by isolating the grounds and using Randy’s audio transformers. However, once I had everything fixed, the audio on the second radio was trashed on every band. This time is was not RF or switching related and would work great when the compressor was off. I was getting tired by then and I was concerned at the energy I had been expending and decided that I would just go without the compressor on radio 2. I also spent a fair amount of time debating whether to drive to my old house and get my AL1200 to replace the L4B as the second radio amplifier. I eventually decided not to add anything new and just take a nap. In the end, I never used the secondary 80 and 160 antennas but I had major problems all weekend working guys on the second radio.

I had a good nap and was well rested. I had a number of issues at work to resolve so I spent the next couple of hours on the phone. Despite being a great HF location, Randy’s place is not very friendly to cell phones. Around 6PM local time I told the people at work that I had to go and I would be “in-communicado” the rest of the weekend. I smiled at the irony at that statement and resumed my focus on the contest ahead.

Around 23Z Randy gave a final call to see if everything was ready. I told him about my plan to not use the compressor on the second radio to which he replied “that sounds like a bad plan.” He said that the 765 has good but very thin audio with absolutely no punch and I would have a problem in the pileups. He was right. I hung up with Randy and settled in to radio room. I was listening to K1AR warming up on 20 to get some sense for the propagation, which was not good. I eventually gave John a call. He was his intense self and told me that we may be tied for now but it would not be that way for long. I kind of felt like Rocky before a fight when Apollo Creed said “You’re goin’ down.”

0Z finally rolled around and I was CQing on 20 and trying to pick up mults on 15 with the second radio. I ran off a few stations but the rate went zero after 10 minutes. I did not have any luck with the 0Z 15 meter pileups last year and this year was no better. After about a half hour I went to 40 to run and managed to get some calls in the log and worked 20 with the second radio. After an hour I had 60 Q’s on 40 but it was slowing down so I went to 80 earlier than usual. 80 proved to be the money band all night long with a 78 hour at 3Z (plus 8 second radio Q’s on 160 and 20) and over 250 Q’s the first night. 160 was a disappointment. I was hoping for a good European opening since this was the one band where I had a major advantage over K1AR but it was not to be. I cycled back through 40 and waited for the high bands to open. I was reasonably pleased with the first night, with the exception of 160, but I was a little behind last year’s multiplier total.

In the 10Z hour, 20 became runnable and I was working guys but the on-frequency QRM was unbearable. On the second radio I heard ‘AR CQing on 15 and getting answers so I decided to QSY for a better frequency. It took a little while to get going but the rate finally picked up. At the time, I was angry that prematurely left good rate on 20 for lesser rate on 15 but the breakdown shows a 139 hour at 11Z.

I was very concerned about missing the 10 meter opening so I listened intently on the second radio. Twice I convinced myself that the stations were loud enough to be runnable and made the band change to 10. Unfortunately, each time I worked a few stations but could not get anything going and had to go back to 15. Finally, around 14Z the band did open but I could manage no better than a 98 hour. The two TH7’s at 90/45 feet did not seem to be even remotely dominant. Eventually 10 ran out and it was back to 15 for two unremarkable 90 hours. At this point I was pretty disappointed in my poor decision making and inability to get big rate on 10 and 15. To compound things, I was having a very difficult time breaking the 10 meter pileups with the second radio. All things considered my frustration level was very high.

In the 17Z hour I went back to 20, the money band at K5ZD, and the rates went back up to 148, 151, and 128 in consecutive hours. It was this period that QRATE measured a best 60 minute rate of 182.

In the next few hours, I completely botched the JA opening. When running JA on 20 I heard JA’s on 15 on the second radio so I decided to QSY to 15 to capture the opening. When CQing on 15 I heard JA’s on 10, an opening I did not expect, so I tried CQing on 10 for a while. Basically, I was not expecting a JA opening on 15, let alone 10, and I ended up working the bands in reverse. When it was all over I could not help but be concerned about how many multipliers I probably missed.

I finally reached the halfway point with 1990 QSOs but a multiplier total that was far less than last year. The halfway point is always a low morale point for me and requires a full mental effort to maintain my motivation. In assessing my performance, I knew that I had made a number of bad decisions and had a poor multiplier total so I gave up hope of competing with K1AR. I knew I would have to be perfect to compete and I certainly was far from perfect. As it turns out, after looking at K1AR’s breakdown post contest, I was actually ahead of him by 77 Q’s but he had 70 more multipliers. My multiplier fears were well founded.

At 0Z, I had a 54 hour on 40 and settled in for the inevitable slow hours that lie ahead. The next 9 hours consisted of rapid band changes and determination to squeeze out every QSO. 160 was much better the second evening but was never runnable. I picked up some good multipliers but it was clear that I would not get full benefit of my 160 advantage. Around 08Z I took my traditional 10 minute nap and the 09Z hour produced the only sub 10 QSO hour of the contest, but with 6 multipliers.

Determined not to repeat the previous day’s mistakes, it was time for the high bands to open but this day was to be more bizarre than the previous. 20 was very slow to open in the morning, the 10Z hour was generally unproductive and 11Z was not much better, but 12Z finally produced a 139 hour. It was clear that the bands were down from the previous day and 10 meters never was really runnable.

After an 89 hour in 14Z, the bottom started to fall out or 15. The stations seemed to be getting weaker and it was getting more difficult to pull them through the QRM. All the while 10 was swimming in African multipliers which I just could not work with the second radio. With rate failing on 15 I gave up and took the main radio to 10 to pick up 5A, 9J, and FR which I had been trying to work for a half hour. Upon returning to 15, I could not build any rate so I tried 20 but it was too early.

At this point, I totally lost my grip and tuned the bands for a while trying to figure out the propagation. In the 16Z hour, I relinquished my QSO lead which I had held for nearly 40 hours. I went back to 15 and simply CQ’d at slow rate while I sought multipliers on the second radio. During this period, K3LP/J6 actually moved *me* to 10. I simply could not buy a QSO as the rate plummeted. Looking at the post contest results, it does not seem as though anybody else suffered to the same degree. In retrospect, I wonder if fatigue took over or if the propagation simply did not favor any of my available antenna combinations. I wish I had this period on tape for review.

Ultimately, 15 never recovered for me and I QSY’d to 20 at the normal time and some semblance of rate returned. I tried one QSY to 40 later on but it was not productive and I mostly ran out the string on 20.

When it was over, I knew I was desperately short of multipliers particularly on 10. On 3830 I listened to the multi scores trying to figure out how I did but nothing made me feel positive about 10. Randy had food on the stove upstairs and was running down to hear the scores. Finally it was time to report single op scores and with the confusion, K1AR slipped in ahead of me to report his score. As he ran through his breakdown I was doing OK until he got to 20 meter mults and it was downhill from there. He took me by about 100 Q’s and 1 million points. I dumped my score in next and I am sure he sweated a little over my low band scores but he got the last laugh in the end.

Contemplating the results, there was a lot of fault to be found. My preparation was poor. I should have swapped amplifiers, I should have fixed the audio problem before going to bed Thursday, and I should have prepared myself better for the 10 meter openings. Likewise my operating technique was not good, many bad decisions and not enough use of the second radio. It was going to take a super effort to compete with ‘AR and I did not even measure up to last year. No excuses, I did not do what it took to win and the better operator prevailed. Congratulations John!

The next morning I left early for the airport just to be sure. Upon arriving at the counter, I was informed that my flight had been cancelled but I had been rescheduled on an earlier flight and they would still honor my free upgrades. I muttered that I finally caught a break this weekend and it is after the contest is over. The guy behind the counter did not understand but I just shook my head without giving an explanation.

Once again I would like to thank Randy for the use of his fine station and for allowing people the privilege of guest op’ing. I especially wish to thank Randy’s wife Connie for allowing me to hang around the house and operate the radio even though Randy was away. Their collective hospitality takes the stress out guest operating and makes me look forward to the next one.

Tom Georgens, W2SC

Continent Statistics

                       160   80   40   20   15   10   ALL   percent

North America     SSB   28   49   35  103   52   36   303     9.7
South America     SSB    2   10   16   53   24   34   139     4.5
Europe            SSB   23  270  240  795  927  168  2423    77.9
Asia              SSB    0    3    6   59   45    5   118     3.8
Africa            SSB    6    5    9   34   13   18    85     2.7
Oceania           SSB    0    1   11   17   10    3    42     1.4

Rate Sheet

HOUR   160      80       40       20       15       10     HR TOT  CUM TOT  

 0    .....    .....    35/17    21/14     3/3     .....    59/34   59/34 
 1      .        .      44/11    20/15      .        .      64/26  123/60 
 2      .      46/23    22/4      8/5       .        .      76/32  199/92 
 3     1/1     78/17      .       7/3       .        .      86/21  285/113
 4     4/3     53/4       .      13/6       .        .      70/13  355/126
 5    22/10      .        .       2/1       .        .      24/11  379/137
 6     2/2     48/4      1/0      4/2       .        .      55/8   434/145
 7     3/1     10/8     22/8      4/0       .        .      39/17  473/162
 8     1/1      8/6     26/9     .....    .....    .....    35/16  508/178
 9     2/2     12/6     12/9       .        .        .      26/17  534/195
10      .       1/0      1/0     70/18    12/7       .      84/25  618/220
11      .        .        .        .     133/22     6/5    139/27  757/247
12      .        .        .        .      88/7     14/4    102/11  859/258
13      .        .        .        .      54/3     62/18   116/21  975/279
14      .        .        .       5/5      3/0     98/10   106/15 1081/294
15      .        .        .        .      91/5      4/4     95/9  1176/303
16    .....    .....    .....    .....    92/8     11/7    103/15 1279/318
17      .        .        .     121/14    26/1      1/1    148/16 1427/334
18      .        .        .     151/7       .        .     151/7  1578/341
19      .        .        .     119/6      9/9       .     128/15 1706/356
20      .        .        .      80/3      9/8       .      89/11 1795/367
21      .        .        .      66/1      7/4      4/4     77/9  1872/376
22      .        .        .      64/8      4/1      6/3     74/12 1946/388
23      .        .      15/1      5/1     23/2      1/1     44/5  1990/393
 0    .....    .....    54/6      8/0     .....    .....    62/6  2052/399
 1     6/4     11/0     13/2      2/0       .        .      32/6  2084/405
 2     2/1      4/0     18/3      4/2       .        .      28/6  2112/411
 3     2/1      6/2      7/1       .        .        .      15/4  2127/415
 4     2/0     15/1      5/2       .        .        .      22/3  2149/418
 5     9/5     23/2       .        .        .        .      32/7  2181/425
 6     3/2     12/1      3/0      2/0       .        .      20/3  2201/428
 7      .       4/2     21/6       .        .        .      25/8  2226/436
 8    .....     4/2      8/2      1/0     .....    .....    13/4  2239/440
 9      .       3/3      5/3      1/0       .        .       9/6  2248/446
10      .        .       4/2     29/0       .        .      33/2  2281/448
11      .        .        .      13/0     55/7      1/0     69/7  2350/455
12      .        .        .        .     139/5      1/0    140/5  2490/460
13      .        .        .        .      92/2      3/3     95/5  2585/465
14      .        .        .        .      86/1      3/2     89/3  2674/468
15      .        .        .        .      38/1     15/6     53/7  2727/475
16    .....    .....    .....     8/0     14/0      5/2     27/2  2754/477
17      .        .        .       3/0     40/1     14/2     57/3  2811/480
18      .        .        .       2/0     20/4     10/3     32/7  2843/487
19      .        .        .      60/2      6/4       .      66/6  2909/493
20      .        .        .      43/1       .       4/3     47/4  2956/497
21      .        .        .      71/2      4/3      1/0     76/5  3032/502
22      .        .       1/0     22/2     13/4       .      36/6  3068/508
23      .        .        .      31/3      9/2       .      40/5  3108/513
DAY1  35/20   256/68   178/59   760/109  554/80   207/57    ..... 1990/393
DAY2  24/13    82/13   139/27   300/12   516/34    57/21      .   1118/120
TOT   59/33   338/81   317/86  1060/121 1070/114  264/78      .   3108/513

BREAKDOWN in Hours/QSO's per hr

DAY1 1.5/23   3.8/68   3.2/55   7.5/102  5.6/99   2.2/95    .....  23.8/84 
DAY2 1.3/18   2.7/30   3.2/44   5.9/51   6.4/80   1.4/40      .    20.9/53 
TOT  2.8/21   6.5/52   6.4/49  13.3/79  12.1/89   3.6/73      .    44.8/69

 

K5ZD, Single Operator CW Only

By Randy Thompson
k5zd@contesting.com

Summary Sheet

          IARU HF Championship -- 1998

Call: K5ZD                Country:  United States, WMA
                         Category: Single Operator, CW Only, High Power

BAND    QSO   QSO-PTS   PTS/Q    ZONES  HQ STNS

 160      31      63     2.03     10      6   1/4-wave GP
  80     141     399     2.83     19     17   Inv vee @ 95', 1/4-wave GP
  40     480    1788     3.72     29     24   40-2CD @ 110'
  20     816    3478     4.26     30     25   Stacked 205CA @ 100'/50'
  15     755    3281     4.35     36     24   Stacked 5-el @ 70'/35'
  10      34      78     2.29      6      5   TH7DXX @ 90'
---------------------------------------------------
Totals  2257    9087     4.02    130    101  => 2,099,097 points

Radio 1 - IC-765 + Alpha 76
Radio 2 - TS-930S + L-4B

The Story

It has been awhile since I did a contest for real (SS CW last year!). Aborted efforts in CQ WW CW and WPX CW plus a multi-op in ARRL CW and a guest op for ARRL Phone left me itching to see if I could still do a competitive effort. With its 24 hour format and funny summer time conditions, IARU looked like it would be fun. I decided to do CW only so that I wouldn’t have to worry about microphone and keyer switching, and it would be much quieter for other members of the household.

I searched my files and the Internet but found little info on what the strategy for this contest should be. W2SC had a big score two years ago with 1900+ QSOs and 165 mults. I figured this would be a worthy goal. I also suspected W4AN and some of the other CW only types would be trying hard as well.

Woke up Saturday morning just like going to work. Took the dog for a walk, ate breakfast, then got the station ready. The contest starts at 8 AM local time so it was just like sitting down at my desk for a day at the office.

Tuned the bands in the hour leading up to the start. It was too late for 40m. Twenty sounded strangely empty. When I heard S59AA at 599+20db on 15m, I knew where to start.

Set up on 21024 and it was off to the races. I got blown off my frequency about 14 minutes into the contest and searched frantically for another. Two minutes later 21001 sounded clear and I was running again. Literally! I have never experienced such rate to start a contest. The first four hours on the run frequency were 169-134-113-123. Almost all European and Asian stations.

I managed to sneak in a few second radio QSOs on 20m just because I didn’t want to miss any multipliers. It was obvious all the activity was on 15m because there was hardly anything on the other bands.

Some of the more interesting callers on 15m in the first two hours included RA9YN in zone 31, a bunch of zone 30 stations, PU1KDR, H20A (who I thought was S20A every time he called me), SV1SV (a surprise HQ mult), VR98BG (wow!), and LU1VZ.

About 14Z I started hearing a few stations on 10m. I spent about 15 minutes calling CQ on 10m while I tuned around with the second radio on 15m. Nothing really interesting called on 10m (bunch of zone 8 stations) but I did manage to snag a zone 7 and zone 6 (the only time I heard anything out west). The mult hunting on 15m was productive as well.

I got back into running on 15m up around 21046 and was rewarded with instant rate again. Plus UA9KJ in zone 21 followed by YB0ECT! Like VR98BG, the YB0 was watery, but easy to copy and just as big of a surprise. I was amazed at the amount of activity from Eastern Europe and Russia. Worked lots of zone 29 stations. PA0LOU called in to give me my only ‘special’ multiplier of the weekend. A second YB called in more than one hour after the first.

About 15Z I recaptured 21001 and kept running. Somewhere about this time the bands started to develop a bad sound. The northern Europeans who had been booming in began to show some hollowness and the auroral buzz came up on the backscatter signals. Even so, the rate continued to be excellent and I kept working the second radio for mults and QSOs on 20m.

The first LU showed up on 10m about 1630Z. I also was amazed when YU0HQ heard me on skew path. I heard CT1BOH work P40HQ, but I never got a shot at working Jose.

At 1700Z I made the jump to 20 meters expecting some big rates as I rework all the activity from 15m. It didn’t happen. The band just didn’t sound that good. The rate felt slow, but that was probably just due to the return to more ‘normal’ levels after the excitement of 15m!

While CQing on 20m I fell out of the chair when I heard JA6ZLI on 15m at 1711Z. He was the only JA I could hear but easy to work. That’s something like 2AM in Japan! I found TF3IRA on 15m about 30 minutes later for another interesting mult. At 1833Z I found EP2MKO at the very bottom of 15m. I would later work him on 20m as well. XE1RGL was another second radio catch on 15m (and my only XE of the weekend).

Meanwhile, I kept running on 14004. Around 19Z I caught 8P0V and W1AW/0 on 10m for two nice multipliers. I revisited CQing on 15m about 1915Z and found a few straggling
Europeans, 7Q7EH, and ES9A. The rate was slow, but the Europeans were quite loud well past 2000Z when I returned to 20m. I made QSO #1000 at 8:10 into the contest.

TU2XZ called in for another interesting African multiplier. When you figure the competition is going to work the same common zones and HQ stations that you do, those rare African and Asian zones are doubly precious! As are those HQ stations that call you, such as SV1SV for a second band. TL5A had a roaring pile-up on 15m but was listening up 1 kHz which made him easy to work. PY7OJ called in on 20m to give me my only zone 13.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about a 24 hour DX contest is the feeling that you can’t let any opening get away. This is really clear when you realize that from W1 we only share one hour of darkness with zone 29 and three hours with zone 27!

I made my first excursion to 40m at 2149Z and worked YU0HQ and W1AW/0. Then I heard TU2XZ calling someone on what sounded like a sked or a pass. I called him and he gave me a moral boosting multiplier. Still daylight outside! I was hoping that was one that W4AN wouldn’t find. I returned to 20m after a few minutes as it was obvious the band wasn’t really ready yet.

I finally made the move to 40m at 2249Z by CQing on 7004. I was getting answers but the rate wasn’t that great. After 15 minutes, I took a walk up the band and captured goodies like TL5A, R3HQ/6, ER7A, RN1AM (19), RZ9SWR, and YW5LB before going back to 20m at 2330Z.

The Europeans were more runnable on 20m, but it was obvious the time was getting rather late over there and activity was beginning to drop. RW0A gave me a thrill and zone 32. I found WL7KY and KL7Y both booming in on 15m about 2350Z. This gave me some hope for a JA opening. I managed to work 3 JAs between 2353 and 2357 and the opening was over. Talk about being in the right place at the right time! Back to 20m for more CQing.

Local sunset is around 0030Z. I went to 80m about 0012Z and was surprised to find the band very quiet (i.e. no QRN) and a number of good European signals. I was able to work RW3XW for zone 29 and OH2AQ for zone 18. Plus R3HQ/6 and some of the other big HQ guns. I couldn’t get any answers to CQs, but I could be heard if I was patient and kept calling. My first 30 minutes on the band resulted in 14 multipliers.

At 0042Z I went to 160 just to see if I could hear anything. VE1ZZ gave me zone 9 and I tried calling a number of Europeans. Only DL1IAO (who had a good signal) was able to copy me. After 10 minutes of frustration, I took a scan across 40m and worked a number of QSOs and multipliers. I felt the next 2 hours were critical from a multiplier standpoint and I didn’t want to miss anything. I tried to constantly keep moving. At 0103Z I found a weak, watery, and very lonely TF3IRA calling CQ on 7026. That felt like a good one and kept me pushing.

I finally got a run started up at 7033 kHz. The rate was good but with few multipliers. JY9QJ gave me zone 39. Not wanting to miss anything, I broke off a clear frequency and 100+/hr rate to check 160m again. More fruitless and frustrating calling of European alligators! Then back for a spin across 80m.

At 0203Z I finally cracked the European barrier on 160m by working OL8HQ, PA6HQ, DA0HQ, and YU0HQ (six bands!). The increasing number of HQ stations is definitely tilting the multiplier advantage in favor of the East Coast.

Back to 40m for more CQing. There were some excellent signals on 20m, but I didn’t want to give up the possibility of low band rate and multipliers so stayed put. EM5HQ and ES9A called in to give me two new ones.

I tried 160m again at 0245Z but signals were going down. The peak of the opening was well before Eu sunrise. I scanned across 80m and captured a few more HQ stations. My inverted vee works well enough that I can call stations, but not well enough to allow me to CQ successfully on this band. Even so, one brief run did get EA4URE and LZ98HQ to call in. One more listen to 160m at 0319Z (nothing happening) and it was back to 40m.

I snagged HC8A through a big pile-up, then found KP4Y and IY2ARI for new ones. I finally squeezed in at 7019 about 0330Z and set up shop. The rate was excellent and I marveled at how loud the Europeans were as much as 2.5 hours past their sunrise. It sounded more like November than July! About 0345Z I realized I was missing zone 27 on 80m, so I put the second rig there and started looking. Luckily found G8G within 2 minutes and got him for the mult without missing a beat on the 40m run frequency.

I was still running on 7019 at 0513Z when EA8ASJ called in to give me a new zone. CT1BOH called me there at 0534Z and I noticed that it was right at his sunrise. I asked him to try 160m and we made it! Unfortunately he then went back to 40m and moved my competition W4AN to 160m also…

With 40m all but gone to Europe, I spent the next several hours tuning across all of the bands and chasing multipliers. KH7R and LT1F responded to two of my few CQs on 80m. I moved WB0O from 80 to 160m so I could get zone 7 (really!). R1ANL (where is that guy located?!) called me on 40 for a rare zone. I worked PA6HQ on 40m at 0624Z and he was still well over S9 – wow!

I was amazed to work K6XX on 160m at 0630Z. I moved 8P0V from 20 to 160m for a multiplier – thanks Dennis. Found 20m was mostly gone to Europe, but there were still some QSOs to be found. Turned the beam North and was surprised to find a few loud JAs. Worked JA7DLE for a new mult on 20m at 0646Z. At 0700Z I was able to call CQ on 40m and have a few more Europeans answer. I moved VX4YU from 40m to 160m for a new mult (he was my only zone 3 but got him on 5 bands – thanks OM!).

Last Eu on 40m was ON4ASW at 0719Z. That’s only 4 hours 20 minutes past his sunrise!Got a little bit of a run going on 20m around 0745Z. It kept me from falling asleep and allowed me to keep looking for low band multipliers on the second radio. TF3IRA called me at 0830Z for a new one on 20m.

At 0857Z I lucked out and was able to work JH7XGN on 40m. Not sure he would have gotten the call except that someone called me and he was able to figure it out. The flutter was pretty bad and signal levels were low. KH8/N5OLS had a great signal on 40m and thought about trying to move him to 80m but he seemed kind of busy at the time. At 0903Z was happy to get through to XK7SZ on 160m for a new mult. Then worked EA8ASJ on 15m at 0910Z (first signal I heard on the band). Called CQ on 80m at 0915Z and had ZL1AIZ answer. Not a bad 30 minutes in the multiplier and propagation department!

The bands just didn’t want to open with the sunrise. I had noticed the same on Saturday, but it was even worse this morning. GB5HQ and IY2ARI helped the score. Ran on 14018 from 0936Z to 1036Z. R1ANL called in for another multiplier. Found P40HQ on 40m with the second radio well after my sunrise.

At 1100Z I made the jump to 15m hoping to repeat the magic of the day before. The band was just barely open and it took a lot of CQs to get each QSO. OM8HQ called me (I thought I already had him). I took advantage of the slow rate to also tune 20m on the second rig. Called and worked RT3A and then had OZ7D call me for a final HQ mult.

Final Comments

For those of you still reading…

24 hours is a great length for a DX contest. The strategy decisions and pressure not to miss an opening really keep the excitement level high. Plus it doesn’t hurt so bad the next day.

Propagation was unusually unusual. We expect funny high band openings in the summer when the North pole is always seeing the sun, but who would ever expect the low band conditions we got. It was better than many winter nights!

I logged the contest using WriteLog for Windows by W5XD (http://www.writelog.com). I also used it for WPX CW. WriteLog performed flawlessly for both logging and scoring and it is nice to be able to stay in the Windows 98 environment for logging and access to Geoclock. I did convert the log to CT so I could present the breakdowns in familiar format.

This contest was fun! Any CW contest where you can work 2250+ QSOs in 24 hours is a winner in my book. I was in the chair for all but 5 minutes and never went more than 8 minutes without a QSO.

I tried to concentrate on 5 point QSOs and multipliers with multipliers being more important. The good conditions and growth of HQ stations shows up when you compare W2SC’s 165 mults of two years ago and my 231 this year.

Is this a new record? I think it breaks the USA record. It also breaks the highest world CW only score that I could find in the last 8 years (ZY1RL 2.05M). I expected 8P0V to be ahead of me and didn’t realize that LT1F and C40A were also CW only. Great competition and scoring all around! Thanks for the QSOs and see all of you again next year.

73 — Randy, K5ZD

Continental Breakdown

                    160   80   40   20   15   10  ALL   percent

North America   CW   25   77  173  167  133   23  598    26.4
South America   CW    0    3   11    7    9   10   40     1.8
Europe          CW    6   57  282  609  575    1 1530    67.5
Asia            CW    0    1    5   25   34    0   65     2.9
Africa          CW    0    1    4    5    4    0   14     0.6
Oceania         CW    0    2    5    6    7    0   20     0.9

Ratesheet

HOUR     160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

  12    .....    .....    .....    10/5    169/14    .....   179/19  179/19 
  13      .        .        .      11/7    134/9      2/2    147/18  326/37 
  14      .        .        .       6/3    113/10    16/2    135/15  461/52 
  15      .        .        .       5/0    123/6       .     128/6   589/58 
  16      .        .        .      20/6     64/1      6/3     90/10  679/68 
  17      .        .        .      81/3     15/3      3/1     99/7   778/75 
  18      .        .        .     105/3     10/5      4/2    119/10  897/85 
  19      .        .        .      43/5     39/3      3/1     85/9   982/94 
  20    .....    .....    .....   121/4      6/1     .....   127/5  1109/99 
  21      .        .       5/5     94/3      2/1       .     101/9  1210/108
  22      .        .       8/5     70/6      6/3       .      84/14 1294/122
  23      .        .      31/13    32/1      8/2       .      71/16 1365/138
  00     6/4     20/14    21/4     13/0      2/0       .      62/22 1427/160
  01     2/2     23/4     62/4      1/0       .        .      88/10 1515/170
  02     9/4     16/7     49/4      3/0       .        .      77/15 1592/185
  03     2/0     30/3     78/4      7/0       .        .     117/7  1709/192
  04    .....     3/0     98/1      8/1     .....    .....   109/2  1818/194
  05     4/2     23/6     56/3     13/0       .        .      96/11 1914/205
  06     4/2       .      22/3     17/3       .        .      43/8  1957/213
  07     3/1      5/1     27/3     18/0       .        .      53/5  2010/218
  08      .       9/0     14/3     40/1       .        .      63/4  2073/222
  09     1/1     10/1      5/0     38/3      4/1       .      58/6  2131/228
  10      .       2/0      4/1     44/0      6/0       .      56/1  2187/229
  11      .        .        .      16/1     54/1       .      70/2  2257/231

 TOT    31/16   141/36   480/53   816/55   755/60    34/11      .   2257/231

From QRATE:

1236:    5 per minute     (300/hr)
1238:   36 per 10 minutes (216/hr)
1259:  179 per hour

 

K5ZD, Single Op, High Power

Randall A. Thompson, K5ZD
k5zd@contesting.com

Summary Sheet

                ARRL SWEEPSTAKES -- 1997

  Call: K5ZD                  Section: Western Mass  
  Mode: CW                    Category: Single Op High Power

      160        0        0        -
       80      183      366        -
       40      881     1762        -
       20      209      418        -
       15       56      112        -
       10        5       10        -
     -----------------------------------

     Totals   1334     2668       79

               Score:  210,772

Equipment Description

Station 1

• IC-765 and Alpha 76-CA
• 5-el 15 at 65′
• 5-el 20 at 100′
• 2-el 40 at 110′
• 80m Inv Vee at 90′

Station 2

• FT-1000 and L-4B
• TH7DXX at 90′
• 40m sloper
• 80m 1/4-wave GP

Commentary

Since W2SC operated the CQ WW Phone contest, I was excited about doing SS CW without being “hung over” from a 44+ hour effort the weekend before. Conditions sounded great with big signals on 15 and 10 meters in the hours before the contest. I was ready!

I started calling CQ on 20. I don’t like to S&P at the beginning since you mostly just work the guys who are going to be on all weekend anyway. Twenty sounded almost deserted and I was not getting many answers. At one point in the first hour I was doing better on the second rig calling stations than the main one calling CQ!

At 2154Z I decided to try 40m. From the Northeast there are always QSOs available on 40! Again the band seemed strangely empty. I started CQing on 7038 while continuing to scan 15m on the second rig. The combined rate was less than spectacular and I was getting frustrated. After 20 minutes I moved up to 7044 to try to find a clearer frequency. Then 7030. I was working stations but it was tough to listen to the western half of the country just running away. When I looked at my rate sheet from the past two years I was already falling way behind.

In retrospect, it was obvious that the good high band conditions were changing the operating preferences of the “masses”! Everyone was seduced into the fun of having 15m (and even some 10m) openings. Once darkness started to kill those bands, everyone finally came down to 40.

At this point I was having the worst start ever in 20 years. I was over 150 QSOs behind the big scorers out west. Thoughts of quitting were seriously considered. N2NT was over 30 QSOs ahead of me and K1AM was 15 ahead (and he was using just one radio!). I kept going only with the goal of continuing my streak of consecutive years over 1000 QSOs (it’s now up to 21!).

About 0040Z I move up to 7058. It was clear and the rate started to improve. This frequency became home base for the next 6 hours. All of my 80m QSOs Saturday evening were made on the second radio. I was a bit surprised to read all the comments about how 80m was the key band for many in the east and how hard 40m frequencies were to find. I think I only had one or two challenges on 7058 all night and they were from W2’s who were within the skip zone.

It was raining all evening but I only had one stretch of about 40 minutes where rain static was a big issue. The S-meter just went to 20 over and stayed there. I didn’t want to give up the frequency and take a break so I listened using my European Beverage. It was quiet, and the Europeans were loud, but it wasn’t the best antenna for hearing Q-power W6’s. The band was also experiencing some very rapid QSB so I was forced to ask for a lot of repeats. Once the rain static cleared, the rate took off. Having 87 and 84 QSOs in the 03 and 04Z hours was amazing and helped improve my attitude.

Things really slowed down about 08Z. I was so worn out from work that I just couldn’t stay awake. I tried operating standing up and while running in place. It was just too tough. It used to be that you had to keep operating until at least 09Z because rates the next day were typically even worse. This is changing with the renewed activity of the PINS program. Now the daytime hours are the most productive. Since I was so tired (and a bit demoralized from being behind) I decided that 3 hours of sleep would be worth more than a few QSOs. I took my first off time at 0820Z and set the alarm for 3 hours later.

I got back on the radio at 1155Z. Last year I had tried to CQ on 40 and use the second rig on 80 all morning. In the process I had listened to W2PV and K1AM run away from me. This year I focused on CQing on 80 and tuning 40. It was definitely better! Having a 62 hour on Sunday morning was a first for me. Usually 50 is a lot!

I kept pounding 40m while tuning the other bands. I was surprised to hear how the West Coast stations had fallen behind. This is partially due to off times but they must also struggle on the low bands. N2NT was still about 30 to 40 QSOs ahead of me.

About 1700Z I started thinking about taking an off time. I was hoping to continue until about 1800Z but another rain storm came through and the static was horrible. I took it as a sign to take a break and get a shower. 50 minutes later the rain stopped for the weekend and I was refreshed and fed. Now it was just a sprint to the finish — except for the nagging
problem of still needing VY1, KL7, and VE2!

As I would tune the FT-1000 across 15m I noticed that any signal over S9 would create two additional phantom signals up and down 22 KHz from the main one. This caused me some frustration as I was tuning above 21050 and wondering why stations weren’t coming back to me (I was calling a phantom!). I never did figure out what was causing this (anyone have any ideas?). It did come in helpful later on.

About 1925Z VX2AWR called in on 40m to give me Quebec. What a relief! A bit later KQ2M stopped by to ask if I had a sweep. I told him that I needed VY1. He said he had worked VY1JA on 21027 several hours earlier. At least now I had a clue of where to look.

A bit later I heard VY1JA on 21027. He was not loud and the pile-up was a bit obnoxious. I kept coming back on the second rig but it was pretty hopeless. The op was sending slowly and seemed to be really struggling to copy. I decided that VY1 was not to be this year.

At 1952Z I was tuning 15m on the FT-1000 when I heard WL7KY give an exchange. He wasn’t loud and I thought it sounded like a phantom. Now I had to find where he really was! I quickly checked down about 22 KHz and there he was. One call and section #78 was in the log. Maybe this multiple receive thing has some value!

I spent some time in the afternoon CQing on 20m. I had pretty much worked 40 out and there were lots of guys out west that I still needed. Rates weren’t great, but 20 is a virtual bottomless pit of stations. Its also an overcrowded mess!

As I was CQing on 40m I took my last few scans of 20 during the 00Z hour. I was amazed and thrilled to find VY1JA booming in with his usual big pile-up. This sounded like a completely different operator. He was sending fast and keeping the pile-up moving. It took only a few calls to get him for the sweep! What a relief. Reading the Internet mail the next
day I now realize just how lucky I was. Still, that’s part of the game that keeps me coming back every year.

After that I just concentrated on making rate. The higher MUFs this year kept the skip relatively short on all bands which really helps on 40m. I usually try to kill some off time in the last 3 hours since rates are so low but now I am reevaluating that strategy. My rate stayed fairly constant right to the end which is a good sign that people are getting
involved in the contest and sticking with it!

The contest finished for me at 0230Z as I ran out of operating time. 1334 and 79 was a lot better than I thought I would do given the poor start. It wasn’t quite up to my previous best of 1362 QSOs, but the extra sections make this a new New England Division record (I hope). I took a break and then came back to listen to the scores on 3830. Fell out of the
chair when N2NT (op was N2NC) announced his score of 1330 and a missing section. Can’t wait to compare rate sheets and find where I caught up with John.

The efforts to put a W1 in the top ten of SS CW must continue. See you all next year!

Randy, K5ZD

Rate Sheet

BREAKDOWN QSO/mults  K5ZD  ARRL SWEEPSTAKES  Single Operator

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM 
TOT

  21    .....    .....     7/4     49/22    22/9     .....    78/35   78/35 
  22      .        .      38/8     13/6     15/3       .      66/17  144/52 
  23      .        .      52/1     14/3       .        .      66/4   210/56 
   0      .        .      54/6      6/3       .        .      60/9   270/65 
   1      .       5/1     63/3      2/0       .        .      70/4   340/69 
   2      .      12/0     66/0       .        .        .      78/0   418/69 
   3      .       4/1     83/0       .        .        .      87/1   505/70 
   4      .      13/1     71/0       .        .        .      84/1   589/71 
   5    .....    11/0     52/2     .....    .....    .....    63/2   652/73 
   6      .      10/1     51/0       .        .        .      61/1   713/74 
   7      .       9/0     29/0       .        .        .      38/0   751/74 
   8      .       8/0      2/0       .        .        .      10/0   761/74 
   9      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    761/74 
  10      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    761/74 
  11      .       6/1      1/0       .        .        .       7/1   768/75 
  12      .      52/0     10/0       .        .        .      62/0   830/75 
  13    .....    24/0     13/0     10/0     .....    .....    47/0   877/75 
  14      .        .      45/0      9/0       .        .      54/0   931/75 
  15      .        .      43/0      5/0      3/1       .      51/1   982/76 
  16      .        .      36/0      8/0      1/0       .      45/0  1027/76 
  17      .        .      10/0       .       3/0       .      13/0  1040/76 
  18      .        .      34/0      4/0       .       1/0     39/0  1079/76 
  19      .        .      30/1       .      10/1      2/0     42/2  1121/78 
  20      .        .       5/0     29/0      2/0      2/0     38/0  1159/78 
  21    .....    .....     9/0     26/0     .....    .....    35/0  1194/78 
  22      .       2/0      7/0      6/0       .        .      15/0  1209/78 
  23      .       6/0      8/0     27/0       .        .      41/0  1250/78 
   0      .       6/0     36/0      1/1       .        .      43/1  1293/79 
   1      .       9/0      8/0       .        .        .      17/0  1310/79 
   2      .       6/0     18/0       .        .        .      24/0  1334/79 

TOT     .....   183/5    881/25   209/35    56/14     5/0     ..... 1334/79

&nbsp

K5ZD (opr. W2SC), Single Op All Band, High Power

By Tom Georgens, W2SC
tgeorgen@arrl.net

Summary Sheet

          ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1997

 Call: K5ZD(op. W2SC)           Country:  United States
 Mode: SSB                      Category: Single Operator

      BAND     QSO    COUNTRIES

      160       45      29
       80      253      64
       40      288      72
       20     1466     114
       15      127      55
       10       35      10
     --------------------------------------

     Totals   2214     344  =   2,284,848

Equipment Description:

• FT-1000 + Alpha 76, IC-765 + L-4B
• 160m 1/4-wave GP, Shunt feed 90′ tower
• 80m Inverted vee @95′, 1/4-wave GP
• 40m Cushcraft 40-2CD @110′
• 20m Hygain 205CA @100′, 205CA @50′
• 15m 5-ele @75′
• 10m 6-ele @67′ fixed South
• TH7DXX @90′

The Contest

After a narrow defeat on CW, I was ready to grit my teeth and go at it again on SSB. I arrived at Randy’s house on Thursday night and wanted to get everything set up before I went to bed. I had to partially reassemble the station and make up a few microphone cables to incorporate the DVP with my two radio switching stuff.

When I was complete, Randy told me that he had a new motherboard and related hardware for his computer and he proceeded to take it apart. After my experience in the CW contest I was remarkably calm through the entire process. I talked to W1KM on the phone while Randy worked his magic. Mercifully, everything came up OK and the station was set before midnight.

I had left a number of fires burning at work when I left and I knew that I would be spending most of Friday on the phone. I got about an hour’s sleep around noon but spent the rest of the afternoon handling work issues. This was probably the least amount of rest I had ever had prior to a 48 hour contest.

I had noticed during Friday that the bands seemed dead and it was confirmed just before the contest began when I overheard a conversation indicating that conditions were disturbed and the A index was 34. I started on 40 but signals seemed way down. I tried to run around calling guys but was getting pounded by W3’s, AA1K/3 in particular. After about 20 minutes I QSY’d to 80 where things started well. I finished the first hour with 49 on 80 and 61 overall. It went downhill from there as I could only manage 205 Q’s in the next 10 hours. The best conditions were on 160 but the QRN was nearly unbearable. Randy’s beverage works great on 80 but this night was a real challenge. When Randy got up in the morning he was horrified to see my low band score.

20 was slow to open and did not get active until well into the 11Z hour. After a couple of good hours I started to listen for a 15 meter opening but the band was really marginal. I tried a few CQ’s up there but could not work much, although I did have a C31 call. I decide to take a risk and hope for a rebound on 15 on Sunday. 10 meters proved to be more productive than I expected and I picked up 10 multipliers. 40 was very productive in the afternoon on CW and it worked well this weekend as well as I managed another 125Q’s before the band closed at 1Z.

At the midpoint I was 1347/280 and way behind last year. I heard lots of whining about the conditions but was not sure how well I was doing. I was hoping for better conditions the second night but it was not to be. 80 was slow but I could get sporadic callers throughout the night. 160 was so noisy that it was nearly useless. Randy had gone up to KC1XX to operate for a while and stopped by to say that he now understood why my score was so poor. Conditions were grim.

The whole night was a struggle with no 40 meter European sunrise opening. During the 7-10Z hours there was nothing to work so I took two 15 minute naps and a 30 minute slumber. One thing of note was the strength of the Pacific signals on 40 both mornings. The 20 meter opening started about the same time as Saturday but I had a tough time holding a frequency. The signals were weak and the QRM was brutal. I am usually very even tempered when I operate but my inability to pull stations through was causing great
frustration. As the morning wore on, I knew I was in trouble with 15 meter mults so I had to make an effort with the second radio to gather as many as possible.

15 was marginally runnable and I tried the band periodically most of the morning. I did not gather many Q’s but I did well with the mults. I was pleasantly surprised by a late opening and I worked 23 stations in the 16Z hour. I managed to shore up my pathetic multiplier number but I was very concerned about the guys to the south of me having a significant opening on 15 and making hundreds of extra Q’s.

When 20 shut down toward Europe, I went to 40 and combed twenty with the second radio. As it turned out, I could not get answers on 40 and 20 seemed pretty good to Japan so I ran around calling and running a few JA stations. After an hour I went back to 40 and this time was able to run another 60 stations before the contest ended.

After narrowly losing the CW contest on multipliers, I pushed the second radio as hard as I could all weekend and it seemed to help. Unfortunately, the low rates all weekend made this easy. The other notable difference on SSB was the large number of excellent multipliers that called on 20. 9L,5X,5H,7X,S9,XU,VU,CN,5N, VQ9,SU, and 9J quickly come to mind.

Although I had very little rest on Friday and conditions were relatively poor, I never really felt tired. These 48 hour contests seem to be getting easier as each one goes by. I think I have learned that the weak moments will pass and, if I can just push through them, I will catch a second wind.

Overall, after seven years of semi-serious contesting, it looks like I may have finally won one of these contests. I would like to thank Randy and his wife Connie for their hospitality and the opportunity to use his relatively simple, yet hugely effective, station. Randy’s station works like no other that I have ever experienced and I wish to state my sincere appreciation for his letting me use it.

I also owe my wife and kids thanks for allowing me to indulge myself with this contest stuff. Nonetheless, I am now burned out on radio for a while after two 5-day trips and 48-hour contests in a three week span. I have probably done all of my operating for 1997. Why are the ARRL contests so close anyway?

73 and Thanks for all the QSO’s,

Tom W2SC

Rate Sheet

BREAKDOWN QSO/mults  K5ZD  ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST  Single Operator

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT 

   0    .....    49/22    10/7      2/1     .....    .....    61/30   61/30
   1     2/2     28/9      3/2      3/1       .        .      36/14   97/44
   2      .      16/4     19/11      .        .        .      35/15  132/59
   3    13/11     6/1      2/2      1/1       .        .      22/15  154/74
   4     9/4      5/0       .        .        .        .      14/4   168/78
   5    11/6      7/2      4/2       .        .        .      22/10  190/88
   6     3/2      4/4      4/4       .        .        .      11/10  201/98
   7     3/2      4/3     17/8       .        .        .      24/13  225/111
   8    .....     5/3     18/5     .....    .....    .....    23/8   248/119
   9     1/0      4/1      5/0       .        .        .      10/1   258/120
  10      .       3/2      1/0      4/4       .        .       8/6   266/126
  11      .        .        .      71/26      .        .      71/26  337/152
  12      .        .        .     120/7       .        .     120/7   457/159
  13      .        .        .     113/7      1/1       .     114/8   571/167
  14      .        .        .     100/3      9/4       .     109/7   680/174
  15      .        .        .     103/3      5/2       .     108/5   788/179
  16    .....    .....    .....    86/4     18/11    .....   104/15  892/194
  17      .        .        .      77/4      1/0     15/9     93/13  985/207
  18      .        .        .      64/5     13/10     1/0     78/15 1063/222
  19      .        .        .      69/8     10/3      1/0     80/11 1143/233
  20      .        .        .      37/3      4/1     16/1     57/5  1200/238
  21      .        .      21/5     11/9      2/2       .      34/16 1234/254
  22      .        .      50/7      6/4       .        .      56/11 1290/265
  23      .        .      44/9     13/6       .        .      57/15 1347/280
   0    .....    31/4     11/2      1/1     .....    .....    43/7  1390/287
   1      .      21/1      5/1       .        .        .      26/2  1416/289
   2      .      13/2       .        .        .        .      13/2  1429/291
   3      .      15/2       .        .        .        .      15/2  1444/293
   4     1/1      2/0      1/1       .        .        .       4/2  1448/295
   5     1/1      5/0       .        .        .        .       6/1  1454/296
   6      .      23/3       .        .        .        .      23/3  1477/299
   7     1/0      5/0       .        .        .        .       6/0  1483/299
   8    .....     1/0      8/0     .....    .....    .....     9/0  1492/299
   9      .        .       1/1       .        .        .       1/1  1493/300
  10      .       1/0      1/0      7/0       .        .       9/0  1502/300
  11      .       1/1       .      82/1       .        .      83/2  1585/302
  12      .        .        .      75/2       .        .      75/2  1660/304
  13      .        .        .      56/1      2/1       .      58/2  1718/306
  14      .        .        .      45/0     18/10      .      63/10 1781/316
  15      .        .        .      65/1      5/0       .      70/1  1851/317
  16    .....    .....    .....    43/1     23/5     .....    66/6  1917/323
  17      .        .        .      57/1      1/0      1/0     59/1  1976/324
  18      .        .        .      44/2      6/3      1/0     51/5  2027/329
  19      .        .        .      57/2      5/2       .      62/4  2089/333
  20      .        .        .      19/3      4/0       .      23/3  2112/336
  21      .        .       3/1     22/2       .        .      25/3  2137/339
  22      .        .      46/2      7/0       .        .      53/2  2190/341
  23      .       4/0     14/2      6/1       .        .      24/3  2214/344
DAY1    42/27   131/51   198/62   880/96    63/34    33/10    ..... 1347/280
DAY2     3/2    122/13    90/10   586/18    64/21     2/0       .    867/64
TOT     45/29   253/64   288/72 1466/114   127/55    35/10      .   2214/344

Call: K5ZD (W2SC op)            Country:  United States
      Mode: CW                       Category: Single Operator

      BAND     QSO   COUNTRIES

      160      102     46
       80      460     65
       40      834     87
       20     1432     92
       15      145     58
       10        2      2
     ------------------------

     Totals   2975    350  =   3,123,750

Equipment Description:

• FT-1000 + Alpha 76, IC-765 + L-4B
• 160m 1/4-wave GP, Shunt feed 90′ tower
• 80m Inverted vee @95′, 1/4-wave GP
• 40m Cushcraft 40-2CD @110′
• 20m Hygain 205CA @100′, 205CA @50′
• 15m 5-ele @75′
• 10m 6-ele @67′ fixed South
• TH7DXX @90′

The Contest

When Randy, K5ZD, announced that he would not be operating the ARRL DX contests I immediately informed him that I would be glad to put his station on the air if he was offering.  He said that SSB was a sure thing and he would let me know about CW.  Ultimately, both weekends were available and I was not about to let the opportunity pass.

I flew out from my current QTH in Kansas on Thursday night to set up my FT1000D as the primary radio and his 765 as the second radio.  I also wanted to use my own two radio switching arrangement as I tried his split headphone solution in last year’s ARRL SSB and could never use it effectively.  I am impressed by those (K5ZD, N4VJ, et. al.) who can use this scheme.  It did not take long to get the stuff working and the station was more or less set.  Randy had two suggestions however. First, he wanted to use the computer to run the FT1000D.  I did not have the RS-232 interface for the FT1000D and did not think it was necessary for CW (On SSB it is invaluable for 40/80 splits).  Nonetheless, he had a KIY box and it worked flawlessly.  He also has a problem with his computer where the CT screen would mysteriously change colors at random times.  He suggested using my laptop at the computer to drive his keyboard and monitor.  Once again he had it running in short order.  Despite the warnings about Windows 95 and CT, everything looked fine.

On Friday, the plan was to do some errands in the morning, have lunch with a friend, and sleep in the afternoon.  When I returned to Randy’s house for the nap, I found that my key did not work and I was locked outside in the freezing rain.  I got pretty soaked as I repeatedly circled his house trying to find a lock where the key would operate.  No amount of swearing would make it work.  Not knowing what to do, I decided to drive to my house in a neighboring town that I have rented and asked the tenants if I could crash there for a few hours.  Everything worked out and we all had a good laugh when I got back to Randy’s.

Everything seemed all set to start the contest when the computer hung as I tried to program the CW messages.  I restarted the computer and the same thing happened.  At this point, it was minutes before the start and I was starting to get concerned.  After trying several things, I finally decided to go back to Randy’s computer notwithstanding the funny monitor colors.  It had now passed 0000Z and I was not ready.  When Randy’s computer would not send either, I started to panic. Just then, Randy came home from work and he got things working.  I had not made a Q yet and I was already mentally spent.

My first Q was at 0015 but I did manage 85 Q’s in the first hour.  40 essentially quit at 0130 and I was off to 80.  The 02Z hour produced 89 Q’s on 80 and I was starting to feel pretty good again.  Things played well all night on 80 and 160 but the 40 meter European sunrise opening was nearly non-existent.

20 opened at about 11Z and I managed to run off 1237 stations in the next 12 hours.  Around 13Z I started to listen to the multis attempting to run on 15.  The rate on 20 was huge and but I did not want to miss the 15 meter opening.  I lost last years ARRL SSB partly by passing on a mediocre 15 meters to run on 20 and not getting another chance at the multipliers when the band did not open at all on Sunday.  I finally jumped to 15 but could not get much going.  I had a good but not great rate.  I eventually went back to twenty and returned to 15 later.  As it turned out, there was to be no real 15 meters on the following day.

In the meantime, they kept calling on twenty.  The continuous action all day and the ease at which I could get and hold a frequency were incredible.  One time when Randy stopped by to check the score, I simply told him that his 20 meter signal was obscene.  20 wilted at around 1930 and it was off to 40 where I had only had about 200 Q’s the first night.  I worked around 400 Q’s on 40 in the next five hours.  I had 1850/272 at the split and things felt good.

I managed to keep things going on 80 and 160 including running about 30 stations on 160 in the 5Z hour.  The dreaded 8,9,and 10Z hours produced a total of 12 Q’s and 8 mults.  In this period I took a refreshing 15 minute nap.

Twenty returned at 11Z and things started hopping again.  It shut down a little earlier on Sunday I went to 40 shortly after 19Z (2PM local).  I knew that W1KM was going to be tough to beat so I promised myself not to let down and push full bore to the end.  The last few hours finished with 63, 59, 44, and 48 Q’s.

I left Randy’s not knowing W1KM’s score and my anticipation rose until mid-week when I learned the disappointing news that I had been beaten by about 70K points. While I had a 60 Q edge, I was 16 mults behind.  It was clear that I had not pushed the second radio hard enough.  All it would have taken was 8 more countries.

I actually got to compare notes with Greg on the Thursday before the SSB ‘test (a subject of another story).  After a contesters ritual of exchanging excuses (he had a computer crash during a 20 meter run, I lost 15 minutes at the beginning, he could only do 700 watts on 80, I did not have a gain antenna on 80, etc) we compared notes.  On the first day, he went to 15 early, got good rate, and worked many Q’s and mults that I never got.  At the midpoint, I had a slight lead but he had a big hour on 160 at 01Z and worked 30 mults.  I never had the lead again.

It is always fascinating to compare notes.  Although 48 hours is a long time, every decision is vital and all it takes is a couple of mistakes or missed openings to spell the difference.  It is clear that one must make every minute useful and repeatedly reassess whether you are doing the most productive (Score maximizing) thing possible.

In the end, there are no excuses, skill and experience prevailed, and that is the way it should be.  Congratulations to W1KM on a fine effort.

Rate Sheet

BREAKDOWN QSO/mults  K5ZD  ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST  Single Operator

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT 


   0    .....    .....    85/21    .....    .....    .....    85/21   85/21
   1      .      36/19    40/10     8/6       .        .      84/35  169/56
   2      .      89/12     1/1       .        .        .      90/13  259/69
   3    19/15    25/2      6/5       .        .        .      50/22  309/91
   4     9/6     26/2     10/6       .        .        .      45/14  354/105
   5     6/5     33/2      3/2       .        .        .      42/9   396/114
   6     3/2     45/5      1/0       .        .        .      49/7   445/121
   7     1/0      9/6     34/6       .        .        .      44/12  489/133
   8    .....     3/3     12/5     .....    .....    .....    15/8   504/141
   9      .       2/1      8/5       .        .        .      10/6   514/147
  10      .       2/0      4/0     24/16      .        .      30/16  544/163
  11      .        .       1/1    132/22      .        .     133/23  677/186
  12      .        .        .     143/7       .        .     143/7   820/193
  13      .        .        .     113/2       .        .     113/2   933/195
  14      .        .        .      38/1     60/22      .      98/23 1031/218
  15      .        .        .      61/2     32/4       .      93/6  1124/224
  16    .....    .....    .....    89/3     11/3     .....   100/6  1224/230
  17      .        .        .      86/2      8/8       .      94/10 1318/240
  18      .        .        .      78/1      5/4      1/1     84/6  1402/246
  19      .        .        .      63/2      5/2       .      68/4  1470/250
  20      .        .      65/9     26/1      4/2       .      95/12 1565/262
  21      .        .     125/0       .        .        .     125/0  1690/262
  22      .        .      86/4      5/4       .        .      91/8  1781/270
  23      .        .      66/0      3/2       .        .      69/2  1850/272
   0    .....    .....    54/3      3/1     .....    .....    57/4  1907/276
   1    10/4     31/3     11/1       .        .        .      52/8  1959/284
   2     3/1     30/2       .        .        .        .      33/3  1992/287
   3     8/3      7/0       .        .        .        .      15/3  2007/290
   4     4/1     33/1      1/0       .        .        .      38/2  2045/292
   5    30/5       .       3/2       .        .        .      33/7  2078/299
   6     4/1     46/1       .        .        .        .      50/2  2128/301
   7     1/0     23/1      1/1       .        .        .      25/2  2153/303
   8    .....     2/2      1/0     .....    .....    .....     3/2  2156/305
   9     2/2       .       2/0       .        .        .       4/2  2160/307
  10     2/1      1/1      2/2       .        .        .       5/4  2165/311
  11      .        .        .      75/1       .        .      75/1  2240/312
  12      .        .        .     110/2       .        .     110/2  2350/314
  13      .        .        .      81/2      1/1       .      82/3  2432/317
  14      .        .        .      72/1       .        .      72/1  2504/318
  15      .        .        .      65/1      2/1       .      67/2  2571/320
  16    .....    .....    .....    55/2      3/3      1/1     59/6  2630/326
  17      .        .        .      56/2      2/1       .      58/3  2688/329
  18      .        .        .      22/1      7/3       .      29/4  2717/333
  19      .        .      30/1     11/0      3/3       .      44/4  2761/337
  20      .        .      60/1      1/1      2/1       .      63/3  2824/340
  21      .        .      55/0      4/4       .        .      59/4  2883/344
  22      .        .      42/1      2/1       .        .      44/2  2927/346
  23      .      17/2     25/0      6/2       .        .      48/4  2975/350
DAY1    38/28   270/52   547/75   869/71   125/45     1/1     ..... 1850/272
DAY2    64/18   190/13   287/12   563/21    20/13     1/1       .   1125/78
TOT    102/46   460/65   834/87  1432/92   145/58     2/2       .   2975/350

K5ZD, Single Op All Band, High Power

By Randy Thompson, K5ZD
k5zd@contesting.com

Summary Sheet

              CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1996

  Call: K5ZD                     Country:  United States
  Mode: CW                       Category: Single Operator
                                           High Power

      BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES

      160      174      488     2.80     16      57
       80      343      961     2.80     22      81
       40      744     2170     2.92     33     112
       20     1138     3358     2.95     34     109
       15      725     2141     2.95     27      95
       10       25       59     2.36     12      16
     ---------------------------------------------------

     Totals   3149     9177     2.91    144     470  =>  5,634,678

Station Description

• Radio 1 – Icom IC-765 + Alpha 76CA (connected to either tower 1 or 2)
• Radio 2 – Kenwood TS-930S + Drake L-4B (connected only to tower 2)

Tower 1 – 100′ Rohn 45G

• 40-2CD @ 110′
• 205CA @ 100′ / 50′
• 5-el 15 @70′ on rotary sidemount
• 6-el 10 @75′ fixed south
• 80m Inv Vee with top at 95′
• 160m 1/4-wave GP with 4 elevated radials

Tower 2 – 90′ Rohn 25G

• TH7DXX at 90′
• 40m 1/2-wave sloper to west
• 80m 1/4-wave elevated GP with 4 radials
• 160m Inv Vee with top at 88′

The Story

I have a routine that I try to follow in preparing for a major single op effort in a DX contest. It includes getting plenty of rest during the week leading up to the contest, taking a 3 hour nap just before the contest, and having the station tuned and ready well in advance. I didn’t get to do any of these this time!

My company shipped our very first production product on Friday afternoon. Not without lots of last minute details and corrections of course. I arrived home in a rush at 2315Z and flipped on the equipment. A quick change of clothes, grabbed a sandwich, and I was in the shack writing down the amp tuning settings at 2345Z. Got the clock and computer set with just minutes to spare.

Started the contest on 40m because that is always the place to start. Almost couldn’t find a frequency and ended up at 7042. It was a strange beginning. The band was open, but not really. The big Eu stations were very loud, but it must have been so noisy and crowded that the little guys just couldn’t get through. I was tuning an almost dead 20m band on the second radio and caught some garden variety stuff. It was so slow calling CQ that I actually did some S&P for the last 20 minutes of the hour [thus violating the single op rule that says if you are not calling CQ during a rate period you are losing!].

40 was so bad I headed for 160 at 0100Z. First station I heard was OH1NOR with a good signal (he would be much louder later). Spent 10 minutes and worked a few other Eu before heading to 80m.

I was really feeling tired at this point and wondered how I would ever get through the full weekend. Experience told me that I would get over this feeling as I got more into the contest… I did, but not until sunrise!

80 CW is not my best band. My antenna, which seems to do fine on Phone, just doesn’t cut it on CW. I would get a little run going and then some European would sit down next to me and it was over. Very frustrating and resulted in lots of S&P work on 80. My first spin up the band went all the way up to 3578!

Back to 160 during the 02Z hour. Got a small run going on 1841 from 0220 to 0234Z. Nothing rare, but it got my confidence back. Went to 40 when I found ZD8DEZ while tuning on the second radio. Couldn’t find a frequency to call CQ on, so just tuned up the band for some high speed S&P. Worked multipliers all the way up to 7061!

At 03Z it was back to 80m for more tuning. Actually got a very small run at 3560 but then lost the frequency. Again I chased stations all the way up to 3579. If you haven’t been tuning up this high, there are lots of second level Europeans up here who like to call CQ.

I pushed 160 pretty hard during the 04Z hour. The band was filled with Eu signals but they were not hearing me as well as I was hearing them. No doubt due to the high QRM levels. Best catch was 4X4NJ at 0412Z. Had to wait for Riki to work a few Europeans first, but he eventually heard me. Never heard him again all weekend. Then I found RU6LWZ for another double mult.

At 0445Z it was back to 80m. I needed some QSOs so tried to call CQ as much as possible. Got 3506 for a few minutes and had WH6R call in (this is good since I usually miss KH6 on this band for some reason). Finally found a home at 3529 which was good for 30 QSOs or so. UA9FGR in zone 17 called in at 0507 and he was loud (well over S9)! That surprise was followed by LU4FD which was a nice double.

I spent the rest of the evening bouncing between 80 and 160. Anything for a QSO! The second rig was on 40m (using a sloper to the west) chasing Caribbean stations. I could tell the MUF was below 7 MHz so I invested my time on the LF bands.

Since I had not operated the contest last year (KM3T used my station) I didn’t really know what to expect. I had downloaded the K1AR multi-single and W1KM single op rate sheets from the contesting on-line web site. These gave me something to chase and I was falling behind on QSOs, but doing very well for multipliers. It seemed that everywhere I went I found more and more mults. Even still, it is amazing to see the scores on the 3830 reflector and realize how much stuff I missed!

Conditions to northern Eu were very good on 80 and 160. I have never worked so many OZ, LA, OH and SM stations!

At 0830, I finally found a good frequency to call CQ on 40m (7007). In the midst of the Europeans I was called by a weak and very fluttery VS6BG. A few minutes later I found JA1YXP with a very good signal.

The 09Z hour was very slow, but filled with lots of multipliers. Even at 10Z, the Eu big guns were still coming through on 40m. RZ9UA/0 in zone 18 was extremely loud (as he was all weekend!). At 1024Z I heard what sounded like a JA calling CQ on 80m. I dropped my call in just for grins and was amazed to have him come back with the complete call immediately. I had to ask JK1OPL for his call 3 times so he was hearing lots better than I was. That is the earliest and easiest I have worked JA on 80. That gave me a needed shot of adrenaline.

At 1040Z the Europeans started to come through on 20. I called a few of them but most were beaming east and couldn’t hear me. I was surprised to catch VK9NS on 80m at 1055Z. To celebrate, I stood up for the first time and made a 10 minute potty and food break. I came back to find N5OLS/KH8 and TX8FU on 40m for new ones.

At 1115Z I got to 20m to start the morning’s business. I got one of my favorite spots, 14026, and the rate was immediate. I worked 272 QSOs in just 94 minutes! All during the run, the receiver sounded intermittent. It was annoying, but the signals were loud enough that I could still copy even when it cut out. I finally decided something had failed in the 20m stack as I had not noticed the problem before.

At 1254Z I moved up 7 MHz exactly from 14026 to 21026. The rate was stayed in the incredible range with 273 contacts in 118 minutes. The receiver was still cutting out and it was driving me crazy. I took a few minutes to try and solve the problem by wiggling coaxes and removing the watt meter from the line but it quickly returned.

Just as happened in the phone contest, the rate went from high to low in just a short period. It seems that I have a 15m band opening only antenna. The rate slowed so much that I went back to 20m at 1520Z to get something going. It was almost impossible to find a frequency to CQ on. The fluttery backscatter signals were all very wide making it even more difficult to squeeze in. I finally found a crack at 14037 and stayed there from 1526 until 1803Z. I caught a few multipliers on 15m using the second rig.

During this run I had continued to try to figure out the receive problem. I finally realized that the amp relay had to be the problem. At one point during the night, while listening on the Beverage, I had transmitted into an open relay position. This probably burned the relay contacts. It took only minutes to pop the cover of the Alpha 76 and buff the contacts with some sand paper. Problem solved! That’s the first in-contest equipment failure here in a long time (knock on wood).

At 1809Z I decided I had better check 10m. First signal heard was W6NL for a zone 3 multiplier. K1KI was next and that was it. No other signals on the band!

Since I had spent so much time on 20m, I knew I really needed to hit 15 before it closed. It was almost too late for Europe, but there was still plenty of multipliers ranging from EA6IB to ZD8DEZ to AH8N to HC8N to D44BC.

At 1910Z I went back to 10m and caught P40W, a very weak 3E1DX, and some LUs. That was it for 10m on Saturday.

I got 14003 and started a small run. Looking at the previous year’s rate sheets, it looked like 40m was where I should be so I moved on down. At 1924Z I captured 7013. This was home for the next 2 hours and 140 QSOs. Best call in was TF50IRA for a nice double! The second radio was active on 20 catching goodies like 9U5DX and 3C5A. OX3SA called in a bit later to complete the zone 40 ‘run’.

At 2215Z, I realized that 20m was open to JA. Since the rate on 40 was going down, I decided to give it a try. This is the one place my K5 call is a disadvantage — the JAs are so busy chasing the W1/W2/W3 guys that they seem to ignore a less rare K5! After a nice run of 20 JAs it was over. The band was still open, but no one was calling.

I went to 15 for a quick multiplier scan. I was beaming west after just working VK2AYD when I heard JA5DQH on scatter. He was right at the noise level but I dropped my call in just in case. I didn’t think he had come back to me until I heard “Hi Randy”! I just about fell out of the chair. I worked ZM2K for my third double mult and then back to 20m to finish out the hour chasing multipliers.

The 23Z hour was all on 40 in a mix of S&P plus CQing. The only spot I could get in was 7039. Even there, it was tough to hold a spot. I have never seen 40m so crowded. It was impossible to get a frequency below 7020.

At 2336Z my wife informed me that dinner was ready if I wanted it. It sounded better than beating my head against a wall so I took my second real break of the contest. Just 13 minutes later I am back in the chair.

At the 24 hour mark, I had 1821/118/373 for about 2.58M. My ‘formula’ for determining my final score goal is to double this and add 10%. That would be around 5.6 Million which seemed rather incredible at the time. Most interesting to me was that I had 99 countries on 40m and only 81 on 20m.

My goal for the second night was to chase multipliers. During the 00Z hour I found TK5EP and T9DX on 160m, then ES6DO, VP5EA, and YO4WP on 80m. I was searching for 5V7A since I knew they had to be somewhere on the band. I finally found them on 3557 of all places, and the pile-up was big enough that they were listening up 1 kHz! The op was really good since he got me on the first call (isn’t that how you define someone as being a good op?)!

At 01Z I realized that 20m was open to JA again. Not runnable, but I spent some time chasing the ones that were calling CQ. The opening was rather narrow as I didn’t hear anything other than JA and some zone 19 UA0s.

When I returned to 40m I found ZS8IR working at a slow but steady pace. Amazingly, that is an all time new country for me! A few minutes later I am trying to establish a CQ frequency on 7034 when I hear 7Q7EH come on and call CQ. Another good catch in the log. Then I find YL3IZ/MM in zone 34 for a nice one. I finally end up with a small run on 7061.

At 0224Z its back to 160m. I am relying on 160m to get the extra multipliers I will need to make up for W1KM’s big 80m totals. I find CT8T, UU5J, OI0MEP, LZ9A, and LA8SDA for new ones. At this point I am up to 53 countries on 160 but I have heard lots of stuff that I didn’t work. Things like GD4UOL and 7Z5OO.

During the 03Z hour I end up with a slow run up at 3572 of all places! No multipliers up there but some much needed QSOs.

At 0417Z I start CQing on 1838. I finally break through the European QRM and get something going. The next 26 minutes has 21 QSOs including TF50IRA for a great double mult. When that runs out, I tune around and find GW, HB9, D44, and CT3.

About this point my head is dropping toward the keyboard every 5 minutes or so. I try operating standing up, while jogging in place, you name it. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought that W1KM won’t sleep — so I can’t either! I have also promised my 6 year old son that I won’t do any more contests this season so I decide that I had better do this one right.

About 0546 I get a good run going on 7006. Best call is from UA9KM who gives me the zone 17 multiplier. UN9LW calls in at 0604Z for a new country. At 0648Z CX9AU gives me a real unexpected surprise multiplier. This run of 92 contacts from 0546 to 0709Z keeps my attitude up and gives me a welcome break from the constant tuning. Although, in some ways it is much more difficult to run stations when you are tired than to tune around. I hate it when I fall asleep in the middle of a QSO and can’t remember what I am supposed to do next (do I push F1 or F3 or ‘+’???)!

This run probably decided the contest. Comparing with W1KM after the contest, Greg slept during this period and gave away these QSOs and multipliers! That’s why you can never doubt your goal or give up your motivation…

The next 90 minutes are just slow. On a quiet 20m band, KC4AAA in Antarctica gives me zone 39 which is a new one. ES5Q and GU3HFN are new ones on 40m. I unsuccessfully waste about 10 minutes in the V47KP and YV5JDP pileups on 160m. As well as my antenna works to Europe, it works inversely bad to the south!

I want to work zone 3 on 160m. I hear several of them but can’t get their attention. Find W6BA calling CQ but he can’t hear me. I then decide to call CQ W6 and hope for the best. Five minutes later W6DAO responds and gives me zone 3.

At 0836 I am feeling pretty good but decide that I should go to sleep so I will be fresh for the high bands. It appears that 40m is not going to do anything so the prospects for more QSOs are not too good. I have more multipliers on 40-160 than I expected so there is little more to be gained. I sleep from 0845 to 1020Z. I wake up without the normal sleep disorientation, have a bite to eat and get back on the radio.

I quickly scan the LF bands and am on 20m by 1100Z. It is all S&P (I catch 3V8BB, ED9EA, and C31LJ) until 1133Z when I get 14043 and start running. It’s a good spot worth 163 QSOs in 87 minutes. I break off the run when HC8N starts up about .5 kHz above me. I work him for a multiplier and then head to 15m.

The first open spot is 21010 which is just above W1KM. I spend the next 3 hours here and work 362 contacts. Mults that call in include GI3OQR, ZS8IR (double), GM0DJI/Shetlands, EK4JJ, VP5EA, HB0MX, ER1OA, and others.

Conditions sound so good that I keep an ear on 10m. At 1505Z J39A pops through followed immediately by 9Y4H. PY0FF is weak but comes right back. At 1525Z I find 3DA0NX working Europeans and USA. I get through on the first call which was a surprise and allowed me to keep the rate going on 15m. The next station I heard was G4BUO. I swung the beam and he kept getting louder. By the time our QSO was over, he was already getting weaker. Direct path Europe on 10m but only for a VERY short period! At 1841Z some sporadic E began and I worked K8AZ for zone 4. I also heard a VE3 but couldn’t get through the pile-up. At 1552Z I had RK9JWZ call in on 15m for a double mult. At 1600Z TI1C showed up with a big signal on 10m. Minutes later I found 5V7A for another double mult. I don’t think the op at 5V7A could believe it as it took several overs to confirm everything.

At this point the rate is slowing on 15m and I have to turn my full attention back to it. I make the jump to 20m to keep the rate up. Once again it is incredibly difficult to find a clear frequency. I have to tune the entire band twice. Then I find a wide open spot at 14031. Some real loud European must have just left because it was a very clear frequency. I spend the next 2-1/2 hours here for another 170 QSOs.

The second radio is busy on 10m and 15m. I know I am way behind on 15m multipliers so I push hard looking for new ones. I am chasing easy stuff like J6DX and J87GU on 15m and 8P9Z on 10m. Around 1840Z I take a quick spin across 15m while searching 20m for mults. I find 6W1AE on 20m. Then, while calling someone 20m I am called by A71CW! This is the only time I hear Chris all weekend. Was amazed to find afterwards how active he was in the contest. The CQ WW is so big that it is impossible for a single op to find and work even the most active multipliers.

I stay on the frequency where I worked A71CW and return to CQing. The band sounds like the sunspot maximum with strong European signals still coming in. I find JW5NM on the second radio with a huge signal on 15m. Then OD5NJ calls in on 20m. A few minutes later ZM2K calls in on 20m LP for a double multiplier. Then OH0JJS gives me another one.

I try to get something going on 40m around 1930Z. It doesn’t seem to be as good as the previous day so I give up after about 20 minutes. I go back to CQing on 14001 to work the last of the Europeans. They just keep coming!

I break off the run to chase FO5PI on 15m. Then I find JW5NM on 20m for another double, followed by J8, KP2 and HP4 for new countries. I go to 40m at 20Z and break a wild pile-up to 7X2RO who is as close to 7.000 as you can get. A few minutes later I get through to J45T (a pretty amazing feat in itself). I wedge in just above N6BV on 7019 and try to get a run going. I am getting answers but some kind of QRM makes copy difficult. 9K2/YO9HP gives me a smile.

At 2200Z I realize the JAs on 20m are the best I have heard all weekend. I can’t get them to call me, but they all come back on the first call. I search every kHz looking for rare stuff. I find W4NXE/DU3 underneath HC8N (sorry Trey). Then I work BV/JJ1TBB under VE7CA. Both are welcome double mults.

The rate is too slow and the band seems to be fading. I go back to 40m at 2245Z. I start CQing at 7061 (the only frequency I can find) and get a few answers. I finally give up and start searching down the band. At 2315Z I stumble across 7035 which sounds half clear. I call CQ and have the pleasure of a run that just keeps going faster and faster right up to the end of the contest. OD5NJ and T77WI give the score a final boost.

I get excited as I get close to my personal record of 5.57M set from K3TUP. I actually dig out the CQ Magazine records to see that the USA record of KM9P is out of reach at 5.8M. Never expected to be this close or might have given up the 2 hours of sleep! Maybe next year…

What a great contest. The competition from W1KM really kept me going and provides an extra satisfaction in winning.

Misc Notes:
I learn new things each contest. Looking back, I can say that it took me 5 years to really know how to correctly operate a DX contest. The value of experience and station maturity can not be overstated.

It actually seems to be getting easier to stay awake for the whole contest than I remember in the past. Do I need less sleep as I get older? Or am I just getting better at making sure I am more rested before the contest. I used to get so excited I could hardly sleep the night before a major contest. Now I can lay down and take a nap Friday afternoon without hardly trying!

CW is lots better than phone! It’s still hard to get a frequency, but the tempers aren’t quite as sharp and the pile-ups seem to be better behaved. I didn’t hear anyone going by call areas for example and the packet pile-ups weren’t quite as noticeable.
Yes, I really promised my son that I wouldn’t do any more contests this season (that includes next Spring). Station available!

73,

Randy Thompson, K5ZD

Continent Statistics

                    160   80   40   20   15   10  ALL   percent

North America   CW   26   51   56   51   32   10  226     7.2
South America   CW    2    8   16   26   28   12   92     2.9
Europe          CW  141  273  627  961  646    1 2649    83.9
Asia            CW    1    3   19   79    6    0  108     3.4
Africa          CW    3    6   18   20    9    2   58     1.8
Oceania         CW    2    3   10    5    5    0   25     0.8

Rate Sheet

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

   0    .....     2/2     77/29     3/3     .....    .....    82/34   82/34 
   1     8/8     57/27     4/4      5/2       .        .      74/41  156/75 
   2    25/12     9/4     33/22      .        .        .      67/38  223/113
   3    12/3     44/9      1/0      1/0       .        .      58/12  281/125
   4    36/8     20/4      3/3       .        .        .      59/15  340/140
   5    18/1     39/4      3/3       .        .        .      60/8   400/148
   6     1/1     38/7     27/9       .        .        .      66/17  466/165
   7     9/6      6/3     15/3       .        .        .      30/12  496/177
   8    .....    16/8     21/6     .....    .....    .....    37/14  533/191
   9     5/5      6/4      4/3       .        .        .      15/12  548/203
  10     2/2      4/3      9/1      7/7       .        .      22/13  570/216
  11      .        .       3/2    119/22      .        .     122/24  692/240
  12      .        .        .     155/10    19/11      .     174/21  866/261
  13      .        .        .        .     158/22      .     158/22 1024/283
  14      .        .        .       6/3    102/7       .     108/10 1132/293
  15      .        .        .      62/3     19/1       .      81/4  1213/297
  16    .....    .....    .....   114/7      5/2     .....   119/9  1332/306
  17      .        .        .     115/5      6/6       .     121/11 1453/317
  18      .        .        .      14/5     31/22     2/2     47/29 1500/346
  19      .        .      51/2     12/1      3/2      6/3     72/8  1572/354
  20      .        .      88/3      7/5       .        .      95/8  1667/362
  21      .        .      72/7      4/4       .        .      76/11 1743/373
  22      .        .      11/0     29/6      3/3       .      43/9  1786/382
  23      .        .      35/3       .        .        .      35/3  1821/385
   0     6/2     30/4     .....    .....    .....    .....    36/6  1857/391
   1      .        .       6/2     28/1       .        .      34/3  1891/394
   2    15/5      1/0     18/2       .        .        .      34/7  1925/401
   3      .      41/0       .        .        .        .      41/0  1966/401
   4    28/4      7/0       .       2/1       .        .      37/5  2003/406
   5     4/2     16/5     23/1      1/0       .        .      44/8  2047/414
   6      .        .      61/2       .        .        .      61/2  2108/416
   7      .       5/0     16/2      3/1       .        .      24/3  2132/419
   8     4/1      1/0     10/1     .....    .....    .....    15/2  2147/421
   9      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   2147/421
  10     1/0      1/0      1/0      1/1       .        .       4/1  2151/422
  11      .        .       2/1     70/5      2/1       .      74/7  2225/429
  12      .        .        .     108/0      2/2       .     110/2  2335/431
  13      .        .        .       3/2    128/4       .     131/6  2466/437
  14      .        .        .       2/0    130/6       .     132/6  2598/443
  15      .        .        .        .      87/2      7/7     94/9  2692/452
  16    .....    .....    .....    76/3      6/0      4/3     86/6  2778/458
  17      .        .        .      53/0      5/0      5/3     63/3  2841/461
  18      .        .        .      35/4     11/3       .      46/7  2887/468
  19      .        .      14/1     31/3      6/3      1/0     52/7  2939/475
  20      .        .        .      46/4      2/1       .      48/5  2987/480
  21      .        .      46/3      3/1       .        .      49/4  3036/484
  22      .        .      17/0     21/3       .        .      38/3  3074/487
  23      .        .      73/2      2/0       .        .      75/2  3149/489
DAY1   116/46   241/75  457/100   653/83   346/76     8/5     ..... 1821/385
DAY2    58/14   102/9    287/17   485/29   379/22    17/13      .   1328/104
TOT    174/60   343/84  744/117 1138/112   725/98    25/18      .   3149/489

Hours/Rate

DAY1   2.7/43   3.9/62   7.2/64   5.8/112  3.4/102  0.1/55    .....  23.1/79 
DAY2   2.2/26   2.7/38   5.3/54   7.4/66   3.5/108  0.3/65      .    21.4/62 
TOT    4.9/35   6.6/52  12.5/60  13.2/86   6.9/105  0.4/62      .    44.5/71

K5ZD, Single Operator, All Band, High Power

By Randall A. Thompson, K5ZD
k5zd@contesting.com

Summary Sheet

          CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1996

Call: K5ZD                     Country:  United States
Mode: SSB                      Category: Single Operator
                                         High Power

 BAND    QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES

 160      46       97     2.11     11      29    1/4-wave GP, Inv vee @ 90'
  80     237      647     2.73     16      74    Inv vee @ 95', 1-/4-wave GP
  40     312      893     2.86     27      86    40-2CD @ 110'
  20     994     2908     2.93     34     125    Stacked 205CA @ 100'/50'
  15     728     2146     2.95     27     110    5-el 15 @ 70'
  10      74      210     2.84      9      27    TH7DXX @ 90'
-------------------------------------------------

Totals  2391     6901     2.89    124     451  =>  3,968,075

The Station

• Radio 1 – Icom IC-765 + Alpha 76CA (connected to either tower 1 or 2)
• Radio 2 – Kenwood TS-930S + Drake L-4B (connected to only tower 2)

Tower 1 – 100′ Rohn 45G

• 40-2CD @ 110′
• 205CA @ 100′ / 50′
• 5-el 15 @70′ on rotary sidemount
• 6-el 10 @75′ fixed south
• 80m Inv Vee with top at 95′
• 160m 1/4-wave GP with 4 elevated radials

Tower 2 – 90′ Rohn 25G

• TH7DXX at 90′
• 40m 1/2-wave sloper to west
• 80m 1/4-wave elevated GP with 4 radials
• 160m Inv Vee with top at 88′

The Story

Sometimes it is far better to be lucky than good…

I had a number of very good reasons to operate this contest:

1. It is one of my favorite contests, has fantastic world wide activity, and signals the
   beginning of the fall contest season.
2. I had done a lot of work on the station over the summer with this contest in mind. I raised my 70′ tower to 90′. Added an Inv vee for 160 to help with the Caribbean (it didn’t). I worked on the audio switching inside the station to simplify going between radios. Rebuilt my TH7DXX to like new condition. Got some bandpass filters for the second station.
3. My nemesis, K1AR, had a business commitment that would prevent him from operating the contest. Wow! After 3 years of finishing second to John, here was my chance to win.
4. I had done a lot of work rebuilding K1IU (now K1AM) this summer and had all of his antennas working. I even put him together with W2SC who was looking for a station to single op from. Now we were finally going to find out which station was
   “better”.

I had some pretty good reasons not to operate this contest:

1. I am involved in a start-up software company that is demanding virtually every waking moment of my time. It is exciting, but leaves me exhausted at the end of each day.
2. My former employer threatens me with a lawsuit. Needless to say, this consumes a lot of mental energy!
3. My 6 year old son Andrew had several competing activities for the weekend including cub scouts and his final soccer game of the year (I am assistant coach).
4. It is the bottom of the sunspot cycle and this would be one of the better years to skip!

Those of you who are used to reading my annual contest stories know that I always seem
to find a way around these distractions. But this year, the reasons not to operate were
winning.

Tuesday night before the contest, I turn on the radio and the bands sound broken. Even a C6A station on 160 seems to have auroral flutter! The next morning before work, I listen across the bands and there is not a signal moving the S-meter at 12Z. This is about as bad as conditions can get.

They improve a little bit on Thursday, but it still doesn’t sound very good. Given the external pressures in my life, I decide that I will prepare to do the contest, but will probably not do the whole thing. I want to save myself for SS CW and WW CW.

I get home about 5PM Friday night and take a nap until 7:00. The contest starts at 8PM. I sit down, mark all the amp settings, and listen to how poor things sound. I start on 20m S&P for the first 5 minutes. Work CY0XX who is 40db over 9 plus some Caribbean. Go to 40m and it sounds OK. I settle in with the main radio on 40 and the second station on 20 beaming south.

I am able to CQ transmitting on 7189 and listening on 7088. Get a short run of about 10 Europeans. It is murder listening through all the QRM. Best catch is RA4AG for a sometimes difficult double mult. 40m kind of dies to Europe around 0130Z and then things really slow down.

When I get to 75m, ON4UN is only about S4. We work and I know it is going to be a long night if John is that weak.

Usually when conditions are poor, I can always count on spending some time on 160m picking up new multipliers. This year, 160 was very marginal. Except for IG9/IV3TAN. What a signal he had, both nights, all the time. It was amazing to hear him CQing S7 to S9, and yet not another European signal on the band. My only Europeans on 160 the first night were YU1ZZ and CU2AF. Called 9A800OS many times without success.

This left 75m as the only place to hang out. I settled in around 3820 calling CQ and listening down around 3648. The rate was slow but steady. I would CQ for 10 or 15 minutes, then go to another band for S&P. Kept the second rig on 20 all night picking up each new LU station as they showed up. Had a good run of Europeans on 75m from 0330Z to 0530Z. Managed to work some good multipliers that called me — UA2FJ, RA4CC, ES7RE, LY1DQ, OH3RB, HB0/DL6FDB, IT9THD, SL3ZV, UT4UZ, and GU3HFN. This is why calling CQ is so important on the low bands. Had an even better run on 75m during the 06Z hour. The next morning on 15m, OH1EH tells me that only a few US stations were coming through – me, KC1XX, W1FJ. Wow. Those guys have lots better antennas than my inverted vee!

Meant to go to bed at 07Z but kept finding just one more QSO. Then decided that 08Z would be bedtime but kept finding more QSOs. Worked JF1IST and JA1YXP on 40m. Finally at 0845Z, it slowed to the point that I decided to get some sleep. This is the point that I “quit” the contest as I would normally never sleep during the first night.

Got back on at 1030Z (90 minutes of sleep). Surprised to find 20m open so I did a couple of quick sweeps across the band. It must not have been runnable because I went to 40m at 11Z and caught some good multipliers — UA0JQ was the best.

Back to 20m at 1110Z and sat down on 14157. Stayed here for an hour of 113 QSOs. Started checking 15m with the second radio about 12Z. Worked some Caribbean stations and then noticed that the Europeans appeared to be coming in direct path. Tried to run on 15m for 15 minutes but not very good rate. Went back and amazingly recaptured 14156! Ran there for another 30+ minutes.

Finally 15m warmed up enough to do something. At 1252Z I settled on 21238 and had 100+ rate for an hour and then did more S&P. I don’t know if I was not loud or if there was low activity, but I just wasn’t able to command a frequency.

Some time later, it was really depressing when I chatted with K1DG at KC1XX and he was 200 QSOs ahead of me for the morning and said N6BV had a 200+ hour. Wow… We were talking up on 21392 which was the first clear spot I had been able to find. It was good to me as 9H1DE and W4WET/TF7 were two new mults that called in.

About 1440Z I was starting to lose interest in the contest. Its amazing how the drive to continue goes away once you think you are out of it. I stopped for a moment to talk with W2SC at K1IU. I told him I was going to quit and wanted to know his line score so I could see how I was doing. I don’t think Tom really wanted to trade numbers and asked if I was sure I was quitting. He told me he was at 438K. I made a surprised comment and told him I was looking at 800K+ on my screen. I think this mentally destroyed Tom for the next few hours (sorry OM). It also made me give some thought to continuing…

I scanned 15m one more time and then went to 20m at 1450Z. Wedged my way in on 14196 and had a pretty good run of Europeans. The rate meter was well over 100 when my wife came in to ask me about something at 1509Z. I had 900 QSOs exactly.

I left the radio and helped her with a project. Then I had some breakfast and fell asleep on the couch. After another 90 minute sleep break, it was time to get my son ready for the soccer game. While he was getting dressed, I sneaked into the shack and did a little high speed S&P. From 1757Z to 1820Z (23 minutes) I worked 55 stations and 13 multipliers. Most of them were on a virgin 10m band. If I had a dollar for every LU that commented on my signal during this period I could afford to buy some more antennas!

I took Andrew to the soccer game (another loss). The weather outside was fantastic. A perfect sunny, crisp fall New England day.

Got back on the air around 2005Z and tuned across 10 and 15m chasing QSOs. Finally got to 20m and started to run on 14176 about 2039Z. Had a good hour or more and then discovered JAs were coming in. Kept moving the beam between Eu and JA.

About this time I got into a rather juvenile frequency fight with K7RI. I had heard him come on the frequency so I knew I was there first. But he was working JA and I was beaming Europe so we coexisted for awhile. Once I started trying to work JA, he moved down exactly on top of me and we traded senseless CQing for awhile. Then we yelled at each other and finally I “won”. This is the kind of stupid thing I would never waste time doing if I was serious. As it turned out, I felt rather silly and embarrassed when it was over.

I got to 40m about 2300Z. The band was rocking and rolling with 40 over S9 signals from
one end to the other. It was obvious that I was a little late. I started CQing on 7182 QSX
7057. Had a nice string of 65 QSOs. Best multiplier was 9K/YO9HP for a double! It definitely seems that split frequency on 40m phone is getting more productive each year.
Less broadcast station QRM or better radios?

At 2330Z it was dinner time. Had a wonderful spaghetti dinner with my wife and son. This must be how “normal” people ENJOY contests. There is a lot less pressure when you can just walk away at any time.

I came back at 0015Z and started CQing on 7193 QSX 7093. I ran another 36 stations with the best being OX3SA for a very rare double mult. Things slowed down around 0100Z and it became a game of search and pounce. 160m and 75m conditions were better the second night but the activity was not (or I had already worked most of the loud stations). Kept checking 160 but not much was happening. Worked M6T, EA8AK, CT3FN and ZD8Z among others.

I compared scores with KM9P about 05Z or so. We had exactly the same QSO total but he
was over 50 multipliers ahead. I figured it was up to him or N6BV to win.

I made only 4 contacts between 0500Z and 0534Z and decided that I had enough. Went to sleep and set the alarm for 1045Z. Didn’t actually hear it and don’t wake up until after 11Z. Getting 5 hours of sleep on Saturday night in a DX contest really gave me a new view of Sunday!

I woke up with the goal of seeing if I could make the top ten and get in the band breakdown box. Comparing to previous year’s rate sheets I could see that I was in good shape on the LF bands, but needed lots of QSOs and mults on 15 and 20. I dug out the results in CQ Magazine for the past two years to see if I could guess what it would take to make the top ten. It looked like 2.5M would be enough.

Took me 15 minutes to find a frequency on 20m and started to run about 1127Z. It was OK, but the band had a funny sound to it. Almost like it does at the top of the cycle when the MUF has risen way above the band. Signals were hollow sounding and some of the deep Asians were pretty loud.

Turned on the second rig and checked 15m. The band was already wide open with excellent European signals. First signal I heard was S01M at 1143Z for a new multiplier. Immediately switched the main radio to 15m and started searching for a frequency to call CQ. Took 5 minutes to land on 21287.

Thus began the best hour of rate I have ever had in a DX contest from the USA. I worked
310 QSOs in the next 106 minutes. QRATE calculated the best hour at 203! Interestingly, it was the ‘perfect’ kind of high rate — usually only one or two stations calling at a time
with very few repeats. Opening the morning with this kind of rate really got me going.

Strangely, the next 2 hours were not very good. It was almost like the band took a dive
or the arrival angle passed out of the hot spot of my antenna. I even went back to 20m to
CQ for awhile it was so bad. Started running again on 21248 about 1430Z. Best call was
from VU2PAI for a double mult. The “low” rate gave me a chance to chase Africans on 10m. This really started to help the multiplier total. Called stations almost all of the 15Z hour.

Finally settled into 14198 around 16Z and started the run that would eventually decide
the contest. Four solid hours in a row (1602Z until 2002Z) on the same frequency produced plenty of QSOs AND mults. Plus it gave me a base of operations I could do the second radio stuff from. Some of the interesting things that CALLED ME included: HS0ZAA, VU2PAI, HS1BV, UK8IW, some JAs and UA9s, UN0G, VU2HDA, HL1CW, VU2MTT, EA6JN, 4S7RF, A45ZN, 4S7OF, some 4X4s, ZC4EE, T88T, 8Q7BT, 4WET/TF7, OD5NJ, CT3HG, GD4PTV, GM0ILB/Shetlands, 9J2BO, and UK0A.

I keep talking about this second radio stuff. What’s it really worth? Well, during the same 4 hour period when I was running on 20 and had 367 QSOs plus all those great multipliers call in, here are some of the mults I worked on 10m and 15m using the second rig: HC0E, 3DA0DX, V51GB, 8R1K, V59T, AH8A, 9J2SZ, 5C8MC, D44BS, VP9ID, 9L1MA, KP2BH, and ZD7SAS. This is all without ever transmitting on two bands at the same time! It is amazing how easy it can be to find pileups and opportunities to call stations even with rates over 1/minute on the CQing frequency. All made possible by our friend the DVP!

I went back and counted up my second radio QSOs for the contest. I had only 128 of them. 25 were new zones. An amazing 63 were for new country multipliers! As you can see, I don’t waste much effort on working contacts on the second rig but I do make a big effort to chase multipliers.

My wife came home from the store at 2002Z so I had to take a break to unload groceries from the car and eat lunch. Back on about 2040Z until the end of the contest. Did some more S&P for awhile chasing multipliers then back to CQing on 20. Got 14172 about 2123Z and had some more good rate and mults. Called by 3A2HB and then the shock of the weekend — SU1ER! Too bad I didn’t have all those other zones you need for WAZ.

Got down to 40m about 2230Z and it was even better than the night before. The band was packed! When searching for a listening frequency I was surprised to hear the big USA multi-multi stations listening on frequencies like 7012, 7014, and 7020. I had always tried to stay above 7040 if possible (and certainly above 7030 at the lowest). I listened down and they were getting plenty of answers.

Worked OD5NJ while looking for a spot. I found a transmit frequency just off of K3LR at 7182 and started listening on 7014. It sure is easier to run stations when they are in the clear rather than under some loud Italian or Slovenian! Called by JY9QJ and EW4MM for few multipliers. Had to give up on 7014 when V59T started calling CQ there! Decided to listen up at 7075 to capture some of the guys who were obeying the band plan and was rewarded with GI4VKS and LX1NO for new ones.

Things really slowed down in the last half hour. Even tried CQing for VEs on 75m with no luck. Finally decided to try 160 at the end. Heard 9A800OS the loudest he had been all
weekend and managed to get his attention for a new multiplier at 2357. Two kHz down was TK1A for another new one at 2359Z. Great way to end up!

Went to 3830 to listen to the scores. Heard K3ZO check in with 3.0M and was a bit surprised to be ahead of him. As the multi-single scores came in, I started to get excited. Then N6BV was below me. When KM9P checked in with 3.6M I was really thrilled because it meant I may have gotten lucky! Is there anyone with a bigger score hiding out there? Guess it will have to wait for the high claimed scores to come out.

According to CT, I operated 34.1 hours. This is just about right as a I had set the off
threshold to 20 minutes. I was pretty serious when I was on the air, so all I really gave up were the sleep periods and short breaks. The 4 hours off on Saturday afternoon may have been worth as much as 200-400K on the final score. On the other hand, if I had not taken
the breaks I may have made more mistakes and even finished worse!

In an ironic twist, I can say that if K1AR was going to be on, I probably would have skipped the contest completely. They had a major power failure at K1EA’s station for a number of hours on Sunday, so there is no guarantee that John would have overcome that. But if he had been on, I wouldn’t have been there, so… If you want to win, you have to operate the best you can as much as you can. There are no sure things!

Some general comments…

Bad conditions in the days leading up to and during the contest really seemed to have hurt activity. Especially on the second day. It was obvious from the big pile-ups that the serious multi-ops were on, but not the casual entries.

The packet pile-ups were as instantaneous as ever. Very frustrating to get there first and then not make a QSO as a pile of packet assisted ops show up. The packet piles weren’t as deep as past years so it was easy to come back in 10 minutes or so and make a QSO.

My pet peeve regarding packet is what it has done to split frequency on 80 and especially 40m. I listened to ZD8Z on 40m for 8 minutes (all while vainly searching for his listening frequency) without him announcing it. Just as I found it, he gave it out. When we worked, I told him about it and he replied that with the packet pileup he didn’t need to give it. That’s great for Jim, but a pain in the butt for those of us doing it the old fashioned way! I don’t mind waiting a bit but 8 minutes seems a little long.

I did not hear a single station going by call areas all weekend. Overall, the operating
that I observed was excellent. Not many lids on either side of the pileups.

It was also amazing after the contest to read the reports by various DX stations that made thousands of QSOs, yet I had never heard them all weekend! This contest is just getting too big.

See you in WW CW!

Randy Thompson, K5ZD

Continent Statistics

                  160   80   40   20   15   10   ALL   percent

North America      33   57   33   62   32   10   227     9.5
South America       4   21   30   63   66   57   241    10.1
Europe              5  152  223  740  592    0  1712    71.6
Asia                0    0    6  102   15    0   123     5.1
Africa              4    8   13   11   20    7    63     2.6
Oceania             0    0    7   16    3    0    26     1.1

Hourly Rate Breakdown

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

   0    .....     2/2     45/26    17/14    .....    .....    64/42   64/42 
   1     2/1     14/12    20/13    14/5       .        .      50/31  114/73 
   2     5/4      8/1      8/3     14/5       .        .      35/13  149/86 
   3      .      29/19     9/5      4/2       .        .      42/26  191/112
   4     7/6     35/10     3/2      5/2       .        .      50/20  241/132
   5     4/3     34/7      5/2      3/1       .        .      46/13  287/145
   6     3/2     57/7       .       1/1       .        .      61/10  348/155
   7     5/4     15/8     14/5       .        .        .      34/17  382/172
   8     1/1      1/1     15/7      1/1     .....    .....    18/10  400/182
   9      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    400/182
  10      .       1/0       .      29/14      .        .      30/14  430/196
  11      .        .       6/4    105/21     6/6       .     117/31  547/227
  12      .        .        .      72/5     41/22      .     113/27  660/254
  13      .        .        .       6/2    127/17      .     133/19  793/273
  14      .        .        .      26/3     55/10      .      81/13  874/286
  15      .        .        .      26/1       .        .      26/1   900/287
  16    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....  900/287
  17      .        .        .       6/1       .        .       6/1   906/288
  18      .        .        .      12/1       .      37/11    49/12  955/300
  19      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    955/300
  20      .        .        .      34/7     43/15     9/0     86/22 1041/322
  21      .        .        .      62/3      5/3       .      67/6  1108/328
  22      .        .       1/1     45/7      1/0       .      47/8  1155/336
  23      .        .      60/7       .        .        .      60/7  1215/343
   0    .....    .....    39/3     .....    .....    .....    39/3  1254/346
   1     1/0      5/3      1/1       .        .        .       7/4  1261/350
   2     5/3     11/2      6/1       .        .        .      22/6  1283/356
   3     3/2      8/2     10/1       .        .        .      21/5  1304/361
   4     6/1     13/3      2/0       .        .        .      21/4  1325/365
   5     2/2      2/0       .        .        .        .       4/2  1329/367
   6      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1329/367
   7      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1329/367
   8    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    ..... 1329/367
   9      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1329/367
  10      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1329/367
  11      .       1/0      2/1     33/1     52/3       .      88/5  1417/372
  12      .        .        .        .     203/7       .     203/7  1620/379
  13      .        .        .      14/0     77/6      1/1     92/7  1712/386
  14      .        .        .      25/3     44/3      3/3     72/9  1784/395
  15      .        .        .        .      29/5     12/11    41/16 1825/411
  16    .....    .....    .....    78/6     .....     5/1     83/7  1908/418
  17      .        .        .      91/6      8/5      2/0    101/11 2009/429
  18      .        .        .      89/3      9/6       .      98/9  2107/438
  19      .        .        .     109/5      2/0      5/0    116/5  2223/443
  20      .        .        .       4/1     20/1       .      24/2  2247/445
  21      .        .        .      55/6      4/1       .      59/7  2306/452
  22      .        .      24/2     11/1      2/2       .      37/5  2343/457
  23     2/2      1/0     42/4      3/1       .        .      48/7  2391/464
DAY1    27/21   196/67   186/75   482/96   278/73    46/11    ..... 1215/343
DAY2    19/10    41/10   126/13   512/33   450/39    28/16      .   1176/121
TOT     46/31   237/77   312/88  994/129  728/112    74/27      .   2391/464

BREAKDOWN in Hours/QSO's per hr

DAY1  1.3/21   3.6/55   3.6/52   5.7/84   2.8/101  0.4/121   .....  17.3/70 
DAY2  1.4/13   1.5/28   3.2/39   6.2/83   3.9/114  0.6/46      .    16.9/70 
TOT   2.7/17   5.0/47   6.8/46  11.9/84   6.7/109  1.0/74      .    34.1/70

 

K5ZD (opr. W2SC), Single Op All Band, High Power

By Tom Georgens, W2SC
w2sc@arrl.net

Summary Sheet

            ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1996

 Call: K5ZD(W2SC opr.)          Country:  United States
 Mode: SSB                      Category: Single Operator

      BAND     QSO    COUNTRIES

      160       62      38	1/4 Wave GP
       80      321      73	Inverted Vee @ 90'
       40      303      68	402CD @ 110'
       20     1641     118	5/5 @ 100'/50'
       15       86      42	TH7DXX @ 70'
       10       11       7	TH7DXX @ 70'
     ---------------------

     Totals   2424     346  =   2,516,112

Equipment Description:

• IC-765 + Alpha 76, TS-930 + L-4B
• 160m 1/4-wave GP, 80m Inverted vee @90′, 40m 40-2CD @110′
• 20m 205CA @100′, 205CA @50′
• 15m 5-ele @75′
• 10m 6-ele @67′ fixed South
• TH7DXX @70′

The Contest

Just before the ARRL CW, Randy K5ZD asked if I wanted to do a multi-op at his place for SSB. I had already decided not to do SSB from home that weekend but I said that I would let him know in a week or so.

On the weekend before the SSB contest, Randy put out a message offering his station so I figured I better give him a call. He indicated that he was not that eager to operate and I could do a single op if I wanted. But I wasn’t so sure and since I had a mid-week, cross country business trip planned I left it up in the air. At the time, my preference was for a multi since I was not familiar with his station and he mentioned that there were a few problems with microphone switching for two radios. When I operate from home, I have to have complete stability and I make no station changes after Wednesday night. I was concerned about being tired and unfamiliar with the setup and embarrassing myself with a poor score. To further complicate matters, Randy said “Oh by the way, K1AR is also doing single op.”

I eventually cancelled my business trip and decided on Thursday that “no guts no glory” prevailed and I would try single op. On Friday, I knew the word was out when KC1XX sent me a packet message asking me to send Randy up to his place to operate. I suggested that he take K1AR instead. He replied that K1AR will go up there after 36 hours if he had me beat by then. I was little peeved but Matt later owned up to making up that comment up by himself.

Randy said to meet him at his place at 23Z and he would give me the tour of the station. We discussed single versus multi for a while and, at 2330Z, we finalized the decision that I would do single op. I got the short tour and I was ready to go at 00Z.

I got off to a slow start as I got the feel of the station. I was CQing on 40 and taking mults on the second radio on 20. Whenever, I went to 20 I was blowing away the frequency settings on the run radio. It took a few hours to figure out what I had to hit to switch radios. Then, on my first QSY to 160, I was getting no output. It turns out I left the radio in split and was transmitting on 80. On the other hand, entering the frequency from the CT keyboard for the 40 and 80 splits was a dream. I need to do that at home.

Eventually things (and I) calmed down and stuff started to happen. 80 started to play and I made sure I worked hard at 160, Randy’s best band. 40 meters even had a EU sunrise opening which did not occur on the CW weekend. After 10 hours I was at 448/172, and I was relatively pleased, especially after a number of ops stopped by that night to say how poor conditions were.

The dead time between sunrises was not too bad. The last EU worked on 40 was 0954Z and the first on 20 was 1028Z. Twenty opened slowly but eventually broke for good rate. Little did I know then but I was going to be around 14.164 for most of the next 10 hours.

After a couple of high rate hours on 20 I started listening on the second radio for an opening on 15. Randy splits the headphones between the two radios, one in each ear. I do not do that at home and I could never really use two radios effectively when I had any kind of rate on the run radio. I have deep respect for anyone who can operate with a different radio in each ear.

I primarily used the second radio to listen to KC1XX CQ on 15 to see if the band was open. He eventually started to get sporadic answers but not enough for me to QSY. Later, around 1530Z, I heard K1AR on 15. At this point I figured that I needed to give the band a try. I CQ’d for about 15 minutes, worked a handful of guys at the noise floor, and decided that it was not worth giving up the 100+/hour rate on 20 for this. I went back to my old frequency on 20 and continued to run. I occasionally checked 15 after that. At one point I heard K1AR again, he called CQ about 5 times without an answer, and I decided to just run 20 until it died. It turns out that the 15 meter decision was a fatal mistake the magnitude of which I would not realize until later.

Twenty was absolutely incredible with Q’s and mults rolling in all afternoon. After 20 closed, I searched for mults for awhile and went to 40 and 80. Had some success on 40 just before 00Z. Finished the first day at 1573/286 with 1078 Q’s on 20.

Around 01Z, K1AR stopped by asking to compare scores. I do not like to compare scores since it tends to demoralize me, but I figured I had to give him a score. In addition, Randy’s computer had a problem where the colors in CT would arbitrarily change and I spent most of the contest with the colors being pink and gray. As such, it was very hard to read the score box. In fact I could not pick out the numbers without putting my face right up to the screen. When we exchanged, I was stunned to find that I was 50 QSOs ahead but he had around 40 more mults. The difference was 15 meters where he had 50 mults and I had 6. He was up by about 150K but I was quite happy to even be in the ballpark. I never expected to be that close, let alone ahead on q’s. Things were not so bad and my feeling was that if 15 had the same opening on Sunday, I could pick up the mults when the 20 rate was lower and this could be a game.

I pressed very hard that night on 40, 80, and 160 and I slowly picked up some ground. John told me he was going to sleep but I decided to stay up. I eventually took a 10 minute nap when things got very slow. 160 was a disappointment the second night. Randy has a big signal on this band and I was hoping to pick up some multipliers by CQing but it was to no avail. By 10Z, my QSO lead on AR was 120, his multiplier lead was around 25, and the point differential was down to 70K.

Twenty was even slower to open on the second day. I suspected that this would be a bad omen for 15 despite the fact that the same thing happened on CW and 15 was better the second day. After a few hours of running John and I were still 70K apart. Unfortunately, 15 never opened to Europe and there was no way for me to catch up on the multipliers. I compounded the problem by leaving a runnable 20 to chase South Americans and look for unusual mults. Not being able to effectively use the second radio really hurt at this point. When I was on 15, AR had a 140 hour on 20 and it was never close again.

As of 18Z on Sunday my 10 meter total was 0/0 but I heard one of the LU’s say that they were going to 10 so I checked there periodically for the rest of the contest for the sporadic openings.

Eventually ran out of gas in the last 2 hours and AR pulled away even further.

In the end, I never really recovered from the 15 meter blunder on the first day and attempts to make up ground proved counterproductive. However, when the contest was over I was not the least bit disappointed. I told Randy that it was like being handed the keys to an Indy car on race day. My goal was to keep from smashing into the wall and not
necessarily to beat Rick Mears. As time goes on though, it is starting to gnaw at me.

Of course I would like to congratulate K1AR and thank Randy for the use of his station. He has done a great job building the place. I have operated from only a few other places but, in each case, I never really felt louder than I do from home. I expected the same to be the case this weekend but it was not true. I felt very loud on all bands (perhaps it was the fact that every 10th station said I was the “loudest on the band”) and the difference from my home station was very tangible. Randy’s internal setup is very simple and intuitive and, most importantly, it worked. The two radio setup proved to be a handicap for me but a better operator could use it to great effectiveness. Interstation interference was also near zero.

Randy was also the perfect host. He delivered orange juice and Wheat Thins (combined with 4 bottles of warm soda it was my entire sustenance) and stayed away from making suggestions or anything else that could be construed as assistance.

Another thing about his station is that you can look straight ahead out a window into his backyard. It is very good for the eyes and eliminates the “closed in” nature of contesting. It was particularly interesting to watch the weather since we had rain, snow, sun, clouds, thunder, and lightning. In fact the snow static was so bad that nothing could be heard at times.

About 6:15AM Sunday morning, Randy came down to say that it was lightning outside. I said that was ridiculous in March. As he was looking out the window, lightning lit up the sky, the radios browned out, and a tremendous clap of thunder came 2 seconds later. Fortunately, that was the only occurrence but it sure woke me up for a while.

Overall, conditions were poor but I had a great time and I learned a great deal. Thanks again to Randy for actually giving me an opportunity to compete for the top spot.

73 and thanks for the contacts,

Tom W2SC

Continent Statistics

                 160   80   40   20   15   10   ALL   percent

North America     16   27   20   32   29    3   127     5.2
South America      4   20   20   54   47    8   153     6.3
Europe            42  265  249 1454    8    0  2018    83.2
Asia               0    3    2   75    0    0    80     3.3
Africa             0    5    2   21    3    0    31     1.3
Oceania            0    2   10    5    0    0    17     0.7

Rate Sheet

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

   0    .....    .....    33/19    19/15    .....    .....    52/34   52/34 
   1      .        .      31/9     14/5       .        .      45/14   97/48 
   2      .      28/21     5/2     14/7       .        .      47/30  144/78 
   3     6/6     35/9       .       2/1       .        .      43/16  187/94 
   4    17/13    26/7       .        .        .        .      43/20  230/114
   5    13/8     28/3       .        .        .        .      41/11  271/125
   6    10/3     18/3      7/5       .        .        .      35/11  306/136
   7     4/3     18/9     28/6       .        .        .      50/18  356/154
   8    .....     3/3     55/7     .....    .....    .....    58/10  414/164
   9      .       4/3     30/5       .        .        .      34/8   448/172
  10      .       4/2      5/4     47/20      .        .      56/26  504/198
  11      .        .        .     148/22      .        .     148/22  652/220
  12      .        .        .     121/5       .        .     121/5   773/225
  13      .        .        .     111/4       .        .     111/4   884/229
  14      .        .        .      94/3       .        .      94/3   978/232
  15      .        .        .      77/4      8/6       .      85/10 1063/242
  16    .....    .....    .....   102/2     .....    .....   102/2  1165/244
  17      .        .        .      78/2      7/7       .      85/9  1250/253
  18      .        .        .      79/5      6/5       .      85/10 1335/263
  19      .        .        .      67/2      8/5       .      75/7  1410/270
  20      .        .        .      45/2     15/5       .      60/7  1470/277
  21      .        .       3/0     29/4       .        .      32/4  1502/281
  22      .        .      10/0     25/1       .        .      35/1  1537/282
  23     1/0      3/2     26/1      6/1       .        .      36/4  1573/286
   0    .....    28/2     .....     2/0     .....    .....    30/2  1603/288
   1     1/0     10/0      5/1       .        .        .      16/1  1619/289
   2     3/2     16/2       .        .        .        .      19/4  1638/293
   3      .      17/1      4/1       .        .        .      21/2  1659/295
   4      .       4/1      5/2       .        .        .       9/3  1668/298
   5     3/1     29/0      2/1       .        .        .      34/2  1702/300
   6      .      31/0       .        .        .        .      31/0  1733/300
   7      .      12/3     15/2       .        .        .      27/5  1760/305
   8    .....     2/0     14/0     .....    .....    .....    16/0  1776/305
   9      .       3/1      2/1       .        .        .       5/2  1781/307
  10      .       1/0      2/1     10/1       .        .      13/2  1794/309
  11      .        .        .      68/0       .        .      68/0  1862/309
  12      .        .        .      83/2       .        .      83/2  1945/311
  13      .        .        .      80/3       .        .      80/3  2025/314
  14      .        .        .      50/1       .        .      50/1  2075/315
  15      .        .        .      74/1      2/2       .      76/3  2151/318
  16    .....    .....    .....    19/0     16/8     .....    35/8  2186/326
  17      .        .        .      37/0     12/1       .      49/1  2235/327
  18      .        .        .      65/2       .       5/4     70/6  2305/333
  19      .        .        .      26/0       .       3/2     29/2  2334/335
  20      .        .        .      25/2      8/1      3/1     36/4  2370/339
  21      .        .        .      20/0      2/0       .      22/0  2392/339
  22      .        .      15/1      1/0      2/2       .      18/3  2410/342
  23     4/2      1/1      6/0      3/1       .        .      14/4  2424/346
DAY1    51/33   167/62   233/58 1078/105    44/28    .....    ..... 1573/286
DAY2    11/5    154/11    70/10   563/13    42/14    11/7       .    851/60 
TOT     62/38   321/73   303/68 1641/118    86/42    11/7       .   2424/346

DAY1  1.9/28   3.6/47   5.3/44  12.2/88   0.8/52    .....    .....  23.9/66 
DAY2  0.4/30   4.9/32   2.8/25   9.9/57   1.6/27   0.3/35      .    19.8/43 
TOT   2.2/28   8.4/38   8.1/37  22.1/74   2.4/36   0.3/35      .    43.7/56

K5ZD, Multi-operator Single Transmitter

By Randall A. Thompson, K5ZD
k5zd@contesting.com

Summary Sheet

                    
           ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1996

   Call: K5ZD                      Country: United States
   Mode: CW                       Category: Multi-Single
                                 Operators: K5ZD, WX3N

   BAND     QSO    QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES

   160      154      462   3.0       54    1/4-wave GP
    80      413     1239   3.0       77    Inv vee @90'
    40      842     2523   3.0       87    40-2CD @110'
    20     1442     4326   3.0      100    5-el/5-el @100'/50'
    15      148      444   3.0       69    5-el @70'
    10        6       18   3.0        3    TH7DXX @ 70'
  --------------------------------------
  Totals   3005     9012   3.0      390  =   3,514,680

The Contest

This was a practice run for the WX3N/K5ZD WRTC team. As Dave and I had never operated together before, we thought it might be good to get some time in before arriving in SF.

Dave was to arrive at the Providence airport at 4:45PM on Friday with the contest scheduled to start at 7PM. Plenty of time… except when there is a major snow storm that afternoon. Luckily, Dave was on one of the few flights which was allowed to land. We shook hands at the airport at 6PM. Now all we had to do was drive home (normally 40 mins in good wx) and get ready for the contest.

It was a true Le Mans start. We got to my place at 6:53. We couldn’t get up the driveway due to the snow, so we jumped out and walked up the hill. It was 6:57 when we entered the station and started turning equipment on. I got the computer booted and ready just as the clock turned over 0000Z. No introduction to the station — I just sat Dave on 40m and told him to work people while I got everything else figured out.

Never could get CT networking to run on my Windows 95 computer, so we settled for just one computer. This in turn made the second radio less useful, so we just used it as a spotting receiver. We ended up almost exactly following the rules for the WRTC so we feel we may have learned a few useful lessons.

The ARRL multi-single category’s 10-minute rule really robs both station and operator of any chance to utilize agility or skill. Both of us are experienced two-radio single ops, yet the 10-min rule meant we could only CQ and watch the packet screen. At the bottom of the cycle where only one band is open, this doesn’t make for much strategy. I.e., press F1.

Friday night was OK on the low bands. The MUF went below 40, but that is not so bad in New England where 80m, and even 160, are capable of producing QSOs all night.

Twenty opened as the sun was beginning to lighten the sky. We had excellent rate and it was obvious that much of the rest of the country had decided to take the weekend off. Despite the crowded band, there wasn’t the normal competition for frequencies. It seemed the faster Dave turned the keyer speed up, the higher the rate. 750 QSOs in 6 hours.

We pretty much skipped 15m on Saturday since 20 was so good. Decided to gamble on equal or better condx on Sunday when the rate would be lower. Turned out the be the right choice as 15m was better Sunday and the 20m rates were indeed lower.

10m was really bad. Interesting to hear VP5JP both days on what sounded like ground wave (probably weak sporadic E). Worked an LU and OA4SS for our other 2 countries. Heard TI1C for awhile on Sunday, but he faded out before the 10-minute limit would allow us to QSY.

In addition to the strength of the Eu signals on 80 and 160m, the real eye opener for Dave was when we went to 40m Sat afternoon. He got there about 1930z (2:30 PM local) and claimed 7002. It just seems amazing to be running Eu on 40m and yet the sun is still high in the afternoon sky.

As usual, at 0000z, the bands died and it became a grind of finding new QSOs on the LF bands. 160m was definitely better the second night. Dave found 23 new countries between 00z and 06z.

It is obvious that packet now dominates the DX contests. We marvelled at how fast the hordes would descend on a packet announcement. We were also amazed at the amount of stuff we found that had not been spotted. People put out DLs and G3s, while there is an FR5 only a kHz away! After awhile, we just waited until 10 mins after a spot was put out before even going to check it out.

The contest ended with the usual multiplier chasing excitement. We switched to 20m at 2350z to work S92SS for a new one. This stuck us on a near dead 20m band with little to do except search for new QSOs. A spot showed up at 2358z for PY0TI. I spun the dial, heard K1AR calling (they know how to use Alt-F4), dumped my call in and got him. It’s rare to beat K1AR in a pile-up, and even more satisfying when it is in the last minute of the
contest for a new multiplier! High fives all around.

We had been comparing notes with KC1XX during the weekend. Their big hardware was too much to overcome. Sunday morning, Matt’s 4 high 20m stack kind of walked away from us. But the real margin was on 80m where XX has a delta loop at 180′ compared to our inverted vee at 90′. Yet another DX contest where 80m costs me! Even so, it was fun to actually have real competition and know that it was going to be close.

Even with the frustration of the 10-min rule, I really enjoyed this effort. I am very busy with work and it was nice to be able to work, sleep, see my family, and still get to operate about as much as I wanted. Anyone want to do the phone contest?

Randy, K5ZD

Continent Statistics

                     
                 160   80   40   20   15   10  ALL   percent

North America     17   24   26   28   26    1  122     4.0
South America      4   10   16   15   22    5   72     2.4
Europe           129  374  758 1361   83    0 2705    88.7
Asia               3    5   17   46    2    0   73     2.4
Africa             1    5   14   16   10    0   46     1.5
Oceania            1    3   20    2    5    0   31     1.0

Rate Breakdown

BREAKDOWN QSO/mults

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

   0    .....    .....    84/26    .....    .....    .....    84/26   84/26 
   1      .      82/28     3/0       .        .        .      85/28  169/54 
   2    10/4     21/5     39/8       .        .        .      70/17  239/71 
   3     9/7     12/4     43/8       .        .        .      64/19  303/90 
   4    13/6     43/2       .        .        .        .      56/8   359/98 
   5      .      72/7       .        .        .        .      72/7   431/105
   6    20/9     13/2     12/4       .        .        .      45/15  476/120
   7     4/1      9/3     31/2       .        .        .      44/6   520/126
   8    .....     7/5     40/5      3/2     .....    .....    50/12  570/138
   9     3/3      4/1     19/8      4/2       .        .      30/14  600/152
  10      .        .      10/2     19/9       .        .      29/11  629/163
  11      .        .        .     108/22      .        .     108/22  737/185
  12      .        .        .     132/12      .        .     132/12  869/197
  13      .        .        .     140/7       .        .     140/7  1009/204
  14      .        .        .     131/3       .        .     131/3  1140/207
  15      .        .        .     131/2       .        .     131/2  1271/209
  16    .....    .....    .....   115/4     .....    .....   115/4  1386/213
  17      .        .        .      54/2     28/22      .      82/24 1468/237
  18      .        .        .      35/2      5/3      2/2     42/7  1510/244
  19      .        .      37/2     31/3       .        .      68/5  1578/249
  20      .        .     101/8       .        .        .     101/8  1679/257
  21      .        .     120/0       .        .        .     120/0  1799/257
  22      .        .      53/1     20/8       .        .      73/9  1872/266
  23      .       7/0     46/2      7/4       .        .      60/6  1932/272
   0     1/1     53/3     .....    .....    .....    .....    54/4  1986/276
   1    21/6      5/2      3/2       .        .        .      29/10 2015/286
   2     7/4      6/0      1/0      3/2       .        .      17/6  2032/292
   3    15/4     13/2       .        .        .        .      28/6  2060/298
   4     8/4     12/2      4/2       .        .        .      24/8  2084/306
   5    28/2      2/1      7/3       .        .        .      37/6  2121/312
   6     3/2     34/1       .        .        .        .      37/3  2158/315
   7      .       6/2      6/1       .        .        .      12/3  2170/318
   8    .....     3/3     16/1     .....    .....    .....    19/4  2189/322
   9      .       4/1      6/1       .        .        .      10/2  2199/324
  10      .       5/3      6/0       .        .        .      11/3  2210/327
  11      .        .       2/0     66/0       .        .      68/0  2278/327
  12      .        .        .      82/1       .        .      82/1  2360/328
  13      .        .        .      94/0       .        .      94/0  2454/328
  14      .        .        .      33/1     16/13      .      49/14 2503/342
  15      .        .        .      14/0     45/15      .      59/15 2562/357
  16    .....    .....    .....    40/1     23/2     .....    63/3  2625/360
  17      .        .        .      67/0      4/0       .      71/0  2696/360
  18      .        .        .      57/2      4/4       .      61/6  2757/366
  19      .        .        .      21/3     10/4       .      31/7  2788/373
  20      .        .      13/1     14/3      8/2      4/1     39/7  2827/380
  21      .        .      67/0       .       5/4       .      72/4  2899/384
  22      .        .      47/0     15/3       .        .      62/3  2961/387
  23    12/1       .      26/0      6/2       .        .      44/3  3005/390
DAY1    59/30   270/57   638/76   930/82    33/25     2/2     ..... 1932/272
DAY2    95/24   143/20   204/11   512/18   115/44     4/1       .   1073/118
TOT    154/54   413/77   842/87 1442/100   148/69     6/3       .   3005/390

Hours/Rate by band

DAY1  1.8/33   4.1/66   8.0/80   8.9/105  0.7/45   0.2/11    .....  23.7/82 
DAY2  3.3/29   3.7/38   4.4/46   7.2/71   3.2/36   0.2/22      .    22.0/49 
TOT   5.1/30   7.8/53  12.4/68  16.1/90   3.9/38   0.4/16      .    45.7/66