[RRDXA] CQWW CW DL3YBM SOAB HP

Fri, 29 Nov 2002 08:47:16 +0100

Hi,

nachfolgend Ergebnis plus geschw�tzige Bemerkungen zum WWDX.

Vy 73 de Andy, DL3YBM

                    CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 2002

      Call:      DL3YBM
      Category:  Single Operator
      Power:     High Power
      Band:      All Band
      Mode:      CW
      Country:   Fed. Rep. of Germany
      Zone:      14

      BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES

      160       88       96     1.09      6      43
       80      290      396     1.37     12      57
       40      315      582     1.85     18      83
       20      411      710     1.73     25      80
       15      454     1013     2.23     30     101
       10      403      877     2.18     28     101
     ---------------------------------------------------

     Totals   1961     3674     1.87    119     465  =>  2,145,616

All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.

Equipment Description: FT 920 plus TL 922 amp
                       3 ele triband yagi on 10 / 15 / 20 mtrs
                       vertical on 40 mtrs
                       inv L on 80 / 160 mtrs

Club Affiliation: RRDXA
Team: Rhein-Ruhr Steamboats

Comments (pretty long):
Thursday
Drove up to the contest site which is my parents' home, some 400 km north of
where I live now. Even though I arrived late, it was a fun evening as I
passed by Wolf's (DF2PY) QTH who had offered a backup rig. Not only did he
shift some of his QRL appointments in order to be back home early enough for
me, he also proved once more to be a top notch chef (those steaks surely
provided a marvellous nutrition basis for the weekend). Thanks again Wolf,
your support is a great example of what ham spirit is all about, I believe.

Friday
The 'contest site' mentioned before consists of the station I built up as a
teenager. Just a 3 el tribander at 10 meters and a vertical for 40. For 80 /
160 I always have to erect an inverted L, supported by several large trees
in the garden. This time, configuring and wiring the station plus erecting
and tuning the antenna took around 6 hours, much more than originally
planned. The inv L just wouldn't go up and didn't stay where I wanted it to
be. In the end, I left it in a position where it almost touched one of the
trees. I didn't feel happy, but figured that getting some rest before the
contest started was worth the risk of setting the whole thing on fire, hi. I
did make some last minute changes to my strategy, planning to stay on the
low bands as long as possible the first night and moving up to 15 and 10 as
early as possible the second morning. Guess that strategy basically worked
ok. Set my personal goal on 2K Qs and 2 million points.

Saturday
Started on 40 as always, then moved to 80 and 160. A pretty long nite, only
surprise was how well the inv L worked on 160 (in the end I netted 6 zones
and 43 countries which I found quite ok for just 20 mtrs of wire, the
vertical section being hardly half of the total length). Got the first
decent run at 0730 on 20 with the antenna beaming 210 dgs. As planned, I
arrived late on 10. That band opened to the US at around 1300 for me. Did
mostly S&P, which was fun and productive with the band being packed with
stations all the way up to 28200. Passed 1 K Qs at 1704, 1 million points at
2358.

Sunday
Good ears award goes to W0AIH, who I worked for an ESP contact on 40 at
0115. Never had any high hopes for working ZD8A who had an awesome pileup on
40. Finally worked him for a double mult at 0356 after being on and off his
QRG for some 45 minutes. Worked PT5A and V26K within 1 minute for 2 double
mults on 80. Hey, I then realized this thing I threw into the trees actually
worked fb this time. Started a run on 3570 at around 0440, and much to my
surprise even some US stns called in (later I found out that some brave soul
on the east coast spotted me on packet �). I had another occurrence of
working 2 double mults within 1 minute on 40 when I worked PJ5/K1NA and ZF1A
at 0521, and that happened again at 0739 on 10, where AH2R and 7J1AAI as my
first JA on that band got into the log.  Had a nice run on 15 later in the
afternoon. Probably the hardest contact here was 3G1X, who had a big EU
pile. Finally got through at 1747. Shortly thereafter my mum asked if I want
to join her for a short dinner. I did and also accepted a glass of red
wine - big mistake!! All of a sudden my motivation for continuing the test
went down the drain, whereas my desire for some more of that stuff increased
to unbearably levels.
As I had kind of accomplished my ham radio goals for the week-end by then, I
realized that I am a weak soul and switched off the rig � hope my dear
team-mates will forgive me.

Very special tnx go to Wolf, DF2PY, my mum for keeping my caffeine levels up
all weekend, my XYL and son for letting me play radio and of course the CQ
contest committee for organizing the event.

This is to certify that in this contest I have operated
my transmitter within the limitations of my license and have
observed fully the rules and regulations of the contest.

                             Signature _________________________________

           MAILING ADDRESS:

               Andy Gissel  DL3YBM
               Zum Seeblick 36
               Haltern   45721