{"id":1817,"date":"2011-03-31T11:57:08","date_gmt":"2011-03-31T15:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/?p=1817"},"modified":"2011-03-31T15:52:47","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T19:52:47","slug":"2011-cq-wpx-ssb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/?p=1817","title":{"rendered":"2011 CQ WPX SSB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year was spent at N1LN operating under the NC Contesters Club Call NR3X.\u00c2\u00a0 The three man team[N4YDU, N1LN, W4KAZ] was a group formed to put N1LN’s station on the air for the contest after failing to find the ops required to run the preferred M\/2.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure glad we didn’t let the opportunity slip by – lots of fun.<\/p>\n

Propagation conditions were very good for this contest – the best I have caught in several years.\u00c2\u00a0 Improved conditions\u00c2\u00a0 and lots of active stations made the bands wall-to-wall donald duck essessbeee chaos.\u00c2\u00a0 Very difficult to copy weak stations, but there were lots of LOUD signals too.\u00c2\u00a0 Heard many layers of QSOs on the same frequency.<\/p>\n

Lots of little fun facts trickled in during the course of the weekend.\u00c2\u00a0 Made the mistake of trying to switch from 15m to 20m too early – and lost a high rate run.\u00c2\u00a0 Lesson:<\/strong> Next time listen to N4YDU!<\/em><\/strong> Made the mistake of giving up too easily on “terrible”\u00c2\u00a0 high QRM run frequencies.\u00c2\u00a0 Lesson:<\/strong> Don’t move before the rate plummets!\u00c2\u00a0 Beast it like N4YDU! <\/strong><\/em>
\n <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This contest, I made it a point to move the antennas around more often when the rates slowed and was rewarded with small boosts in the rate several times. Still not enough experience to know when to look for openings in directions other than EU, but sliding the beams 20 degrees either side of directly at Central EU usually found a few new ones hiding in the favored directions.<\/p>\n

Getting the most out of N1LN’s station is something that is seeping in slowly.\u00c2\u00a0 The options in a station designed for M\/2 competition are quite a bit more complex than just putting the butt-in-chair.\u00c2\u00a0 Also a world of difference between good yagi’s and dipole draped through the trees.<\/p>\n

Looking at the raw score[3830 blurb]<\/a> and the CQ WPX results database<\/a>, we would have the fifth highest score ever posted for a Multi-One from the USA – based on scores through 2010. Unfortunately…. at least four other stations posted higher scores than our own for WPX SSB 2011, including\u00c2\u00a0 what will be a new US record.\u00c2\u00a0 So instead of making it into the top 10 all time scores, we might just wind up in the top 20.\u00c2\u00a0 There are several score in the ballpark of our 11.7m, so it will depend a lot on how clean our log checks out to see where we land.\u00c2\u00a0 There are going to be a LOT of great scores from this year’s contest.<\/p>\n

We began the contest with general goals of 3000 to 3500 Q’s and at least 1000 mults.\u00c2\u00a0 We thought the improving conditions would help, and thought the mults would be the more difficult goal to reach.\u00c2\u00a0 Recent rule changes to Multi-Single for WX allow for 10 “band changes” per clock hour with one transmitted signal on the air rather than a mult radio.\u00c2\u00a0 This allows only 5 mults on different bands, assuming the run station remains on a single band for the duration of a clock hour.\u00c2\u00a0 That made for a lot of difficulty working mults on the second radio without disrupting the run station and losing a run frequency.\u00c2\u00a0 So the final result is a really good showing, and very happy with the mult totals.<\/p>\n

A lot of the mults, as well as a lot of widespread DX called into our runs.\u00c2\u00a0 At the N1LN station, I tend to get caught off guard by the variety.\u00c2\u00a0 While running I logged B7, HS, several ZL and VK stations, all with the antennas pointed in directions not favorable for those directions.\u00c2\u00a0 It is really fun operating at N1LN.<\/p>\n

Like always, an hour after my last shift my thought run towards “Why did we do this?”<\/strong><\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 The next morning, after a solid night’s sleep the question morphs into “It really wasn’t THAT bad, was it?”<\/strong><\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Less than a week later, the question again morphs, becoming “When can we do that again?!?!”.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Band<\/strong> conditions were a whole new can of worms compared to recent years. It is time to re-make the “rule book” to be dynamic enough to fit the changing conditions.\u00c2\u00a0 What worked as band strategies for periods of crappy propagation do not apply to periods of good propagation.\u00c2\u00a0 Go where the rate is – but where the heck is that gonna be?<\/em><\/p>\n

160m <\/strong>– no activity, high storm noise.<\/p>\n

80m.<\/strong> There was a moderately high noise level on 80m, but the nice beverages at N1LN’s station compensated.\u00c2\u00a0 During the night shift 40m dropped off due to the heavy QRM, and lack of EU calls while trying to listen split.\u00c2\u00a0 Better to work 1 pointers than nothing, so down to 80m we go.\u00c2\u00a0 80m was crowded, but not nearly the QRM levels of 20m and 15m.\u00c2\u00a0 Decent rates running strings of US stations with a nice mix of North and Central Europe stations calling every 4th or 5th Q.\u00c2\u00a0 With the beverage pointing at EU, the 6 and 7 land US stations were hard to copy, so the beverage controls got a decent workout switching from W to NE.\u00c2\u00a0 That run held up through the whole shift.<\/p>\n

40m.<\/strong> Just not any fun operating 40m on SSB.\u00c2\u00a0 Split didn’t pan out.\u00c2\u00a0 Ugh.<\/p>\n

20m<\/strong> was good – if you consider slam packed high QRM condx good.\u00c2\u00a0 Even with the QRM, there were bright spots when strings of strong stations would call in. Mostly 20m was neglected in favor of the 15m bonanza.\u00c2\u00a0 It sure seemed like rates were low because of the good 15m conditions. <\/strong><\/p>\n

15m<\/strong> was wide open on Sunday. After Saturday, we were thinking we were heavy on 15m, and might need to press 20m harder to keep the rate up, but N4YDU was being called by multiple stations.\u00c2\u00a0 Asking for fills was common due to crowded band conditions.\u00c2\u00a0 But it was great to hear 15m hopping again.\u00c2\u00a0 Probably the best 15m conditions I’ve operated, and certainly the best I’ve seen yet from a top-notch station.<\/p>\n

10m – Finally!<\/strong> Friday evening started with a 10m opening to ZL\/VK territory, which may have been lost opportunities.\u00c2\u00a0 Not much activity on 10 on Saturday.\u00c2\u00a0 Sunday afternoon the bubble burst on 10m.\u00c2\u00a0 With the antennas pointed south N1LN and YDU were able to run stations for a short period, and we were getting hits from all directions.\u00c2\u00a0 One of the better gems was a call from a station in Malta.\u00c2\u00a0 YDU indicated it was probably a Caribbean skewed skip opening, but it was sustained for the better part of an hour and accounted for the bulk of the 10m Q’s logged.<\/p>\n

The Good:<\/strong> The generosity of N1LN and N1YXU in hosting the operations is deeply appreciated.\u00c2\u00a0 Great working with N1LN and N4YDU.<\/p>\n

The Bad:<\/strong> Too easy to bail on high QRM run frequencies.\u00c2\u00a0 The joke was that was the GOOD run frequency.<\/p>\n

The fUgly:<\/strong> Murphy was off visiting others.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe he was happy with having smoked the home QTH microwave on Thursday.\u00c2\u00a0 [Blown microwave oven magnetrons smell just like blown power supplies.]<\/p>\n

Raw Score<\/strong> [3830 blurb]<\/a>:<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Call: NR3X     ****    Operator(s): N4YDU, W4KAZ, N1LN   ****  Station: N1LN\r\n\r\nClass: M\/S HP   ****    QTH: NC                             ****  Operating Time (hrs): 48\r\n\r\nSummary:\r\n Band  QSOs\r\n------------\r\n  160:    1\r\n   80:  334\r\n   40:  695\r\n   20: 1013\r\n   15: 1203\r\n   10:  234\r\n------------\r\nTotal: 3480  Prefixes = 1267  Total Score = 11,738,755\r\n<\/pre>\n

<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wow.<\/p>\n
This year was spent at N1LN operating under the NC Contesters Club Call NR3X.\u00c2 The three man team[N4YDU, N1LN, W4KAZ] was a group formed to put N1LN’s station on the air for the contest after failing to find the ops required to run the preferred M\/2.\u00c2 I’m sure glad we didn’t let the opportunity slip by – lots of fun.<\/p>\n
Propagation conditions were very good for this contest – the best I have caught in several years.\u00c2 Improved conditions\u00c2 and lots of active stations made the bands wall-to-wall donald duck essessbeee chaos.\u00c2 Very difficult to copy weak stations, but there were lots of LOUD signals too.\u00c2 Heard many layers of QSOs on the same frequency.<\/p>\n
Lots of little fun facts trickled in during the course of the weekend.\u00c2 Made the mistake of trying to switch from 15m to 20m too early – and lost a high rate run.\u00c2 Lesson: Next time listen to N4YDU! Made the mistake of giving up too easily on “terrible”\u00c2 high QRM run frequencies.\u00c2 Lesson: Don’t move before the rate plummets!\u00c2 Beast it like N4YDU! <\/p>\n
This contest, I made it a point to move the antennas around more often when the rates slowed and was rewarded with small boosts in the rate several times. Still not enough experience to know when to look for openings in directions other than EU, but sliding the beams 20 degrees either side of directly at Central EU usually found a few new ones hiding in the favored directions.<\/p>\n
 […]<\/p>\n
Continue reading 2011 CQ WPX SSB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1823,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1817\/revisions\/1823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}