CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: VU2CDP
Operator(s): VU2CDP
Station: VU2CDP
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: near Kaas Plateau
Operating Time (hrs): 37:15
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80: 81 8 36
40: 420 24 77
20: 371 23 66
15: 582 26 77
10: 904 20 66
------------------------------
Total: 2358 101 322 Total Score = 2,716,506
Club: VU Contest Group
Comments:
This was another field-type operation where everything was setup from scratch
prior to the contest and dismantled on Monday morning. The QTH was located on a
ridge about 3500 ft ASL bordering the Kaas Forest Reserve. I was fortunate to
find a private property whose owner was unknown to me until 3 weeks back! The
issue with rural QTHs is lack of infrastructure and more so in pristine
environments. I was therefore lucky to find the owner had taken care to provide
stable electricity and other amenities since it's his weekend home.
In the days leading up to the contest, I was snowed in under work and was still
working until late Wednesday night. The plan was to leave Thursday morning but
packing everything and loading in the small hatchback meant I could only be on
the road after noon on Thu. I arrived at the QTH by 4pm and only had 2 hrs of
daylight remaining. There wasn't much I could accomplish that evening apart from
unpacking and sorting out wires and cables. Antenna work started in earnest on
Friday morning well behind schedule. I had recruited a helper after agreeing on
hourly wages. We were able to get the hex up on a crank-up to 25' when he
decided to leave to attend to domestic matters. So there I was under the blazing
sun with work still remaining on the 80 and 40m antennas. Decided to install the
80m inv L but was soon struggling to get the radiating element coiled with the
sun directly in my eye and not enough space to manoeuvre around the Spiderpole,
I got a bit dizzy. After some fluid intake and cooling off, decided to get the
40m ant up instead. My throwing arm still works fine and a wire in the tree went
perfectly over the tallest branch about 45' up. This was a vertical with 2
elevated radials. Back to 80m and three failed attempts later, I called it quits
by sunset. I was beginning to feel flat already and decided to work on the
antenna again on Sat morning.
The contest starts at 5:30am local and I decided to start on 40m which had
already been 'warmed up' well before the start. Failing to find a run frequency,
i S&P-ed for a while working mostly 3 pointers esp. SA/ Caribbean DX which
come in nicely during our sunrise. After breakfast, i found myself jostling with
the 80m L again and this time I could get the wire around nicely. There was
dense underbrush around the property and the owner said to watch out for any
snakes! Laying ground radials can be fun. After laying out 20 radials, I found
myself coming to the fun part. Something about tuning low band antennas that can
make grown men cry :-) 4 hrs later, the best i could achieve was a 2:1 SWR which
was not liked by the SS amp. Glad i carried the QRO tuner as a fallback.
Having lost a good 15m opening, I decided to run as much as possible on 10 and
found myself getting some good runs into EU. I felt loud but rates were not
quite there. The occasional 10min-250 Q rate was easily disturbed by
undisciplined callers who wouldn't let me complete QSOs. A hat tip to the guys
who sustain 200+ rates for hours. The 10m opening didn't quite get into NA and
FY5KE, LP1H and PX2A were the only callers from SA. The runs on 40 and 80m were
uneventful. In the quest to improve RX on 80m, I decided to install an N6RK loop
on Sunday morning forgoing another hour of operating after breakfast. I
continued to push through the day on Sunday to make up for lost time. Got some
good runs on 15 and 10m before sliding down to 20m. The 20m run was punctuated
by some unavoidable 'local interruptions' and by the time i could back to the
radio, the band was petering out. A 40m run for 2 hrs netted about 150 odd QSOs
which were to be the final qsos to go in the log. By midnight local time, i was
starting to lose it mentally having gone without sleep or any rest. Exhausted I
called it quits and switched off the radio. 2389 gross qsos were made unassisted
with very few mults found and worked. After getting into bed, i looked at the
cluster and noticed one needed DXCC counter spotted on 40m. Hence the Assisted
submission :-)
2358 net Qs from a little over 37 hrs of operating was quite satisfying in the
end. Looking back, I feel it was my own incorrigibility from past experiences
that i budgeted so little time for setting everything up. Also over-estimating
my own capabilities to set up everything quickly and iron out any kinks meant
there was a deficit of at least 6 hrs of operating time and 400 Qs. Maybe I will
be wiser next year!
Thanks to VU2PTT for sending over some goodies in time that saved preparatory
effort. Good to see some new calls from VU every year and congratulations to
VU2XE for a fb LP score. Thank you to all those who called. Log will be on LOTW
shortly.
73 es DX,
Deepak VU2CDP
Rig: FT 2000
20-15-10: Hexbeam at 25'
40m: wire vertical with 2 ele. radials
80m: Inv L on 12m Spiderpole with 22 radials
RX: N6RK loop which didn't do much except enjoy the cool mountain air on Sunday
night.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|