I just looked at the results from the 2007 CQWW SSB contest. My modest effort as C6AQW set a Bahamas record for the 20M low power category!
This is a pretty dubious record as I'm not sure anyone had ever entered that category before from C6. Still, it's nice to see the call in the record book!
http://www.cqww.com/records_ph_na.htm
Like Woody Allen said, 90% of life is just showing up!
Showing posts with label C6AQW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label C6AQW. Show all posts
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Hurricane Noel
Looks like Noel became a hurricane as it passed over Abaco this evening. Hope everyone fared well there. Good to be home.
C6AQW Final Statistics/Wrapup
Total DXpedition statistics including the contest:
617 QSO's: 589 SSB, 28 CW
30M: 6
20M: 591
17M: 20
78 countries
After a few days of reflection, I'm not as disappointed in the overall results as I initially was.
Although it may not seem like much, I did successfully setup a portable DX operation with homebrew antennas by myself for the first time ever. This is significant to me because if you look up the word "appliance operator" in the dictionary, I believe there is a picture of me shown. My previous operations (VP2MW, ZF2TG, V31RR) all had antennas and stations already set up-I brought and set up everything myself this time.
Most importantly, to paraphrase Thomas Edison I discovered a 1000 ways NOT to do a DXpedition and have made several key learnings I will use on future operations such as:
1. Never arrive later than Wednesday for a contest that starts Friday evening. The day of arrival always seems to be taken getting aquainted with the surroundings and the real work doesn't begin until the second day. Arriving on Thursday puts too much pressure on getting things set up on Friday before the contest.
2. Have all antennas measured and tested before arrival, if possible. I spent way too much time getting the loops measured and tuned on Friday.
3. Doing everything by yourself is hard. Next time I'm going to try to get a helper, hopefully someone that can climb.
4. Know your location before going. Although I had done some research on Google Earth, it's hard to get a full impression without being there. If I had, I would have put the antennas much closer to the beach as there was easier access than I had thought. The flat location with no elevation was probably suited much better to verticals close to ocean than the loop and inverted vee I went with. Those extra dB's sure would have helped. Now I know why big DXpeditions do site surveys several months before they go.
5. Pick a location and a band suited to the contest you are operating. 20M from the Bahamas using low wire antennas was a competitive disadvantage. The Bahamas are too far west in low sunspot conditions to expect much from Europe with my low wire antennas. In general an island in the eastern Caribbean is a much better choice for CQWW. However, I think the Bahamas is an ideal QTH for the ARRL contests (ARRL DX, 160M etc) where you only work the U.S. For CQWW to have a chance from C6 you need either high directional antennas on 20M or more sunspots.
6. Directional antennas with gain are good, even on an island. Being on a Caribbean island with an exotic callsign doesn't automatically mean you are going to be loud. I took that for granted, not realizing the reason I felt loud on previous trips was due in large part to better antennas.
7. If you can't run BOTH U.S. and EU in CQWW you can't win. See above. I could run U.S. but couldn't run EU and therefore I had no chance.
All of the above said, I don't want to leave the impression I didn't have a great time because I did. CQWW is always fun and I'm one big step closer to getting this thing right.
Next stop Dominica as J75W in CQWW CW!!
617 QSO's: 589 SSB, 28 CW
30M: 6
20M: 591
17M: 20
78 countries
After a few days of reflection, I'm not as disappointed in the overall results as I initially was.
Although it may not seem like much, I did successfully setup a portable DX operation with homebrew antennas by myself for the first time ever. This is significant to me because if you look up the word "appliance operator" in the dictionary, I believe there is a picture of me shown. My previous operations (VP2MW, ZF2TG, V31RR) all had antennas and stations already set up-I brought and set up everything myself this time.
Most importantly, to paraphrase Thomas Edison I discovered a 1000 ways NOT to do a DXpedition and have made several key learnings I will use on future operations such as:
1. Never arrive later than Wednesday for a contest that starts Friday evening. The day of arrival always seems to be taken getting aquainted with the surroundings and the real work doesn't begin until the second day. Arriving on Thursday puts too much pressure on getting things set up on Friday before the contest.
2. Have all antennas measured and tested before arrival, if possible. I spent way too much time getting the loops measured and tuned on Friday.
3. Doing everything by yourself is hard. Next time I'm going to try to get a helper, hopefully someone that can climb.
4. Know your location before going. Although I had done some research on Google Earth, it's hard to get a full impression without being there. If I had, I would have put the antennas much closer to the beach as there was easier access than I had thought. The flat location with no elevation was probably suited much better to verticals close to ocean than the loop and inverted vee I went with. Those extra dB's sure would have helped. Now I know why big DXpeditions do site surveys several months before they go.
5. Pick a location and a band suited to the contest you are operating. 20M from the Bahamas using low wire antennas was a competitive disadvantage. The Bahamas are too far west in low sunspot conditions to expect much from Europe with my low wire antennas. In general an island in the eastern Caribbean is a much better choice for CQWW. However, I think the Bahamas is an ideal QTH for the ARRL contests (ARRL DX, 160M etc) where you only work the U.S. For CQWW to have a chance from C6 you need either high directional antennas on 20M or more sunspots.
6. Directional antennas with gain are good, even on an island. Being on a Caribbean island with an exotic callsign doesn't automatically mean you are going to be loud. I took that for granted, not realizing the reason I felt loud on previous trips was due in large part to better antennas.
7. If you can't run BOTH U.S. and EU in CQWW you can't win. See above. I could run U.S. but couldn't run EU and therefore I had no chance.
All of the above said, I don't want to leave the impression I didn't have a great time because I did. CQWW is always fun and I'm one big step closer to getting this thing right.
Next stop Dominica as J75W in CQWW CW!!
The right decision
Tropical Storm Noel is forecasted to pass very near or right over Abaco this evening with near hurricane force winds. Both yesterday's and today's flights were cancelled by AA. I think it's very likely tomorrow's flight will be cancelled as well which means if I wouldn't have left Tuesday I couldn't have gotten out until Saturday at the earliest.
While this news makes me feel good about my decision to leave, here's hoping all the friendly folks I met there fare well during the storm.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Back Home
Looks like I caught the last American flight out of Abaco until maybe Friday. Bahamas Air had already cancelled all of their flights out. The plane ended up being full since they waited to let as many people on as possible and therefore took off about 30 minutes late. The flight from Abaco to Miami was surprisingly smooth but I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the ocean below as there were whitecaps everywhere. The report I read this morning said the seas were 15-20 feet high in the passage to Florida (yikes!).
Due to the slow hell that is MIA I missed my connecting flight back to Orlando but I was able to get on the next one a couple of hours later.
Due to the slow hell that is MIA I missed my connecting flight back to Orlando but I was able to get on the next one a couple of hours later.
Goodbye Abaco
Sunny and not a cloud in the sky this morning. However, the forecast above now has the eye of Noel passsing directly over Abaco late Wednesday/early Thursday. Also it may strengthen into a hurricane. What was an inconvenience issue may become a safety issue so I'm getting out today. Airline reservation changed, bags packed and the cab will pick me up at 11 A.M. I should be back in Orlando this evening.
Monday, October 29, 2007
OK Noel, you win
The latest forecast track puts Noel even closer to Abaco. Notice on the map that it will be tracking right between where I have to fly (Abaco to Miami, then connecting back home to Orlando) beginning Tuesday night and passing very near Abaco on Thursday. That means the one Abaco to Miami flight on AA is likely to be cancelled Wednesday and Thursday. I have to be back in the office on Friday so it appears that my only shot to get back home is to take the flight back tomorrow. So unless the forecast changes dramatically overnight, that's exactly what I'm going to do.
I took down the 20M loop this evening and pretty much everything is packed and ready to go.
I sure wish I would have had the chance to explore this place and do some snorkelling and fishing but I guess that will have to wait until I can return.
Today
Today's been a productive day. I disassembled the 20M inverted vee near the beach and rolled up the 3 100' rolls of RG8X coax. I also got everything packed back in the golf case. The only thing I left standing of mine is the 20M delta loop on top of the Spiderbeam mast lashed to the coconut tree with a 100' RG8X section back to the rig. I left that up mainly to listen to the Hurricane net on 14.300.
I figure if Noel requires, I can disassemble the loop and mast, roll up the coax and have everything else packed and ready to leave within an hour.
I am now officially in vacation mode. I expect to do very little radio operating from this point forward.
For lunch today I decided to go to the beach bar shown in the guidebook for the villa. It was supposed to have great hamburgers and was a 10 minute walk to the west on the beach. After 15 minutes of walking west on the beach I found nothing. I suppose it was closed for the season (this place is dead by the way-I have the beach all to myself but the sea is pretty rough today) so I headed back to the villa. I stopped by the Marina and talked to a guy who can take me snorkelling or fishing tomorrow if the sea isn't too bad and I don't have to leave due to Noel. He told me about a beach bar right across the street that served lunch, about a 2 minute walk from the villa to the EAST. I proceeded to walk over there and enjoyed a great $8 cheeseburger and fries along with a Bahamas Mash that was composed heavily of Rum. All of this overlooking a beautiful beach with sand and water that I've never seen more beautiful.
All in all a great day so far.
I figure if Noel requires, I can disassemble the loop and mast, roll up the coax and have everything else packed and ready to leave within an hour.
I am now officially in vacation mode. I expect to do very little radio operating from this point forward.
For lunch today I decided to go to the beach bar shown in the guidebook for the villa. It was supposed to have great hamburgers and was a 10 minute walk to the west on the beach. After 15 minutes of walking west on the beach I found nothing. I suppose it was closed for the season (this place is dead by the way-I have the beach all to myself but the sea is pretty rough today) so I headed back to the villa. I stopped by the Marina and talked to a guy who can take me snorkelling or fishing tomorrow if the sea isn't too bad and I don't have to leave due to Noel. He told me about a beach bar right across the street that served lunch, about a 2 minute walk from the villa to the EAST. I proceeded to walk over there and enjoyed a great $8 cheeseburger and fries along with a Bahamas Mash that was composed heavily of Rum. All of this overlooking a beautiful beach with sand and water that I've never seen more beautiful.
All in all a great day so far.
Who is this guy Noel and why is he trying to ruin my vacation?
This doesn't look good. Today's a beautiful day on the island but if this forecast holds it's about to get ugly. I'm supposed to leave Thursday afternoon but may have to get the heck out of Dodge tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll probably have to make a decision on that in the next 12 hours.
Contest Report
The contest started off promising, I ran 91 stations the first hour and 84 the second hour almost all U.S./VE. When the band died at around 0500Z I had 269 QSO's in the log with 6 countries and 6 zones. All of this was on the delta loop as the inverted vee was a few S units down on most signals from the states.
I woke up around 1030Z Saturday morning and that was just about the right time as the band was just starting to open. I worked my first QSO @ 10:55Z, DR1A from Germany. It was soon after this that I discovered what was to be my achilles heal in this contest-Europe. Most European stations were S-9 or above on the loop but could not hear me. The inverted vee I put up on the porch was no better. I called and called many stations without even a hint of them hearing me. It was incredibly frustrating to the point I rechecked the SWR and resonant frequencies of both antennas with the SWR Analyzer thinking something must be wrong. Unfortunately nothing was wrong-the antennas were just not performing to EU. I did manage to work a lot of mults in the Caribbean and South America with the inverted vee and even a few loud stations in EU after many calls over the nest couple of hours. The frustration mounted to the point that I had to do something. I decided to scout out a new location closer to the beach for the inverted vee. About 300 feet away across the road near the tennis courts was a location that had a clear view to the water about 250 feet or so from the beach. I then proceeded to move the inverted vee with the Buddipole portable mast to this location and strung 3 of my 100' RG8X sections together back to the Villa. I oriented it broadside NE/SW and guyed it off to keep it standing in the face of the constant 20-25MPH sea breeze. Here is a picture of it with the sea in the far background:
This little project cost me about 1 1/2 hours and I was back on @ 1535Z working SP3HRN for a new country mult. The new antenna was a definite improvement but didn't solve the EU problem. I only had to call stations 4 or 5 times now instead of 10-15 to get their attention. It also seemed to work best for Caribbean and South American stations so it became my main antenna during the daylight hours.
Still I had no ability to run EU. I tried many times in the EU subband (14.100-14.150) to get something going but never could. I also couldn't run stateside during the day at any decent rate due to 2 factors:
1. Most of them were pointing at EU
2. 20M was a war zone during the day with no clear frequencies.
My 100W had no chance of holding a frequency for any length of time.
Having run out of options I decided to search and pounce and go for multipliers. This seemed to be fairly successful as my country and zone count improved considerably.
I did manage to run a few U.S. stations Saturday evening after EU died out but still, I ended the day with only 414 Q's in the log-145 more than I ended with the night before. The last QSO in the log Saturday was PS2T at 0108Z.
Sunday was no better for rate, maybe even a little worse as I ended the contest with 543 QSO's. It got so bad I took a 2 hour nap around noon on Sunday. I had to work hard for every multiplier and ended up with 100 of them (79 countries/21 zones). Almost all of these were in NA and EU. I managed to work a couple of African stations (c50C and 6W1RY) and both VK and ZL. Asia was a bust as I didn't work any JA's or anything else for that matter. I did manage to work KL7RA and a couple of KH6's. I even missed CE and zone 13. The one highlight of Sunday was stringing together about a 20 minute run late in the afternoon including having a couple of EU stations call me (the only time during the contest that happened).
Final result: 543 QSO's/1201 points, 79 countries, 21 zones = 120, 100 points.
All in all I turned in a great single band score....if that band were 160M, for 20M not that hot.
For what it's worth, I managed to beat the old C6 20M LP record (set by C6ALZ in 2003) by abut 60K points. The overall C6 record of 327K points, held by VP7NS since 1973 (wow!) is quite safe for at least another year.
I woke up around 1030Z Saturday morning and that was just about the right time as the band was just starting to open. I worked my first QSO @ 10:55Z, DR1A from Germany. It was soon after this that I discovered what was to be my achilles heal in this contest-Europe. Most European stations were S-9 or above on the loop but could not hear me. The inverted vee I put up on the porch was no better. I called and called many stations without even a hint of them hearing me. It was incredibly frustrating to the point I rechecked the SWR and resonant frequencies of both antennas with the SWR Analyzer thinking something must be wrong. Unfortunately nothing was wrong-the antennas were just not performing to EU. I did manage to work a lot of mults in the Caribbean and South America with the inverted vee and even a few loud stations in EU after many calls over the nest couple of hours. The frustration mounted to the point that I had to do something. I decided to scout out a new location closer to the beach for the inverted vee. About 300 feet away across the road near the tennis courts was a location that had a clear view to the water about 250 feet or so from the beach. I then proceeded to move the inverted vee with the Buddipole portable mast to this location and strung 3 of my 100' RG8X sections together back to the Villa. I oriented it broadside NE/SW and guyed it off to keep it standing in the face of the constant 20-25MPH sea breeze. Here is a picture of it with the sea in the far background:
This little project cost me about 1 1/2 hours and I was back on @ 1535Z working SP3HRN for a new country mult. The new antenna was a definite improvement but didn't solve the EU problem. I only had to call stations 4 or 5 times now instead of 10-15 to get their attention. It also seemed to work best for Caribbean and South American stations so it became my main antenna during the daylight hours.
Still I had no ability to run EU. I tried many times in the EU subband (14.100-14.150) to get something going but never could. I also couldn't run stateside during the day at any decent rate due to 2 factors:
1. Most of them were pointing at EU
2. 20M was a war zone during the day with no clear frequencies.
My 100W had no chance of holding a frequency for any length of time.
Having run out of options I decided to search and pounce and go for multipliers. This seemed to be fairly successful as my country and zone count improved considerably.
I did manage to run a few U.S. stations Saturday evening after EU died out but still, I ended the day with only 414 Q's in the log-145 more than I ended with the night before. The last QSO in the log Saturday was PS2T at 0108Z.
Sunday was no better for rate, maybe even a little worse as I ended the contest with 543 QSO's. It got so bad I took a 2 hour nap around noon on Sunday. I had to work hard for every multiplier and ended up with 100 of them (79 countries/21 zones). Almost all of these were in NA and EU. I managed to work a couple of African stations (c50C and 6W1RY) and both VK and ZL. Asia was a bust as I didn't work any JA's or anything else for that matter. I did manage to work KL7RA and a couple of KH6's. I even missed CE and zone 13. The one highlight of Sunday was stringing together about a 20 minute run late in the afternoon including having a couple of EU stations call me (the only time during the contest that happened).
Final result: 543 QSO's/1201 points, 79 countries, 21 zones = 120, 100 points.
All in all I turned in a great single band score....if that band were 160M, for 20M not that hot.
For what it's worth, I managed to beat the old C6 20M LP record (set by C6ALZ in 2003) by abut 60K points. The overall C6 record of 327K points, held by VP7NS since 1973 (wow!) is quite safe for at least another year.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Disappointed
Overall a very disappointing result: 543 QSO's, 79 countries, 21 zones = 120,100 points I'll post a complete recap tomorrow.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Photos
Here are some photos I took this afternoon. They show the villa, the antennas and the beach, which is about 100 yards from the villa.
Inverted Vee Up
I managed to build and get an inverted vee up about 20' at the apex broadside NE/SW. I used the Buddipole center insulator and portable mast with wire for the inverted vee legs. All ready to go now; going to grab some dinner across the way and a quick shower before the contest.
Success!
The weather finally cleared and I was able to get the loop up. It's pretty close to an equilateral triangle fed 1/4 wave down from the top on one side as specified in ON4UN's Low Band Dxing for vertical polarization. I fed it with a 1/4 wave matching section of RG-6 75 ohm coax and after some simple pruning it tunes to 1.5:1 SWR or less across the entire 20M phone band. I made a few QSO's with it and it seems to play pretty well (at least to stateside). It's oriented E-W (the only direction I had room to put it. I may now try to put up an inverted Vee on another palm tree pointed NE. 4.5 hours to go and I still need to eat sometime too.
Some Sun, Now Rain Again
We had a 1 hour period of no rain where I was able to measure the loop and get everything assembled...now it's back to rain. Hope it stops soon so I can get the antenna up.
Rain, Rain Go Away....
The rain has only got heavier, it appears to be a repeat of yesterday's monsoon. It stops for a few minutes every 15 minutes or so then starts downpoaring again. So far my attempts to lash the fiberglass pole to the palm trees has been unsuccessful. Not looking good. Worst case I go with the vertical already installed here, but I hope it doesn't come to that.
3 views of QTH
Here are 3 views of the QTH from Google Earth; a view very close showing the actual house, a view of where the QTH is located on Abaco and a view showing the view of the QTH relative to the Bahamas and the states:
Rain Again
After waking up to a nice sunny morning, the skies have opened up again. Still measuring the 20M loops inside the house. One lesson learned: NEVER LEAVE WITHOUT HAVING ANTENNAS MEASURED. This is taking WAY too much time. Hope the rain stops soon so I can get these up.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Arrival on the island-BIG CHANGE
I arrived on the island this afternoon about 1 PM. The airport in Marsh Harbor is about a 1 hour drive from the QTH. We drove in a blinding rainstorm. Looks like the weather will be bad all weekend. 40M is extremely noisy this evening and it doesn't look like it will get any better. As a result, I've decided to switch to SINGLE BAND 20M. 20M is much less noisy and should provide good rates. My goal is to beat the following records on 20M for C6:
Category Call Score QSO's Zones Countries Year record set
14 VP7NS 326,821 1199 28 93 65
L14 C6ALZ 60,819 627 18 39 03
The all time NA record is:
L14 XE1CQ 732,017 2564 34 109 06
I think that one will be tough to beat, but I can dream.
The station is all set up on a table in the villa and ready to go.
I am going to bed soon...been up since 4 A.M. this morning and need to get loops set up for 20M tomorrow before the contest.
Category Call Score QSO's Zones Countries Year record set
14 VP7NS 326,821 1199 28 93 65
L14 C6ALZ 60,819 627 18 39 03
The all time NA record is:
L14 XE1CQ 732,017 2564 34 109 06
I think that one will be tough to beat, but I can dream.
The station is all set up on a table in the villa and ready to go.
I am going to bed soon...been up since 4 A.M. this morning and need to get loops set up for 20M tomorrow before the contest.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
1 Out of 2 not bad
I'm writing this from my hotel room in San Juan. I did manage to get the last few items bought today (end supports for loops, adapters, RG-6 jumpers etc.) but I didn't get a chance to practice with the Icom IC-7000 before I had to leave for the airport. So I ended up bringing the rig, power supply, headset and dummy load with me to Puerto Rico as carry-on luggage. Hopefully over the next 2 nights I will get a chance to practice with it and load up the memories with contest messages.
The SKB case is loaded and in the trunk of my car and everything is laid out in the other checked suitcase. It looks like I will be able to fit everything in the checked suitcase including all of my clothes so I will only need to carry on a laptop bag with the computer and Icom 7000.
The SKB case is loaded and in the trunk of my car and everything is laid out in the other checked suitcase. It looks like I will be able to fit everything in the checked suitcase including all of my clothes so I will only need to carry on a laptop bag with the computer and Icom 7000.
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