CQWW Contest, 29.-30. November 2003
HB9CZF - SOAB LP
As preparation for THE contest I took Friday off and arrived late afternoon at my contest hut. Inside temperature was +4C but the oil heating did a fine job and after a few hours it was cozy 23C. Not like in the Mediterranean but at least T-shirt weather inside and rain/snow outside. The goal of this contest was to try SO2R. I have a 3-bander for 10-20m and a 41m LW for 40/80m. The idea was go put my new SG-231 on top of the tower and run another 23m LW perpendicular to the first LW. Due to the rain I postponed tower climbing. The learning curve for SO2R was rather steep. I CQ-ed on 20m and S&P-ed on 40m. Loud European are not a big issue but weak Japanese needs the right timing. So far I understand how to check calls for the 2nd radio, switch from the 1st to the 2nd make the QSO and back to CQ on the first. I haven't figured out how to interleave quickly a QSO without loosing to much time. It only happend once that I lost my QRG on the "run" rig. SO2R brings the operator back into action and the rate goes up. Furthermore I don't rely on DX-Cluster and search my multis.
Conds over the weekend were a bit odd. Some of the Carribean were surprisingly weak (PJ2T and others only S7); VE2IM (Zone 2) produced a tremendous signal. Loads of front-, back- and side-scatter with multipath echos and I often went QRS (< 25 wpm). Signals from the South were very weak.
Most of the contest I S&P-ed and still could maintain a 60 QSO/hour rate. I started on 10m at the lower bandedge worked the whole band up until I couldn't find any stations. Then the same story on the next band. After seeing all the reports on the internet I'm still surprised how many calls I've never heard all weekend.
Speaking about DX-Cluster. Below the report from dxc.pi4cc.net I took back home Sunday night:
7045.2 HB9CZF
30-Nov-2003 0606Z
<k2te>
this was a S&P QSO.
7046.2 HB9CZF
30-Nov-2003 0629Z
<w3lpl-4>
W3LPL was actually my QSO #1 on Saturday. He might have heard me while I worked VE6JY.
14058.3 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003
0734Z
<w6yx>
06:46z I started CQ on 14058 and beamed 60 degrees. This covers Eastern Europe, Asia, JA,
VK and ZL. I could interleave a few W/VE on 40m. 07:17z I heard HC8N a few 100Hz off my
QRG. I moved my VFO worked him and back to "my" QRG. After a few CQ ZL1CT/mm
sailing in Zone 10 answered. The above spot brought a few K and AH2R into my log. Congrats
to W6YX: Good ears and RX. He was just audible.
14058.2 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003
0756Z
<w0aih>
Then another weak signal popped up: W0AIH. If you are running 1kW then congrats to your
RX!
BTW: my shack is surrounded by farmland and I have no manmade QRN/QRM.
Sunday afternoon I tried to run NA. I started 15:43z on 21090 and it took 11 minutes
until the DXCluster had me.
21090.4 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003 1554Z
<k1mz>
21090.3 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003 1608Z
<w0soc>
21090.3 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003 1657Z
<k7zo>
21090.2 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003 1659Z
<wa3kyy>
21090.4 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003 1707Z
<k9imm>
21090.4 HB9CZF 30-Nov-2003 1738Z
<w1to>
I stayed there until 18:05z and interleaved 6 QSO's (40m).
Statistic says:
The best 60 minute rate was 133/hour from 1551 to 1650
The best 30 minute rate was 146/hour from 1655 to 1724
The best 10 minute rate was 180/hour from 1702 to 1711
and at a rate of >120/hour I can't do SO2R anymore.
After WRTC 2002 in OJ-land passing multipliers seems to be the new game. Jeff, N5TJ,
himself started. He was at the controlls of KP3Z and asked to QSY from 40m to 80m. I had
to beg for a 2 minutes timeout. As you can see on the picture: Just above the notebook and
the K2/100 there is a red box. That's the L/C remotecontroll of my LW and a QSY from 40 to
80m takes to 2 minutes. The L goes from one end all the way to the other and when the
meter read 8.8 volt I have to finetune for best SWR (which is 1:1.0). Two minuntes were
past, Jeff was there and a new multi for both in the logs. W3BGN just followed for another
QSO.
In the afternoon in the middle of a run EA6IB found me and draged me from 20m to 15m and
10m. It took 4 minutes. Don't try to turn your beam. I was pointing 60 degrees (Asia) and
backscatter works much better. BTW: I'm HAM since 1984 but worked my first EA6 only 2
years ago and now this.
Sunday at 11:15z VK4UC was another candidate. He pulled me from 15m to 10m. Ehhmmm, is HB9
a rare Multi ?!?
And the last one was Ben, DL6FBL: I found him on 10m, we exchanged the 5nna4's and he thanked for the just worked multi. This time I offered him HB9 on 15m and he managed on his 2nd radio.
Highlights were SO2R, beeing called by FK8KAB and AH2R.
Lowlights: Where were the loud signals from Africa and where were the Asian multipliers ?
How can I miss so many calls although I S&P-ed for almost 20 hours ?
Rig: K2/100 and Ten-Tec OMNI VI+
Ant: 3el Yagi for 10-20m and 41m LW for 40/80m.
Log: Writelog 10.43F
Claimed Score
QSOs QSO Points Zones Countries 160m: 0 0 0 0 80m: 155 217 9 44 40m: 259 520 16 65 20m: 247 425 20 55 15m: 642 1517 28 81 10m: 243 575 26 66 Totals: 1546 3254 99 311 Score: 3254 * (99 + 311) = 1'334'140
Rate Sheet
QSO/ZN+DX by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm OffTime
D1-0300Z - 9/9 47/28 - - - 56/37 56/37 D1-0400Z - 73/32 - - - - 73/32 129/69 D1-0500Z - 35/5 13/3 12/11 - - 60/19 189/88 D1-0600Z - - 38/22 21/15 - - 59/37 248/125 D1-0700Z - - 24/9 - 8/7 23/16 55/32 303/157 D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 78/24 --+-- 78/24 381/181 D1-0900Z - - - - 23/10 25/12 48/22 429/203 D1-1000Z - - - 28/18 19/7 - 47/25 476/228 D1-1100Z - - - 16/5 4/2 11/9 31/16 507/244 8 D1-1200Z - - - - - 8/5 8/5 515/249 60 D1-1300Z - - - - 17/8 46/10 63/18 578/267 D1-1400Z - - - 19/6 42/15 - 61/21 639/288 D1-1500Z - - 16/7 2/2 - 13/4 31/13 670/301 D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- 4/3 --+-- --+-- --+-- 4/3 674/304 45 D1-1700Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D1-1800Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D1-1900Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D1-2000Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D1-2100Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D1-2200Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D1-2300Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 674/304 60 D2-0100Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D2-0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D2-0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 674/304 60 D2-0400Z - 2/2 16/2 - - - 18/4 692/308 38 D2-0500Z - 36/5 14/2 3/1 - - 53/8 745/316 D2-0600Z - - 60/3 22/3 - - 82/6 827/322 D2-0700Z - - 2/0 86/11 1/1 1/1 90/13 917/335 D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 8/1 --+-- 36/9 44/10 961/345 D2-0900Z - - 5/0 - 25/5 4/2 34/7 995/352 D2-1000Z - - - - 4/0 11/3 15/3 1010/355 D2-1100Z - - 2/0 - 30/13 4/4 36/17 1046/372 D2-1200Z - - - 7/0 37/7 - 44/7 1090/379 D2-1300Z - - - 23/2 - 29/9 52/11 1142/390 D2-1400Z - - - - 20/1 32/8 52/9 1194/399 D2-1500Z - - 4/0 - 71/6 - 75/6 1269/405 D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 128/1 --+-- 128/1 1397/406 D2-1700Z - - 2/0 - 123/2 - 125/2 1522/408 D2-1800Z - - 12/2 - 12/0 - 24/2 1546/410
Total: 0/0 155/53 259/81 247/75 642/109 243/92
Country & Zone Distribution
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total
3V 1 2 3
3W 1 1
4J 1 1
4L 1 1
4U1I 1 1
4X 2 3 5
5B 1 2 4 5 4 16
6Y 1 1
8P 1 1 2
9A 5 3 3 2 13
9H 1 1 1 1 4
9M2 1 1
9Y 1 1 2
A4 1 1 1 1 4
A6 1 1 2
BV 1 1
BY 2 2
CM 1 1 2
CT 2 1 1 4
CT3 1 1 2 3 7
CX 1 1
D4 1 1 1 3
DL 9 10 4 16 4 43
EA 3 2 4 1 10
EA6 1 1 1 3
EA8 1 1 2 1 5
EA9 1 1
EI 1 1
ER 1 2 3
ES 2 2 3 7
EU 3 1 4 5 13
EX 1 2 1 2 6
EY 1 1
F 4 2 3 3 3 15
FK 1 1
FM 1 1
G 6 5 4 8 1 24
GI 2 2
GM 1 1 3 1 1 7
GM/s 1 1 2
GU 1 1
GW 1 1 1 1 4
HA 10 9 6 2 2 29
HB 1 1 1 2 5
HC8 1 1 1 3
HI 1 1
HL 1 1
HP 1 1
HZ 1 1
I 3 7 3 1 14
IT9 1 1
J3 1 1 2
J8 1 1
JA 5 13 22 9 49
JT 1 1
JY 1 1 2
K 20 86 19 318 75 518
KH2 1 1 2
KP2 3 1 4
KP4 1 1 1 3
LA 2 3 3 1 9
LU 2 1 3
LX 1 1
LY 6 3 4 6 19
LZ 2 2 9 4 1 18
OE 1 2 2 1 1 7
OH 2 2 7 15 2 28
OH0 1 1 1 3
OK 11 10 6 15 2 44
OM 5 2 3 2 2 14
ON 2 1 1 3 2 9
OY 1 1
OZ 1 3 1 2 2 9
P4 1 1 1 1 4
PA 3 2 5
PJ2 2 1 3
PY 2 1 4 7
S5 10 3 4 6 1 24
SM 4 4 2 8 4 22
SP 8 11 10 9 1 39
SU 1 1 2
SV 1 1 2
SV5 1 1 2
T7 1 1
T9 2 2 1 1 6
TA 4 1 1 1 7
TF 2 1 3
TG 1 1
TI 1 1
TK 1 1
TU 1 1
UA 3 9 36 38 24 110
UA2 1 1 1 1 4
UA9 7 29 21 24 81
UK 1 1
UN 2 4 6 4 16
UR 2 9 20 13 7 51
V2 1 1
V4 1 1
VE 4 5 2 25 14 50
VK 1 2 2 1 6
VP5 1 1 2
VP9 1 1
VR 1 1
XU 1 1
YI 1 1
YL 2 1 2 5 1 11
YN 1 1
YO 1 3 3 1 8
YU 7 6 7 4 1 25
Z3 1 1 1 3
ZA 1 1 1 3
ZD8 1 1
ZF 1 1
ZL 1 2 3
ZS 1 1
Contintent Distribution
160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total %
NA 0 27 96 21 356 95 595 38.5
EU 0 124 128 156 204 76 688 44.5
AS 0 1 26 58 64 54 203 13.1
SA 0 0 3 4 7 9 23 1.5
AF 0 3 4 1 9 7 24 1.6
OC 0 0 2 6 2 2 12 0.8
Logbook