I had some fun in the CQ WW CW contest over the weekend. Learned a lot about my operating in a “real” contest effort and what works and what doesn’t with my station as it is now…

I obviously am still a “little pistol” when it comes to major league ham radio contests, so I didn’t have any delusions of 2M+ pts and a shiny new plaque. I did have a goal of identifying future improvements to the shack, getting a few hundred QSOs, and racking up a few new DXCC countries (by entity, mode or band).

Here is my 3830 reflector posting:

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   16     6        3
   80:   24    10        9
   40:   88    23       58
   20:  120    20       64
   15:   65    14       40
   10:    3     3        3
------------------------------
Total:  316    76      177  Total Score = 206,488

A contest of firsts here:
First real test of new antennas/tower...
4 Ele SteppIR @ 72'  (10 thru 20)
Cushcraft XM240 @ 82' (40m)
Sloper (80m / 160m)... admittedly can't expect too much on the lowbands.

Summer tower project pics and blog here:
http://www.n0hr.com/hamradio_blog/

First real effort for me using N1MM in a CW contest. Still getting used to a few things. Didn’t expect to set the world on fire and couldn’t put in a full effort, but was able to get in about 30 hrs. Only one rig (Icom 746) which can be a bit tricky to use when the bands are packed. Worked a lot more CW DX this weekend than I ever have from my QTH – so that was fun.

Head cold slowed me a bit… but I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time so there wasn’t any way I was going to throw in the towel. Glad I didn’t, because I had a blast!

Thanks to those with some great ears for pulling me out, especially on 80 and 160.

Believe it or not, that write-up is an honest assessment of the contest from my point of view. I read some of those commentaries on 3830 that really make me laugh… “My score would have been higher than 3M but I could only operate for 2 hrs… and the attic mounted Hamstick dipole failed when the XYL started putting up Christmas decorations.”

Assessing CQ WW CW – Lessons Learned

What worked well…

• The N1MM contest logger is a full featured logging package that will more than hold its own in a real contest environment. I still need to try it in RTTY contesting, but N1MM has met my expectations in CW and SSB tests. Even though I was running SOAB (single op all band low power, no packet assistance), I was still just getting used to this contesting logbook program.
• The 4 element SteppIR at 72′ seems to be working well on 10, 15 and 20 meters. Others had reported that they didn’t hear anything on 10 meters and I managed to snag a few QSOs. So, something works. The other advantages of this antenna (180 mode and bi-directional mode) also made a lot of sense in a contest – as each of those features make sense at times.
• The Cushcraft XM240 at 82′ also seemed to play well.
• RufzXP practice ahead of the contest sure helps.
• Antenna testing and work ahead of the contest paid off. In particular, a short trial during ARRL SS SSB and repositioning the sloper to improve the 160 meter SWR were both beneficial.
• Making the family well aware of my intentions to “play ham radio” for the weekend were a plus. When the in-laws from out of state came in for an extended Thanksgiving weekend, I was able to lay low.
• Logbook of the world (LOTW). Upload your contest log to a general purpose logger like DXKeeper and then automate your LOTW posting. Come on, it’s not that difficult to do.

What didn’t work and opportunities for improving my score…

• 80 meters needs some work. I don’t think the sloper will get the job done next year on 80. This should have been an optimal year for 80 and 160 and I just couldn’t do that much on those bands. Especially, low power (100w).
• I made a couple of failed attempts at a run, but couldn’t get any answers to my CQs. I’m not sure why that is other than I was low power and my timing may not have been too great for a run. So, it was S&P all the way.
• I’m a bit afraid that my call is not well known and not always received properly. The H is the problem. Sometimes comes back as S or SE. I’m not sure what I can do about it though besides QRS when it comes back wrong. I need to look into programming a QRS version of my call into the function keys.
• I need to improve the ergonomics of the operating area. My chair gave me a serious case of “tb” and my shack in the basement is pretty cold this time of year.
• Once I replenish the “ham fund”, I’ll starting thinking about other shortcomings of my station. The lowly Icom 746 is not well suited to jam packed 20 meter chaos. Pass band tuning, 500 Hz filtering, APF (Audio Peak Filter – which is poorly documented in the manual by the way) – just couldn’t cut the mess back. Strong signals overwhelm this rig when they’re only 2 kcs away from a weak DX signal. Unfortunately, replenishing the ham fund will take a lot of time after the tower project.

Overall I did have fun and met my objectives. DXCC-wise, I did make some progress with this contest: two new DXCC countries, 48 first QSOs with entities on a band and 15 first QSOs with entities on CW.

Looking forward to the next one.

. .