Signals de Loudoun©
Stories of Amateur Radio In Loudoun County, Virginia
Volume 2013 Edition 3.November 28, 2013. Editted & Published By Norm Styer - AI2C de Clarkes Gap, Virginia
Here's A Very Special Report From Another Of Our Supreme CW Operators
Stories of Amateur Radio In Loudoun County, Virginia
Volume 2013 Edition 3.November 28, 2013. Editted & Published By Norm Styer - AI2C de Clarkes Gap, Virginia
Here's A Very Special Report From Another Of Our Supreme CW Operators
My 2013 CQWW CW
By Jeff Crawford, KØZR, of Purcellville, Virginia
This past weekend of November 23rd was the CQWW CW contest. This was the third time I really "dove in" to try and work the contest as aggressively as I could. Each year has been different as I have progressively added antennas to my station.
My planning began over a year ago, actually, for this WW just completed. I had numerous examples since moving to my QTH in 2010 that illustrated I needed better hearing capabilities on 160m and 80m if I was to make a reasonable number of contacts. My "L" shaped lot, location of transmit antennas, and the 19.2 KV power line traversing close to E-to-W on one side of my property, all but eliminated from consideration a beverage system. So I began seriously considering an active four-square arrangement. I designed a suitable active antenna preamplifier, with one prototype completed, and had begun working out the details of the switching matrix to switch receive into four different directions, when I began having to travel extensively. I knew I had no chance of completing my own design in time for the 2013-14 contest season so I purchased the DX Engineering four-square system ( not the "full-up" system but most of it ). I completed the installation of the four-square in September. It is arranged with the diagonals of the square hitting Europe, South American, New Zealand, and Japan. Each side of the square is 70 ft.
The addition of the four-square completes my plans for antennas at my location. While I would like to have more antennas, an additional tower, and the like, I have done as much as I can without looking like the "Beverly Hillbillies". My XYL may not agree with that assessment, believing perhaps that the QTH already looks that way - Hi. For the CQWW I used a Cushcraft XM-240 at 80 ft for 40m, a Force12 C31XR at 71 ft covering, 10, 15, and 20m, a DX Engineering 80/40m vertical with 90 radials on 80m, and an inverted "L" for 160m.
My pre-contest plans included getting more rest throughout the week. I even took a nap, a recommendation from W4AU, the afternoon before the contest began. In total these things paid dividends and allowed me to sleep one hour in the first 32 hours of the contest. Prior to the contest I also made crib sheets for amplifier tuning settings for each band of operation and a few shortcuts that I planned to use in the contest logger, N1MM. It goes without saying that having a firm grasp of N1MM operation is essential when the QSOs are really rolling.
My planning began over a year ago, actually, for this WW just completed. I had numerous examples since moving to my QTH in 2010 that illustrated I needed better hearing capabilities on 160m and 80m if I was to make a reasonable number of contacts. My "L" shaped lot, location of transmit antennas, and the 19.2 KV power line traversing close to E-to-W on one side of my property, all but eliminated from consideration a beverage system. So I began seriously considering an active four-square arrangement. I designed a suitable active antenna preamplifier, with one prototype completed, and had begun working out the details of the switching matrix to switch receive into four different directions, when I began having to travel extensively. I knew I had no chance of completing my own design in time for the 2013-14 contest season so I purchased the DX Engineering four-square system ( not the "full-up" system but most of it ). I completed the installation of the four-square in September. It is arranged with the diagonals of the square hitting Europe, South American, New Zealand, and Japan. Each side of the square is 70 ft.
The addition of the four-square completes my plans for antennas at my location. While I would like to have more antennas, an additional tower, and the like, I have done as much as I can without looking like the "Beverly Hillbillies". My XYL may not agree with that assessment, believing perhaps that the QTH already looks that way - Hi. For the CQWW I used a Cushcraft XM-240 at 80 ft for 40m, a Force12 C31XR at 71 ft covering, 10, 15, and 20m, a DX Engineering 80/40m vertical with 90 radials on 80m, and an inverted "L" for 160m.
My pre-contest plans included getting more rest throughout the week. I even took a nap, a recommendation from W4AU, the afternoon before the contest began. In total these things paid dividends and allowed me to sleep one hour in the first 32 hours of the contest. Prior to the contest I also made crib sheets for amplifier tuning settings for each band of operation and a few shortcuts that I planned to use in the contest logger, N1MM. It goes without saying that having a firm grasp of N1MM operation is essential when the QSOs are really rolling.
For the first time in my CQWW history, I secured a frequency on 40m and started calling CQ approximately ten minutes before the beginning of the contest. The lower you are in the 40m band, the more essential it is to do this if you are to have a hope of securing a "run" frequency at the beginning of the contest. I ran 40m for the next 2 ½ hours before passing through 160m to catch 5 new ones. I then spent the next 2 ½ hours on 80m.
The "mega-stations", with their multiple antennas, have not only "antenna agility" with multiple antennas on each frequency band, but also the inherent ability to keep their frequencies clear. For example, splitting your RF power in half to one antenna at 100 ft on Europe, and the other antenna pointed at South America at 60 ft, not only increases coverage but helps keep frequency encroachers away. A clear frequency comes at the small price of 3 dB in signal strength. With a single tower and primarily one antenna per frequency band, I am at a disadvantage. In my case I did alternate between vertical and low inverted-Vee on 80 m and my 40m yagi and vertical to attempt to keep the frequency more clear. I believe this tactic helped, although with some of the European "big guns" on 40m, multiple yagis were really needed.
A new experience for me occurred Saturday morning on 20m. I was able to work JAs going the normal way over Alaska as well as passing over Europe. I found that quite interesting.
Band conditions for the contest were very favorable, although they had been hotter the weekend before. During the daylight hours I alternated largely between 10m and 15m, but did spend considerable time mid-afternoon Saturday and Sunday on 20m as well. It was disappointing to hear so few stations from South America.
This year, as was the case last year, I struggled to get different countries on the six bands for multipliers. I would routinely do "search and pounce" when I would do a band change before finding a clear frequency to "run". My reasoning was that the rare ones were not going to come to me; it was up to me to find them. I operated "Non-Assisted", which means no spotting aids from the internet. I spent considerable time Sunday afternoon looking for new zones and countries which, obviously, diminishes one’s run rate.
The accompanying graph (above) shows my rates over the contest period. I am still in the process of analyzing this data with a) the times I did band changes and b) those periods of time when I picked up good numbers of new countries. At the end of this analysis I may decide I should not have changed bands quite as frequently.
The "mega-stations", with their multiple antennas, have not only "antenna agility" with multiple antennas on each frequency band, but also the inherent ability to keep their frequencies clear. For example, splitting your RF power in half to one antenna at 100 ft on Europe, and the other antenna pointed at South America at 60 ft, not only increases coverage but helps keep frequency encroachers away. A clear frequency comes at the small price of 3 dB in signal strength. With a single tower and primarily one antenna per frequency band, I am at a disadvantage. In my case I did alternate between vertical and low inverted-Vee on 80 m and my 40m yagi and vertical to attempt to keep the frequency more clear. I believe this tactic helped, although with some of the European "big guns" on 40m, multiple yagis were really needed.
A new experience for me occurred Saturday morning on 20m. I was able to work JAs going the normal way over Alaska as well as passing over Europe. I found that quite interesting.
Band conditions for the contest were very favorable, although they had been hotter the weekend before. During the daylight hours I alternated largely between 10m and 15m, but did spend considerable time mid-afternoon Saturday and Sunday on 20m as well. It was disappointing to hear so few stations from South America.
This year, as was the case last year, I struggled to get different countries on the six bands for multipliers. I would routinely do "search and pounce" when I would do a band change before finding a clear frequency to "run". My reasoning was that the rare ones were not going to come to me; it was up to me to find them. I operated "Non-Assisted", which means no spotting aids from the internet. I spent considerable time Sunday afternoon looking for new zones and countries which, obviously, diminishes one’s run rate.
The accompanying graph (above) shows my rates over the contest period. I am still in the process of analyzing this data with a) the times I did band changes and b) those periods of time when I picked up good numbers of new countries. At the end of this analysis I may decide I should not have changed bands quite as frequently.
This second graph shows my performance improved over previous years, which indeed was the case. I managed approximately 500 more QSOs than any year previous and I improved my final score by ~ 25%. I want to give credit to my XYL who kept me hydrated and nourished over the duration of 43 hours of operation.
