CQ WW SSB -- SO(A)SB15 HP

My station is a mess, inside and out. Regular readers will know that CQ WW SSB occurred in the middle of my fall antenna and tower work. Some antennas work, some don't; some turn, others don't. An all-band entry would have had to be only for fun since I could not possibly be competitive.

By narrowing my focus I was able to have a fun contest experience. Many contesters do this when a major effort would be daunting for any number of reasons. You don't have to do the same thing every time. Years ago when I spent a few years as a QRP contester with a small station it was possible to go all band and have a pleasant time since. To be blunt, it was difficult to be heard on the low bands and where the QRM was fierce so I could keep regular hours and not be sleep deprived. QRP contesting was enjoyable and educational but it was time to move on.

My present station with its tall towers and big antennas entices me to reach for the top. Well, I'm not quite that ambitious but having some muscle on the bands can be a lot of fun, though of a different type than the fun of QRP.

I looked at the state of my station, my objectives and the propagation forecast and entered the SO(A)SB15 HP category: Single Op, Assisted, Single Band 15 meters and High Power. This is a valid category in CQ WW, unlike in the ARRL DX contests for which I invented my own similar category earlier this year. I chose assistance (cluster spots) to see how high I could drive zone and country multipliers with my big signal.

I ran when I could and jumped on multipliers as they appeared. At intervals I would spin the VFO to see what I could dig up that wasn't yet spotted. The pace was less than frantic outside the morning hours of the European openings. Overall it was pretty relaxing. I ate at near regular times and I was able to take many short breaks. The only schedule pressure was waking up before dawn to be ready when 15 meters opened.

Antennas

I have 3 antennas to choose from for 15 meters. These are the two 5-element yagis comprising the stack and a TH6. Either or both of the yagis in the stack can be selected. The lower yagi is fixed to Europe. The side mounted TH6 is not currently rotatable because I have not completed the wiring all the way back to the shack. It's a straight forward job that is delayed while I do higher priority tasks in the rush before winter weather arrives.

The antenna controller I am building is not done. The project has not progressed over the summer due to other priorities. For the interim I wired up a simple controller using ON-OFF-ON switches mounted on a peanut butter jar lid to operate the stack switches: upper, BIP, lower. 

There is also a companion switch for the 20 meter stack and a hole that is waiting for the 10 meter stack wiring to be completed. Somehow I crossed wires for the 15 and 20 meter stack switches that caused confusion until the problem was identified. I temporarily swapped wires on the basement patch panel since that was faster and easier than resoldering wires.

There are several ways the stack can be employed during a contest:

• BIP towards Europe. That's my only direction with full stack gain until I put a rotator on the lower side mount yagi.
• Use the lower yagi for Europe and hunt multipliers with the upper yagi.
• "Spray" in two directions at once while running, with half the transmitter power going to each (-3 db). When a station is difficult to copy you increase directivity by selecting the yagi that favours their direction.
• Alternate CQs between each yagi, which are pointed in different directions.

I used all of these techniques during CQ WW. The stack worked especially well to Europe and the upper yagi did wonders for the long DX paths: SA, Asia, Africa, etc. Aside from geographical propagation differences the stack antennas were very competitive with other North American big guns.

One inconvenience was the lack of a direction indicator. I have a design and I have the parts collected in a jar on my workbench. Until it's built all I can do is count time (I roughly know the rotation speed of the prop pitch motor), peak the signal by ear or run across the house to look at it through a window.

Numerous times the accuracy of the heading was quite important. The beam width of a long boom 5-element yagi is sharper than what most of us are accustomed to using. With a 3-element yagi you don't need to get the direction too accurate to have close to maximum gain where you want it. In many pile ups or needed multipliers with a weak signal close isn't good enough.

The comparison plot the show how the 3-element yagi can outperform a 5-element yagi when the station is off the beam centre. I found that the difference is more profound compared to the TH6, probably because the upper 5-element yagi is twice as high. 

In several cases I repeatedly called stations 30° to 40° off the direction of the 5-element yagi without success. Turning it 10° to 20° degrees closer the signal strength rise is astounding. With that adjustment it takes just one call to put them in the log and I'm on to the next multiplier. It can be more time efficient to turn the yagi to the station and back again afterward.

The TH6 was a disappointment. It developed an intermittency when wet and it rained quite a lot during the weekend. Like most tri-banders the bandwidth is narrow and the antenna is optimized for CW. Running full power high in the 15 meter band tripped the SWR protection of the amplifier. When I needed the antenna I reduced drive and hoped for the best.

The TH6 will perform far better in CW contests when I finally wire up the rotator. Or so I hope.

Propagation

Cycle 25 is on the rise and so are the prospects for propagation on the higher HF bands. With the solar flux crossing 100 the 15 meter band is once again full of life. I was not deterred by the prediction of a CME-induced geomagnetic storm. A storm would not wipe out the band and everyone would be affected by poor conditions. That said, a storm would affect me more than many others due to my high geomagnetic latitude. Sometimes I do abandon a contest when conditions are especially bad.

As a Canadian I'm used to that since many of our DX paths are polar and we're already penalized on the high bands by the shorter fall and winters days in comparison to points further south. I am just thankful that I am no longer a VE4 since that is a far more challenging location from which to do DX contests.

The terminator plot comes from N1MM Logger+ and shows what the world looks like from here shortly after sunrise when the 15 meter band opens. It does open before sunrise but those are forward scatter signals of low intensity that are difficult to work. There is little point in trying since they'll be very strong an hour later. For me that time was around 8 AM (1200Z).

The sun is setting in west Asia when it is rising here. There were a few very weak Russian signals from zone 18 that I failed to work. The same was true of Indian stations in zone 22. However there were several strong stations in central Asia that delivered valuable multipliers. It is a more reliable path. When the band closed for us to those distant zones my attention focussed on Europe and European Russia. 

The bulk of the European opening ended around 1600Z. They still had conditions to the US on the more southerly paths, but not so for me over the northerly path. That limited my ability to "bulk up" on DX for QSO points. Outside of those 4 or 5 hours the rate slowed considerably. Working lower point value Americans was limited by the long skip that hopped right over all the major population centres of the eastern US. We need a higher solar flux to effectively work the US on 15 meters.

A mirror image of the same propagation occurred in the early evening at our sunset when the sun was rising in Japan and east Asia. Stations a few hundred kilometers to the west and south had far more success, with the big guns able to run Japanese stations. That was not possible here. All I could do was eke out every multiplier I could before signals faded for good. There were very patient operators in China, Phillipines and elsewhere who stayed with me under weak signal conditions to make those valuable QSOs.

From noon to late afternoon the QSO rate is low. It is a mix of Caribbean, Central and South America and a steady but slow number of US stations. A few Africans in badly needed zones and countries make up the rest. The contester population south of the equator is low and they attract a lot of attention from contesters in the north. 

The sum of the effort chasing multipliers is very positive to the score even if it is slow going. Marginal propagation and pile ups on popular DX stations were an excellent test for my new antennas. Propagation was not great this weekend but well suited to my objectives.

DXpeditions

Zone and country multipliers are key to a high score in CQ WW and similar DX contests. The small number of DXpeditions in 2020 due to the pandemic reduced the multiplier potential for all entrants. Rankings were little effected since everyone had to deal with it. For 2021 many of them are back. This increased interest from both contesters and casual operators alike. Contests are a great way to chase DX.

The good conditions and presence of DXpeditions were the spurs that prompted me to do this single band effort in the assisted class. Being assisted allowed me to pursue multipliers with a vengeance and to test my station against other big guns in the pile ups and (importantly) hear weak DX stations over particularly difficult and marginal paths. Many of them have small stations that are difficult to hear.

The chase was a lot of fun, I did well and I learned a lot about the capabilities of my station. DXpeditions are a great way to spice up the bands and renewed contest travel takes it to a higher level. Everyone on both sides of the DX QSOs seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Running

The bigger the signal the higher the number of QSOs and multipliers. Since QSO points and multipliers, well, multiply, the increase in score can be dramatic. The percentage of contacts from running will also be higher since there is a limit to how many contacts you can make by S & P (search and pounce). It is a matter of searching, checking the log then calling, and sometimes having to wait and try again.

With practice you can improve S & P success, but there is a limit no matter your skill. For example, you will never work stations who, like you, only S & P. It is therefore no surprise that most of my contacts in the contest came from running. By calling CQ you can everyone except the small fraction of stations who can run forever. These are mostly those in countries that are rare multipliers.

Many contesters love running. They love it so much that they travel to DX locations for the major contests. As a highly valued multiplier they can run the entire contest. If winning is the objective they must not run all the time. S & P is still necessary to work many rare multipliers and some of the big guns in more populous countries who mostly run as well.

I've written before that I don't particularly enjoy running, or at least not to excess. Nevertheless that is what I did contest weekend during the 4 to 5 hour long European openings in the mornings, from soon after sunrise until midday. I'm a big gun now with my 5-over-5 stack and a kilowatt. Running Europe was responsible for most of the contacts in my CQ WW log.

SSB is wide bandwidth compared to other modes and phone requires no special skills to operate: click the PTT and talk. The result is heavy QRM and many calling at the same time when the path across the Atlantic is in good shape, as it was for the contest. Running below 21.1 MHz helped since it cut the QRM from US stations, and from the far stronger Europeans calling US runners.

Your job is to pick calls or partial calls out of the bedlam and hope that only that one station replies. Many stations keep calling regardless because they want to make QSO quickly as well and move on to the next station. Speed and efficiency are good for you and your callers. Stumble too much or take too long to work through the callers and they'll leave. Maybe they'll come back later, or maybe not.

Pulling weak phone signals out of the QRM of overlapping and splattering signals is a skill that takes time to develop. Few casual operators bother, and even if they could they may not be able to make their CQs heard. I'm reasonably good at it since I've done it so much. Having to do it for hours on end is a grind. This is one of the reasons why I prefer multi-ops for phone contests: to be able to take breaks from the craziness.

One of the nice things about running with a big signal in a DX contest is who answers. Many stations in rare countries call me. Indeed, running is one of the "secret" weapons big guns have. Most hams, and that includes hams in interesting places, are casual operators who avoid running because of the pile ups that ensue. For them, ham radio is recreation and not competitive. They scan the bands and call whoever interests them. When you don't run you will miss those multipliers. With the station I now have I must run to be competitive.

Headset woes revisited

The Koss SB45 headset I recently purchased did as well as I expected. The quality of received and transmitted audio was good but my head ached after several hours. It was my best option at the time and I knew what I was getting into. 

The headband can be stretched a little. I did that before the contest, and again during the contest, to reduce the pressure against my head. I survived the contest without excess discomfort. Finding ideal headsets is not easy.

Another problem presented itself when I turned the big yagi north to work east Asia. This is the direction that points the antenna directly towards the house and shack. There was distortion of the mic audio heard using the rig's monitor function. No one complained about my audio (in fact, I got numerous positive reports of my audio quality) so I could not easily determine whether the RFI affected the transmitted signal as well.

After several minutes of worry I reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a snap-op ferrite core. I wrapped the cord (leads for both mic and headphones) around the ferrite several times and snapped it shut. 

The distortion in the monitored audio disappeared. I can only wish that all my station difficulties are so easy to solve.

While not directly related to headsets I have work to do on my stored voice messages (CQ, exchange, etc.). Canned messages greatly reduce wear on our voices, facilitate SO2R operation and permit more attention paid on other matters such as new cluster spots and checking propagation indicators. It is important to match the mic and message levels, and that the voice and voice cadence be as similar as possible. I have a tendency to record bland sounding messages and speak with intensity. I'll have to record better messages.

Results and lessons learned

When it was all over I logged over 1800 contacts in 34 zones and 137 countries. I am pleased with my multiplier total since it is competitive for this region and demonstrates that my antennas are working well. Further south the big guns did better. I will have to wait for a higher solar flux to open up the polar paths so that I can work more multipliers and run stations in Japan, and shorten skip so that I can work more Americans.

It is not enough to put up big towers and antennas to do well in a contest. You not only have to know how to use them to best effect, you must also be skilled at running, SO2R, hunting stations and have a keen eye on DX openings that can be marginal at best with small antennas at a lower height. I have much to learn and relearn.

I was also able to reaffirm that sitting in the chair for long periods in a phone contest is not really what I want to do. Once the station is better organized I will be inviting friends to do these contests as multi-ops.

Coming up: CQ WW CW and other major contests

The only change for 15 meters in advance of the CW weekend of CQ WW in late November is to fix the TH6 and finish wiring the rotator. Of more importance are the 3-element 40 meter yagi and the Beverage receive antennas. The direction indicator for the upper 15 meter yagi is lower priority.

The former project is progressing and there is a good chance it'll be built and raised in time. The Beverage system was struck by lightning this summer. It was a direct strike rather than a secondary strike or voltage induction as I first suspected. More on both of these in future articles.

The upper 10 meter yagi is connected and working, and that will be good to have now that the solar flux is rising. It is unlikely that the lower yagi will be connected this month, and that means no stack. If the weather cooperates I would like to get the full stack cabling and switching done in December.

I will operate ARRL Sweepstakes but not a full time effort for either CW or SSB. I have too much to do and the contest doesn't interest me as much as in years past. In any case the stacks are optimized for DX contests with the lower yagis on 10, 15 and 20 meters fixed towards Europe. 

What I'd really like is to have my first multi-op for one or both of the ARRL DX contests. It can be a lot of fun and I am spared the 48 hour marathon of a single op and the intense activity to be expected with my much bigger station. There is a lot of work yet to be done to be ready to do that.