[PVRCNC] VP5M (K4QPL op) CQWW CW

[Jim K4QPL]

Call: VP5M

Operator(s): K4QPL

Station: VP5M

Class: SOAB HP (UNASSISTED)

Class Overlay: Classic

QTH: VP5 - The incredibly beautiful Turks and Caicos Islands

Operating Time (hrs): 23

Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries

------------------------------

  160:    0     0        0

   80:  366    15       47

   40:  938    20       69

   20: 1012    21       58

   15:  227    13       21

   10:    1     1        1

------------------------------

Total: 2544    70      196  Total Score = 1,569,400

 

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

 

Comments:

 

This was a far less competitive effort than the past two years when we did
M/S LP with AA4NC.

Family and travel arrangements meant I only arrived Saturday afternoon when
the contest was half over so anything more than "Classic Overlay" was
impossible. Thanks to Guy, K2AV, I brought some new stuff for a 160M antenna
but there just wasn't time to put it up without further limiting op time.
May get something up by Friday night for ARRL 160 but no promises.

Official clock using min of 60 minute off times means for those of us who
are not "iron men" there is a lot of unofficial time off. High power is also
relative with a KPA-500 amp.

 

Band conditions seemed pretty good with longer hours open to more places
than I would have expected. JA's were coming in on 20M as strong as W/K
about 2300Z Sunday. Overall good conditions added to the fun of being "fresh
meat" for activity and multiplier only in the second half. Huge pileups
which were challenging for me but mostly fun.** (See rant below)

 

I made a decision to run full time since Classic requires you to be
unassisted and chasing mults by pure S&P is not terribly productive. The
imbalance of Q's to mults is obvious that I relied on the mults coming to me
rather than the other way around. No serious equipment problems and the
antennas work well. 160m for a few more mults would have helped but probably
not worth the time tradeoff in this situation. 

 

Equipment:

Elecraft K3, Elecraft KPA-500 amp with KPAT-500 Antenna tuner.

Antennas: SteppIR with loop dipole on 40M, Inverted Vee for 80M.

 

Have been reading the posts and the complaints about DX stations not ID'ing
frequently enough. I fully agree as I have been on the other end. So I
usually ID each time or at least make no more than 3 Q's in a string. At
peak rates which hit 250+, a second or two does make a difference when there
is a steady stream, but that does not excuse more than a few seconds without
an ID.

Now allow me, as a DX op at a desirable QTH, to complain about the other
sides, especially the point-and-click folks whose sole objective is to get
Q's and mults without even having to know code. I also have a problem with
the skimmer system itself which gives an exact frequency of the run station.
Also, at a DX location the differences in signal strength are not as
intense. So imagine 10 plus (or maybe 50) transmitters sending code at what
comes into the headphones at the exact same pitch. There is nothing the
receiving op can do about that so the elements of the code are "filling in
the blanks" for each other and one hears a roar of sound with only some
gaps. To contrast, in the "olden days" it would be highly unusual for more
than one signal to beat with another with no perceptible tonal difference.
In a true DXpedition pileup, the receiving operator is sending and listening
"Up". What that does is make the exact transmitting frequency of the pileup
somewhat random which cannot happen in a contest like WW CW. So for me, with
the HUGE pileups I was getting in the second half where I was a mult for
every station working me, not to mention general "fresh meat" put them on a
common exact frequency-mine.

Once the size of the pileup on the identical spot frequency reached
"critical mass" there was nothing for me to do but ignore it. So using split
or RIT, I was peeling off the calls which were slightly off frequency, even
by 50-100 Hz. Some were by non-assisted S&P, some without CAT, some had
oscillator variations, and a few were smart enough to use their own XIT to
push their radio slightly off the spot frequency. During peak periods, which
the last 23 hours of the contest were almost constant for VP5M, those were
the majority of the folks that got me on their first or second call. Use
this technique next time you're in a same-frequency pileup and see how your
efficiency in breaking the pileup improves your results exponentially. Most
of us are able to handle copy of reasonable pileups if there's something,
maybe just a few hertz variation, that we can hook our ears and brains to.

Then there are the lids. Two categories-bullies and incompetents. Bullies
think that if they have 1500 watts to a 6 over 6 beam that they can force
you to abandon your attempt to copy someone else by making life miserable.
Nothing against HP and if they get in first, cool. But if I'm already trying
to work a station and have sent N4G? I don't appreciate WI6LID blasting my
ears with his call 6 times when he knows what's going on. I dig my heels in
and refuse to be bullied. (If you give in you may make a quick Q but you
lose respect from the rest.) And if my memory is good enough, I will make a
mental "black book" and make him wait a while longer. Don't be a bully with
your great station.

The incompetent lids are a different kettle of fix. Some are incapable of
training and are oblivious to their liddiness. I try to work them in when I
can. They probably have enough other problems in their life. Not easy to
separate these from the newbies either as ops for contests or dx. These are
teachable and most at least know the exchange format. I try to help the
newbies as much as possible by giving them a hand-sent R R in addition to
the computer code. And I'll happily hit the PgDn (QRS key) a couple times if
needed.

But the worst of the lot are the no-code cw contesters who totally rely on
their decoders to complete both the transmitting AND the receiving work.
They don't understand when I send "N4G?" and think their decoder is sending
spurious output. So the remedy is to send their own calls a few more times
in hope something good will happen. It doesn't.

By 2350Z Sunday, I had shifted from 20 to 40 about 2340Z and had a very nice
200/hr run for a few minutes until the spotting networks fully caught up
with me. When that wall of sound hit and no one paid any attention to
instructions, I muttered to myself something that sounds vaguely like "Duck
Sous" and pulled the plug. Apologies for those who missed a last minute
mult, but I'd had enough.

Finally, I am sure that there are ops among us who have far better skills
than me and probably consider me a whiner. There are a lot of us operating
DX who haven't achieved that level of pileup copying skills. My rant is not
really about me, but hopefully there are some ideas for you as home-based
S&P ops to improve your rate and hit rate, and for those running courses can
maybe propagate some material to reduce all the varieties of liddish
contesting.

There are thousands of FB ops in the contest and you really make these
contests unforgettable experiences. I did my best to pick out familiar PVRC
calls and honor their "frequent flyer" passes. Thanks for all the Q's.

 

73,

Jim, K4QPL, VP5M