[RRDXA] CQWW CW CT9M(DL2CC) SOAB(A) HP

[Frank Grossmann]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: CT9M
Operator(s): DL2CC
Station: CT9M

Class: SOAB(A) HP


Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   59    11       39
   80:  326    18       80
   40: 1216    32      110
   20: 1076    35      125
   15:  919    33      131
   10: 1673    32      123
------------------------------
Total: 5269   161      608  Total Score =3D 12,026,391

Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Comments:

RIG/QTH:
A hill on Madeira island, in the south east corner. A lot of times the
shack, which is a forrest guard post, is in the clouds. Radio A:
FT1000MP + AL1500 Radio B: TS870 + AL1500 (hardly used the second radio
as I didn't have a good SO2R switching system) Dipoles for 160/80/40, 4
el. monoband yagi for 20, triband 3-el for 10/15/10. Good news for the
CQWW committee: No simultanious transmitting on two QRGs at the same
time possible. Even one linear was too much for the available power
line. 1000 Watts output maximum. The room light was like being in a
discotheque.

Hosts:
Luckily my hosts - CT3EE, CT3DL, CT3IA, CT3EN, CT3BD, CT3KU - don't know
CW very well. So they go through this immense effort of hosting the CQ
WWDX CW for me in a fieldday style operation. Thanks to those fabulous
men!

Competition:
With 4 active contest stations on the island (CT9L, CT3EE, CT3KN and
CT9M), the competition was higher than it has ever been.

Low bands:
160m and 80m were tough. I called lots of people on 160m with about 50%
of them not hearing me. I couldn't even work zone 16! Only some people
who are known for their good low band reception heard me anyway. Why is
that?
A) Are 1000 Watts are not enough anymore?=20
B) Wrong TX antenna? I wonder how a good vertical antenna would have
performed for transmitting.=20
However, I always thought that in general the signal strength at the
other side follows the reception signal strength on my side. The 160m
dipole was certainly high enough to not radiate everyting into the
ground.

Contest:
160m: It was sometimes tough to call others with so many people calling
over the DX station to work me as a mult. HC8N 160m op must have been
really exhausted yesterday evening. Had to call him for a long time and
he insisted calling me CT8M instead of CT9M... and I had worked HC8N on
the 5 other bands by then... FM5GU and AA6TT: good choice of your bands,
both loud, FM5GU was S9!

40m: Never heard the band so full up to 7100. This makes me wonder if
ever all IARU zones will have the same frequency allocation.=20

20m: Our preparations were such that we guessed that 20m will be a very
important band with USA being open all night - thus we had a monoband
yagi for 20m and no yagi for 40m. Bad idea. Only SA during the night.=20
Some strange conditions on the bands. How about a 20m opening to JA 2.5
hours before sunrise with a strange direction of east (should be about
20 deg. for JA short path) - the magic stopped 25 minutes later within
seconds.

15m: condition wise the best band, most countries with least effort
worked there. I guess everybody is so happy about 10m being still open
that one forgets that 15m is a hot band!

Some antenna problems:
Before the contest, the big Titanex vertical broke in an attempt to pull
it up. On Sunday evening, just after 15m and 10m died to EU and NA, a
hurricane strenght storm visited our QTH and the crank up tower fell on
the shack building. Luckily that tower with the triband 3-element was
only needed for exactly those two bands. My hosts had a tow away truck
come at 00Z after the contest to pull it straight and crank it down. At
2Z monday morning I left the scene when I started seing strange things
and feeling more like a ghost than a human being. Ever had this: After
staring 48 hours into a computer screen my 3D vision was strange. I saw
a white mark on the street and I actually thought it was something
sticking out about to hit the car! I had a real physical problem this
contest. Quite a few times I was so tired that I forgot about being in a
QSO in the middle of the QSO. I mean I looked at the screen and saw a
callsign in the callsign field and saw the radio transmitting the CQ
sequence. Sorry to those people! I'll go for some drugs next time.
Doesn't seem to be outruled. Pse anybody give me the name of a working
drug commercially produced.

Multiplier moving:
Some M/M and M/2 guys moved me from one band to the other without
communicating the potential caller to the other operator. I have a favor
to ask for those
guys: If you convince a DX to move, inform the operator which is on the
other band. It was frustrating to be moved by one M/2 to 160m and I then
I couldn't get through the pile up on the other band and the guy never
called for me.

73!
Frank