CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB
Call: KV4FZ
Operator(s): KV4FZ
Station: KV4FZ
Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: U.S. Virgin Islands
Operating Time (hrs): 18.5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 449 State/Prov = 54 Countries = 47 Total Score = 265,226
Club:
Comments:
Very frustrating contest as so many strong stations heard nothing from my many
calls. Some were consummate alligators with no ears or no good RX antennas but
just QRO and endless CQ's. From the sunset EU's were coming in some over S9 and
NA stations such as W3LL, VE3YP, AK5DX had huge 20 over signals but did not hear
a trace of my many calls. Most I would give up on them after 15 minutes of
calling. Only later in the night did I get through and found that most of them
did not have any sort of specialized RX antenna such as a Beverage, Flag,
Pennant or Loop. So the only solution was to find a clear spot somewhere and
call CQ myself. It was easy to work stations 5,000 miles away in South America
but the 2000 mile hop to the mainland was seemingly impossible. There were few
runs but only for a few minutes and one nice one to Europe. I think however
that the contest as structured (i don't suggest CQ change it either) has turned
to be a clash of super station titans where the average home station is just a
spectator listening in awe to the big guns.
I worked most everyone who called me and although my goal was 50 countries,
under the bizarre circumstances the 47 I got were probably about as good as I
could do. This contest has become a battle of the super station giants with
QRO and 8 circle arrays. The idea that someone with a field of Beverages (I
have 13 of 600 feet to 900 feet)and a 1/4 wave top loaded tower can really be
competitive is really a myth today. Again Caribbean stations get half the
points for NA that the stations in SA along the Caribbean rim get, and they are
closer to NA from the Midwest on. My QTH is at 64.7 degrees WL but this far
East doesn't help against the many East coast super stations that can run EU
for hours at a time. Out of pure frustration I decided to look around for
multipliers and use the assisted category. But that was also a no brainer
since after finding a new multiplier that could not hear a trace of my signal I
decided to go back to a run mode hoping someone would spot me and I could get
something going. I noticed that there were very few spots on my call sign so I
definitely was not getting out well. Being a couple of layers under the side
band splatter of so many stations working 500 miles or less and without
antennas for receiving this powerful signals here turned out to be a waste of
time to call. I probably waster 2 to 3 hours of very good time calling
stations in the mainland that could not hear well. Also one XE1 station with a
powerful signal was impossible to work. Amazing however later in the contest
three XE's called me in a row.
I missed some easy states like Arkansas and Wyoming as well as all the Canadian
prairie provinces except VE6 and got several of those. Everything west of the
Mississippi was a considerable struggle for me. No VK's or ZL's even though i
work ZL3IX any morning for a year at my SR.
Rig Icom 7410, Alpha 87A
TX antenna was an 85 foot Rohn 45 with a 30 foot stinger and some slight top
loading with a 3 element Cubex quad where the boom only really helps a bit.
RX Antennas 13 Beverages with some bi-Directional with DX-Engineering 400 ohm
ladder line and others with WD-1A fed and terminated with KD9SV's feed and
boxes designed.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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