[CVCC] The real major operating event in February: ARRL DX CW

[k2waltk]

A recent contest experience. 
  _____  

A Recent Contest Experience
ARRL DX CW 2011
at
Super Station NR4M
 
 
 
The real major operating event in February is the ARRL DX CW
weekend.  Sejo, N3UA,  and I operated the ARRL DX CW contest
at Steve Bookout's, NR4M's, station.  He is always a gracious host
and the camaraderie he inspires makes each event memorable.
On a personal note, I am humbled to be invited to operate with some of the
best contesters in the world at a world class superstation.
 
The team made over 12 Megapoints and based on early returns from the 3830
contest score reflector, it looks like 3rd place, US.  However, it ain't
over till the fat lady sings and in contesting that happens when the
official scores are release by the contest sponsor.  Today the scores are
published much sooner than in the past because of computerization and the
ubiquitous internet.  In "the ole days" we had to wait almost a year when
the contest results were published in the magazine of the contest sponsor,
either QST or CQ magazine.
 
The truly amazing thing is that we only had one op per station and
did so well.  Whereas, our competition, usually K3LR, W3LPL
and KC1XX run  2 ops per band.  The perennial top contender,
team KC1XX didn't have enough ops for a Multi-Multi this weekend 
and opted for a Multi-Two effort and actually beat the top Multi-Multi
station,  at least based on early reporting.  That's right, only two 
transmitters!  Now that's some superb planning and coordination
on their part.
 
The station and crew at NR4M are getting better and better all the time.
The crew has made some worthy hardware additions like the addition
of a 6 element, 20M beam on a 56' boom at an incredible 190 feet.  
Antennas at those heights, several wavelengths above ground, have
radiation angles well below 10o, in this case 5o.  On HF geometry dictates
how far our signals will propagate.  The lower the angle of radiation
the further the signal travels before skipping from ground to the
ionosphere and back down again.  Each succeeding hop is characterized
by more and more energy loss.  From a practical standpoint, those very
high antennas allow you to work stations earlier, sometimes hours earlier,
than with lower antennas.  The bottom line is more contacts yielding greater
scores.  It's just one of the many tools in Steve's bag of tricks.
 
We always learn something new during each contest, big score or small,
big gun or little pistol.  What the team learned last weekend is that we do
not pass stations from band to band often enough, especially on slow Sunday.
The merits of passing stations must not be overlooked and  will be employed
next time.  With over 6700 Q's those additional mults can make it or break
it.
The actual difference between 3rd and 2nd place may only be a few thousand
points.  In these photo finish races it's often all in the final mult count.
Each mult
is multiplied by an already large QSO count yielding a substantial number of
points that are added to the final score.  
 
Maybe at a later date I'll write up a story of how you  can increase your
score
by developing your own bag of tricks.  So, that's my story and I look
forward
to the next one.
 
 
                                                73 de Walt - K2WK