CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: HQ9A
Operator(s): VE3DZ
Station: HQ9X
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Roatan, Honduras
Operating Time (hrs): 42:46
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 72 7 10
80: 220 15 35
40: 862 25 75
20: 1868 31 99
15: 2403 34 107
10: 2364 29 107
------------------------------
Total: 7789 141 433 Total Score = 10,800,384
Club: Contest Club Ontario
Comments:
First of all, I'd like to thank Rudy N2WQ/VE3EID for giving me this opportunity
to operate his station on Roatan Island. This year I had no desire and/or
motivation to go to Zone 2 and repair all broken antennas in cold weather.
Instead, I wanted a Contest to be a part of my vacation, combined with my
wife’s birthday celebration which occurs on October 28th. So, we talked with
Rudy at our annual CCO BBQ and I started to make plans.
I didn't know what to expect from the station. I only knew that K1XM and W1UE
usually travel there for CQ WW CW to operate Multi-Two. Also Rudy told me that
due to some construction all low bands antennas were taken down, so I would have
to supervise the installation of three verticals: 160, 80 and 40 M respectfully.
I realized that the location is bit far from Europe as compared to
"regular" Caribbean, and not having a 40 M beam would be a huge
disadvantage, but staying at what it looked like a 5-star rental property
instead of freezing your b... back in sunny Zone 2 location took over plus I
could make make my wife happy, rewarding her tolerance to my radio stuff.
There were 2 ICOM radios on spot and also two Alpha 99 amplifiers. I’m not an
Icom person and haven’t used Icom radios for a while, but I didn’t want to
bring too much of a gear with me, so I briefly read IC7610 and IC7300 manuals
and watched a couple of videos on Youtube. As it turned out later, it wasn’t
enough, and I have never been able to get voice keyer going in IC7300 (my second
radio) with N1MM logger, despite having no issues with IC7610. I wish there were
step-by-step instructions and settings for N1MM. Another little issue was one of
the broken wires in my Double L DL-3R SO2R interface cable, but that was fixed
pretty quickly. The interface, microphone adaptors, some cables, RigExpert
Antenna Analyzer and CM500 headset were the only HAM radio equipment I brought
with me.
I didn’t realize it’s rain season on Roatan at this time, and when we
arrived on the island, the taxi driver told us they just had 3-day of non-stop
rain, and a road from the airport to the location looked like there was
flooding, with a lot of landslides along it. Bad weather was actually 7 out of
our 10 days we stayed on the island. So it made some changes to the antenna
installation plans. 40 M vertical was already installed by the time we arrived,
so only radials needed to be rolled. Fine tuning took just few hours. 80 M
vertical was up too, but needed to be re-installed with new set of radials and
removal of one extra aluminum pipe section. 160 M vertical installation took 2
days. It was Thursday late afternoon when all Low Band antennas were in
operation. While testing low bands I noticed the noise which would come up every
evening around 5 PM and last until about 5 AM. Definitely has something to do
with lights. I noticed it too late to do serious investigation, though I tried
to switch off numerous lighting fixtures on the property. It didn’t help which
tend me to think that the problem was either with landscaping lights which were
installed recently or with the road light across the road from the property.
Lately I regretted not paying much attention to that earlier because noise
affected my reception capabilities on Low Bands and partially High Bands (to JA
direction). It was “only” 4-5 units on S-meter, but more than enough to
cover huge amount of calling stations which normally are pretty audible but do
not move your S-meter. Anyway, could probably add another 1,000 Q’s if not for
that noise.
Taking about JA’s, I haven’t heard that many Japanese stations since,
probably, early 80’s. Conditions to JA seemed to be much longer than it is
from VE, or maybe just overall conditions were great. At the same time,
propagation to EU seemed to be a bit shorter, and that’s the obvious
difference between Zones 7 and 8.
I started contest on 10 and 15 with second radio mostly for S&P’ing and
moving mults. The rate wasn’t extremely high, but steadily above 200
Q’s/hr. Then I moved from 10 to 20 with 2nd radios still on 15. I was moving a
lot of mults throughout the Contest and was gladly surprised that the vast
majority of the stations I’ve asked to move would do so. Probably, being the
only HR in the Contest helped a lot. After approximately 3 hours after start I
decided to try 40. Unfortunately I couldn’t get anything going in EU portion
of the bands no matter what I tried. The rate dropped from 220-250 to 50-60
Q’s/hr. Only when I moved above 7200 to work NA, the rate increased a bit
again.
Same story with 80 meters, with slow rate and just few Europeans, and 160 – no
EU, few NA and Caribbean. NEED RECEIVEING ANTENNA!
With rate slowing down I took one hour nap to be fresh for 10/15 m morning
pile-up. 20 M was up all night, 15 and 10 started right at our sunrise at about
12:00 UTC. Rates were pretty high, with up to 300/hr. But I couldn’t use 2BSIQ
since I had no working voice keyer on the 2nd radio. However, I used my 2nd
radio to move mults (plenty!), rapid change of bands and brief S&P’ing
when rate would slow down a bit.
Again, very good opening to JA’s on 15 and 10 m in the evening.
I didn’t want to continue that noise torture on Low Bands and took a bit
longer nap on the 2nd night. Only once I felt what I really missed when on
Sunday morning after the noise disappeared I had brief pile-up of JA’s,
VK’s, ZL’s and YB’s which lasted for about 10 minutes, until it was
absorbed by the daylight.
On 40 I had a couple of runs towards EU when some big megawatt EU station
stopped calling CQ and I managed to steal the frequency. Otherwise running on
low bands was non-productive.
When you ask people to move for the new mult and they agree, in appreciation you
would want to acknowledge them, but in the end you would forget all of them,
because there were too many! So, again, I sincerely thank everyone who agreed to
go that extra mile for me.
I pushed more on 20 meters on Sunday since the score seemed to be a bit weaker
for that band. Managed to work some new countries and zones, but I’m sure I
would make more contacts by just staying on 15 and 10. Those bands were hot!
In the end I just fell a bit short of 7800 QSOs (after dupes), but exceeded my
improvised goal of 7.5 K Q’s and 10 M points.
Again, thanks to Rudy N2WQ for this opportunity. I wish I could do better,
but... Still pretty happy with my score. The station has some potential. Knowing
Rudy, I’m sure he’ll fix noise issue in no time.
Here’s the link to the property description of someone’s interested:
https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/4126978
I also grateful to my XYL who fed me (too much!) and supported me during the
contest.
Thanks to all for the QSOs and see in CW part from some other DX location!
EqUipment:
IC7160, IC7300
2 x Alpha 99 amps.
VA6AM Triplexer and HP Band Pass Filters.
Double L DL-3R SO2(3)R interface.
N1MM Logger, Yamaga CM 500 headset and RigExpert TI-5 USB Interface (for audio
recording).
Antennas:
Bencher Skyhawk Tribander (20-15-10)
40-160 : verticals
73, Yuri VE3DZ
HQ9A Max Rates:
2023-10-28 0145Z - 8.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 480 per hour by
2023-10-28 0145Z - 5.8 per minute (10 minute(s)), 348 per hour by
2023-10-28 0227Z - 5.0 per minute (60 minute(s)), 302 per hour by
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