Text and pictures: Tom SP5UAF |
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Text and pictures: Tom SP5UAF |
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Last weeks of 2005 and the beginning of 2006 were very busy to me because of my work. Much more than a dozen hours of work a day. I was fed up with it. As always in such situations the best way of resting is amateur radio, and if you are able to take part in a contest - it gives you a total detachment from ordinary days.
The first week of January gives a possibility of a contest revel: ARRL RTTY Roundup - a very popular contest, many participants, many stations from the States and Canada. In addition to that, as I'm a RTTY contesting passionate, I had been taking part in ARRL RTTY RU many times from my club station (we do have a few awards there). To make a long story short: an opportunity of dreams. The date (January 7-8) is fine (I have this time free), the contest runs from 18:00 UTC on Saturday to 24:00 UTC on Sunday (30 hours), so this is not a totally exhausting event.
I decide to start. I call Chris SP7GIQ asking him if it's possible to use his station. When we had been hanging beverages in the fall, he suggested that if there are any contests... It appears that it is possible. So before Saturday noon I'm already in Chris' QTH.
Chris is busy all the time at work. He leaves me in his QTH, and I'm starting preparations. At the beginning a little bit of work on top of the tower with a 40m antenna - problems with a feeder. It's rather cold, but a sunshine cause that chill is not too annoying. And this winter scenery... Just see some pictures taken from the tower. Just an hour of work and the antenna works. Further - just a preparation of the station, Writelog configuration, cables, etc. A few hours before the contest I'm ready. I go to bed to take some rest. It will help me to work at the station during night. So far - so good.
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About an hour before the contest Chris is back and we connect PA. We give it some time to warm up. In the meantime, drinking coffee, we are talking that higher bands "dye" fast, that just after sunset there is nothing heard there. Such as for example twenty meters: just after sunset a complete silence. Well, this is propagation: capricious, cheeky, and always running wild.
OK... let's connect PA. We make a short test. Doesn't work. It's just less than one hour till the contest start. A few tries - still doesn't work. Well, it worked yesterday - today it doesn't. Murphy's law begins to act. We connect another PA. It's hard to believe - it doesn't work either. Again few tries - nothing. The start of the contest is just in a few minutes. Never mind - we also have a Low Power category.
I start as a Low Power station on 40 meters. The rate is rather moderate. In the meantime Chris finds the problem and repairs PA. I switch to High Power. Gradually stations from the States appear. The 40-meter Quad points JA, so I try to turn it to USA. The direction pointer doesn't move at all. Chris makes a night excursion to the top of the tower - Murphy's not there, but antenna still doesn't turn. We hear stations from the US and Canada, but the 4-el. Quad points JA. All we can do is to fight using 40-meter Inverted V.
Chris is leaving me at the station and going home. I am trying to fight sharp. It's about 22:30 UTC - I decide to switch to 80m. I hadn't switched earlier from 40m - in ARRL RTTY RU a multiplier counts only once, and there is 1 point for each QSO (band doesn't matter). On forty was quite OK, so it really didn't make any sense to change bands. But forced by some internal feeling - before I pressed a button labeled "3.5" in my TRX, I presses "14". I used some bad words in this moment: 20m is working with no problems. I could hear that this is the end of propagation, but the band is obviously alive. Before switching to 80m I make a few dozen of contacts: USA/VE and Caribbean. Why I hadn't done it earlier? Well, I know... propagation on twenty wasn't expected at all.
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But I was lucky. It was almost the end of troubles... Everything seemed to work fine. I worked 80 and 40m during the night. Chris' 40m Inverted V appeared to be very efficient - at some point I even peaked a rate over 122 QSO/hour with USA/VE stations - not too bad as for RTTY. Not to mention the transmitting antenna for 80m and the receiving system of beverages. Real poetry...
Contest is running. On Sunday morning and during the day I work stations from east on 20 and 15m, and more frequently I use VFO searching for multipliers. Everything is fine.
Sunday passes and gradually propagation towards JA appears on 40m. Antenna points there all the time. But there are not so many stations from JA working in the contest. All of a sudden appeared that Murphy was probably gone from a vicinity of Chris' QTH: the Quad for 40m is starting to turn! Last hours of the contest it points USA. This gives good rate and new multipliers. At 24:00 UTC the contest is over. After 30 hours of contest fighting I finally go to bed. The result is quite good:
QSO Stany Pr.VE DXCC
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80m 287 9 2 8
40m 448 9 1 38
20m 595 27 4 16
15m 49 0 0 10
10m 0 0 0 0
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Razem 1379 45 7 72
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I'm satisfied. On Monday (I took the day off) I come back home rested and relaxed.
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Epilog
On Monday I start following posts on the e-mail 3830 reflector. One of e-mails with claimed scores gave me a headache. I go to the ARRL webpage and check the regulations... Yes - this is this very contest! In this contest it is allowed to work maximum 24 hours and there is the OBLIGATORY 6-hour brake stated in the rules. And I knew that... Well... it is always possible to send log in Checklog "category". So I did.
In this place there are a few contesting advices I gave to myself. Maybe they will be useful to somebody else, so I will share them below:
• if there is anything that worked yesterday, this absolutely doesn't mean that this is going to work today, even there was nobody using and touching anything in the meantime
• you can't believe your memory too much - it fails frequently, so this is necessary to refresh contest rules just before the contest: maybe there are some changes included, maybe there is something forgotten
• every contest experience is good and useful; if one treats contesting seriously, there is only one thing worse than failing: not taking part in the contest at all
73!
Tomek SP5UAF
Translation by SP5TAT - tnx
24-02-2006
SP3DWQ