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[3830] CQWW CW 3B8M M/M HP

To: 3830@contesting.com, olof@rowanhouse.net
Subject: [3830] CQWW CW 3B8M M/M HP
From: webform@b4h.net
Reply-to: olof@rowanhouse.net
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2021 07:08:01 +0000
List-post: <mailto:3830@contesting.com>
                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021

Call: 3B8M
Operator(s): G0CKV JK3GAD KX7M M0SDV W6NV
Station: 3B8M

Class: M/M HP
QTH: Mauritius
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs   Zones  Countries
-------------------------------
  160:   213    13       45
   80:   690    32       76
   40:  1988    36      111
   20:  2989    38      118
   15:  3392    37      125
   10:  1927    31      101
-------------------------------
Total: 11199   187      576  Total Score = 25,444,524

Club: 

Comments:

Some of us have to sacrifice the comfort of our homes, work through the covid
testing and travel bureaucrazy and on top of that suffer the distractions of an
azur-blue lagoon with 26deg water, the sun, the fresh fish, the curries, the
tropical fruits and to top it up, the head-banging pile-ups associated with
being a rare double multiplier. 

After a couple of SOAB entries as 3B9HA over the years and then M/M operations
3B8MU in 2014 and 3B8M in 2019 and, sadly, a break in 2020, our 3B8 team was
back this year. In 2014 we were close to a moderate sunspot maximum and in 2019
we were at a deep minimum. The QSOs per band show a textbook comparison of
propagation. In 2014 3167 QSOs on 10 but in 2019 only 226. We were hoping for
better openings this year and our hope was somewhat full-filled. While 10 was
opening late and there was no opening at all to the E or NE and Japan on
Saturday, overall we can’t complain with 1928 QSOs. We also had a broad-band
interference that was chasing us up and down the band on 10, possible an OTH
radar, which we had to duck and hide from.

In 2014 15 was open, sort of, through the night. This year it opened 45 minutes
or so after sunrise and was then in good shape until it shut down 4 hours after
sunset. It was great to see 20 providing almost global coverage for hours
although at our latitude that band is very quiet for a few hours around midday
when solar radiation overhead is max and D layer attenuation increases.

The low bands are always challenging from Mauritius. We are far away from the
main ham radio population centres and signals are never strong while QRN from
the tropical thunderstorm belts set the noise floor. Top band is particularly
hard work. We had a fun opening to NA just before our sunrise on Sunday morning
while Saturday morning was not very productive. There are quite a few stations
on top band who would do so much better if they in stead of running high power
and pointing their 4-squares to south Indian Ocean when CQ-ing could improve
their receive antennas and listening skills. On the other hand, when we CQ, we
can frustratingly hear a layer of callers unreadable in the QRN. Local noise
level at our QTH is pretty low so our TX antenna is not bad as a receive antenna
but this year we also tried an RBOG and a K9AY, the latter with its feet in the
ocean. The RBOG didn’t help at all but the K9AY was marginally better for
receive and we ought to improve on that next time. Running on 160 is tough
though - when spotted on RBN we can quickly work a few stations but then
spot-clickers who can’t read us well and over-eager poor operators make
copying of our signal difficult and chaos descends and we move on to some DX-ing
with S&P or QSY to a new fq. Going split would not necessarily help - our fq
would still be jammed by the same happy crowd and split also raises other
issues.

3B8M is a 100% field-day-style operation and all radio gear, poles and wires
have to fit in airline checked luggage. Everything has to be installed and
tested in the few days before the contest. We are on a tiny land-connected small
outpost into the ocean surrounded by water from the SW around N to SE. This far
away from most other stations it is in simplest terms the lowest possible
elevation angles that count. Verticals are the obvious antenna choice and this
year we used three 18m Spider-Beam poles to support a top-band umbrella-loaded
vertical, an inverted-L for 80 and, new for 2021, an almost full-size vertical
dipole for 40 deployed on its own rock. On 10-15-20 we use single-pole
diamond-shaped Vertical Dipole Arrays. They have a broad pattern but we can
rotate them towards the NE in the mornings and then turn them towards NW. On 20
we actually had two such arrays fed via a stack-match.

We used four K3 radios with one KPA500 and three SPE amplifiers, all performed
flawlessly.

It is tremendously fun to plan and build a setup like this. Antenna modelling
with AutoEZ, SimSmith and EZNEC can keep you busy comfortably back home in front
of your fireplace through any pandemic. Every year we learn from each other and
gain new experiences and ideas for further improvements in coming years.
Observing propagation patterns is a never-ending source of fascination. It is
however not just plug-and play when you install four high-power stations on a
small dining-table. There are inevitably wiring matters, inter-station
interference issues, noise/emc problems and more that have to be solved.

In 2019 we took great pleasure noting that we beat K3LR without using a single
piece of aluminium - only quickly and simply erected wire antennas and some
fishing-poles (some larger than average though). Did we repeat that feat this
year?

Thanks to the team members for being fun, hard-working, focused and pitching in
wherever as they saw a need. And a big thanks to everyone who answered our calls
or called us from around the world - without you we would have felt lonely while
sitting here and staring out on the ocean and the lagoon.

We plan to be back next year again.

We did send thoughts to our EI/UK friends who suffered a bad autumn storm with
associated damage during the contest weekend while we were enjoying  the
pile-ups only suffering the distracting views out over the lagoon and the
beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Water temperature 26C and above water 25-33
degrees moderated by the mild trade-wind breeze.

BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP  POINTS   AVG 
--------------------------------------
  160   213  13  45   4     635  2.98 
   80   690  32  76  15    2055  2.98 
   40  1988  36 111  31    5930  2.98 
   20  2989  38 118  95    8894  2.98 
   15  3392  37 125  71   10116  2.98 
   10  1927  31 101  35    5718  2.97 
--------------------------------------
TOTAL 11199 187 576 251   33348  2.98 
======================================
       TOTAL SCORE : 25 444 524

The following 96 stations were worked on 6 bands:

DR4A        RT5Z        K1LZ        9A5Y        DA2X        P33W        
RT6A        ES9C        W3LPL       LZ9W        K3LR        HB9CA       
LZ5R        UA9BA       II9P        UA4S        EA5RS       IR4X        
DP6A        HG6N        SP8R        LY5W        DQ1A        IR4M        
UZ2M        SZ1A        E7DX        OM7M        OK5Z        K1TTT       
K5ZD        N4TZ        TM6M        SO4M        M6T         TM3R        
UA4M        SP1NY       UT4U        NR4M        SJ2W        N4WW        
RW0A        SM2U        DL7ON       RT4F        RM9A        TK0C        
E7CW        W2FU        R5AJ        K3AJ        LY7Z        YU5R        
RA1QD       DL3UB       K1ZZ        UA7K        SK3W        CR3W        
AA1K        OZ5E        R2AA        DF0HQ       HG7T        OL3Z        
RA5G        UN9L        YT5A        RL4A        OK7O        OH5Z        
LN8W        YL2KO       TM2Y        YL2SM       HG8R        HA8A        
DF9LJ       II2S        YL9T        LY2XW       OZ4MD       ED7R        
OM7JG       EA5KM       LY5E        UA2FZ       LY4A        ED1R        
VY2ZM       VA2WA       N0FW        R2QA        OZ7YY       ZS4TX       

73 Olof G0CKV


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