ARRL DX CW Contest (2022)

I occasionally recap my contest experience to relate events and to discuss topics that may interest others and not just me. The 2022 running of the ARRL DX CW contest is one of those. I'll try to keep it concise to avoid boring readers who have not been bitten by the contest bug.

Choosing a category

It has to be said up front: I have no illusions about winning. These days I am up against the big guns, often with even bigger stations, better propagation and better operating skill. When I choose a category I try to balance testing the station, testing myself and having fun.

Due to technical problems I was at first reluctant to operate in an all bands category. One temptation was 40 meters single band, assisted, to put the new antenna to the test. I could also rest during the day and avoid the drag of a 48 hour marathon. This worked well for in CQ WW SSB last fall when I entered the 15 meter assisted category.

With conditions good and a positive attitude I decided to see what I could do with an all band effort. I demurred going assisted to focus on improving my running skills and test the potential of the new 40 meter yagi. I believe I made a good choice, although it's likely I'd have been happy regardless of my choice.

Run versus hunting multipliers

I have a tendency to linger too long when attempting to work multipliers since I'm a passionate DX'er. This is where the logging software helps to give you perspective. I use N1MM+. On the score summary window there is a statistic at the bottom that tells you the incremental value of a multiplier. For example, it might say "1 Mult = 5.5 Q's". That is, the score will increase the same amount by working one new multiplier or 5.5 QSO's (of average point value).

If you are a big gun it can pay to keep running and not hunt multipliers. It takes time and effort, even if you are assisted. The potential value of hunting multipliers is reduced by the fact that a big signal attracts many callers, including new multipliers. When the running is good it is often best to keep at it.

Big guns benefit from hunting, and the experienced operators know it. When there is a brief opening to a difficult area of the world to work -- for us, that is always true of southeast Asia -- taking time to sweep for those multipliers or to call CQ while pointed in that direction pays dividends. When the bands are closed to Europe -- for us, that is mid-afternoon at this point of the solar cycle -- the runs slow considerably and the time may be better spent multiplier hunting.

For whose doing SO2R, it is possible to hunt while running. Indeed, that may be preferable early in the contest when running on two bands (2BSIQ) can be difficult because of the size of the pile ups.

For those with low power or small antennas the choice more often favours multiplier hunting. Every situation is different and you have to continually assess whether to stop and run rather than keep hunting. When I had a small station I would try to run at intervals and stick with it if the rate was acceptably high. Otherwise I'd return to spinning the VFO. Now I am far more likely to keep running when conditions are favourable.

2BSIQ

Running concurrently on two bands is a difficult skill to learn. Most SO2R operators run on one band and S & P on another. However when it's done well and you get into the "flow" it can be tremendous fun and your score will grow at an impressive rate. I have had SO2R success in contests like NAQP but not the major international contests. The reason is interesting.

In NAQP a large majority of stations run 100 watts. That narrows the range of signal strengths of callers, and signals are usually not exceptionally weak. When I run a kilowatt on a band with QRN and QRM there are many weak callers. The "rhythm" of 2BSIQ is lost and bedlam ensues. 

For example, the late night opening on 40 and 80 meters (after their sunrise) only lasts 1 or 2 hours, so it is very productive for 2BSIQ. Unfortunately, the many callers and their low SNR requires concentration to separate one signal from among many and to copy them well. I ultimately failed at the attempt. It would go well for a while and then I'd get a large burst of callers on one or both bands and I'd lose control of the timing and end up with pile ups raging in both ears. Half the time I'd abandon one of the run frequencies to regain control of the situation.

Saturday on the high bands the rate of European callers is high. My full attention is required to run on one frequency. Running on two bands is beyond my ability, so the second radio is only used for S & P if at all. On Sunday when the rate is lower it is a little easier to do 2BSIQ on 15 and 20 meters. But for me it is remains difficult. All I can do is keep practicing.

Automation and equipment woes

The bigger the station the greater the number of things that can go wrong. There is always something that needs repair or maintenance, or there are projects still incomplete. My rush to get the 3-element 40 meter yagi finished before severe winter weather arrived put many other jobs on hold.

Here is a selection of the equipment challenges I faced during the contest:

• The prop pitch motor turning the upper 20 and 15 meter yagis does not work well or at all in cold weather. By that I mean below 0° C. In our climate that's a huge issue. Since the weather during the contest was typical for February I parked the yagis to 330°, at east Asia, and used the lower yagis to work Europe. The stacks were never in play during the contest.
• The rotator for the side-mounted TH6 was stuck. I had parked it at its west stop to protect it from wind storms and it appears that the Ham-M brake wedge would not retract. On Saturday it freed itself, much to my relief. Due to the prop pitch problem, the TH6 was the only antenna for 15 and 20 that I could turn to the west and south. 
• Lack of automation causes a "fear and loathing" of  band changes. Each band change requires switching antennas, switching the BPF, switching the amp and tuning the amp. There are no rapid band changes to sweep for multipliers or to check propagation. For quick band changes I left the amp offline and operated without the amps.
  
• Lack of good visual indicators such as LEDs caused antenna selection errors. For example, I inadvertently used the low XM240 rather than the 3-element yagi on 40 meters to run Europe Saturday evening. I was struggling but didn't discover my mistake for 2 hours.
  
• Despite the BPF, the FT950 receiver cannot deal with a few band and antenna combinations. There is enough RF from the other radio and amp to cause excess noise and make SO2R difficult. Turning off the pre-amp helped but on the high bands that affected copy of weak stations.
• A series of unexpected strong wind gusts on Sunday turned the 3-element 40 meter yagi by 10° on the mast. I believe this was caused by an unfortunate mistake during installation. It is easy to repair. The storm also damaged one element, and that repair will be more difficult. However the antenna continues to work very well so it's more of an inconvenience for now.
  

Once the warm weather arrives I have a long list of maintenance tasks to deal with. I no longer have the excuse of major antenna projects to distract me so I'll just have to get down to work. The same goes for progress on station automation. I expect to be in far better shape for the next contest season.

40 meters

The new 3-element yagi worked well. One glitch was due to my poor switching system, whereby I was on the low XM240 for a couple of hours by mistake. I wondered why my rate wasn't what it ought to be during the European opening!

Over the pole it brought in welcome multipliers from Asia. I even managed a brief JA run after our sunrise. This experience bodes well for the future. One dark spot is that the antenna suffered minor mechanical damage during house-shacking wind bursts Sunday afternoon.

Remedial work will be done when the weather warms up. For now the antenna continues to work well despite the problems. Details will be left for a future article.

QRL?

In the heat of competition many contesters searching for a run frequency on a crowded band fail to first ask "QRL?" or even to listen for a few seconds. Only a few of these are deliberately attempting to steal the frequency. It is too easy to be trigger happy in a fast paced contest: you listen for a second or two and start up the CQ machine. Others see a hole on the SDR spectrum display, click and punch the CQ button. 

Almost all will QSY when I announce my presence. The reason for the silence that entices them is usually that I'm listening to a weak or slow station, probably one within their skip zone that they cannot hear. This is mostly a high bands problem since the crowding is less and the skip zones smaller or non-existent on 80 and 160 meters.

A related problem is for stations within my skip zone. That includes a populous region of the United States. Unless we hear each others' callers it is easy to believe the frequency is open.  We can't hear each other so we don't copy the "QRL?" We may not realize what happened until we hear the confusion of callers. The frequency isn't big enough for the two of us so one of us must go.

Propagation

Experienced contesters check propagation paths a day or two before a major event. Admittedly I don't often do it but this time I did. It helped me to plan and to ultimately select my category. 

RBN (reverse beacon network) is a valuable tool since listening for stations and calling CQ are not enough. Outside of contests few hams appear for these brief and unusual openings. I call CQ hoping for a reply, but I will settle for data from the RBN. Unfortunately there are few nodes in Asia, Africa and Oceania, and those are critical to propagation research. Despite that lack the exercise is valuable.

One example is the path to northeast Asia during our early evening and their post-sunrise morning on 15 and 20 meters. The prospects for good openings were promising and indeed there were productive JA runs during the contest at the predicted hours which had been rare during the solar minimum.

Another propagation path that is particularly valuable in the ARRL DX contests is Europe on 80 and 40 meters after their sunrise. When the geomagnetic field is quiet the opening can extend 2 hours or more  after sunrise on 80 meters. Hundreds of contacts were logged during those openings. The path is less valuable in contests like CQ WW since Europeans are more inclined to move to the high bands in the morning since they are not only looking to North America for contacts.

With the high solar flux and still good low band conditions, quite a few station were worked on 6 bands. This was rare during the solar minimum other than the occasional Caribbean station.

W/VE callers

Many casual operators participate in major contests. Sometimes their willingness to hand out points isn't helpful. For W/VE stations in the ARRL DX contests, contacts with W/VE stations are worth zero points. Yet they keep calling. W call W, W call VE and VE call VE. No one wants to be rude but it becomes annoying when I have multiple DX callers that are covered up by one or two strong zero-pointers.

Sometimes I politely tell them "sri dx dx only pse". Half the time they keep calling regardless. Other times I work them to clear the frequency but don't log them. I know that other contesters do the same, while some are more rude and others shrug while working and logging them.

Many casual operators don't read the rules, know the exchange and have little understanding of each contest's unique rules and procedures. I am happy they are always there when I need them, so I keep it polite. It is more difficult to explain the situation on CW than on SSB.

Live and let live

Do you believe that everything goes in a contest? I don't but many do. When I operate in contests I avoid narrow channels of activity devoted to non-contest operating. Examples include FT8, beacons and a few SSB frequencies used to monitor for emergencies. I avoid running or calling stations on those frequencies. A few times I've violated the rule to work a juicy multiplier so I am not blameless.

Too many jump on those frequencies and run and ignore requests (or demands) to QSY. Those with a big enough signal may get away with the transgression. Their reputations is another matter.

Future

I have never been enthusiastic about operating a weekend-long contest by myself. It was true when I was a teenager in the 1970s and it's true now. I need to get my station into a state where I can invite others to join in a multi-op team now that the pandemic is abating.

My objective is to have fun and share in the energy that a team operation generates. It is an experience I have only rarely enjoyed since returning to the hobby and contests not many years ago. At first it was nice to do what I wanted when I wanted, which is sensible with a small station and QRP. But with a bigger station the demands of a contest weekend are far greater.

There is much work yet to be done, work that I've deferred during the pandemic. Major tasks include the shack desk, equipment and automation. Getting the antennas and rotators in good shape is important but is of lesser priority. This is the year to get it done.

Final note

It feels surreal to be discussing a topic as mundane as a radio contest in light of current world events. Had the contest taken place a few days later everything would have been different. In a way it both surprises and doesn't surprise me that few hams talk about the war on the air or in personal conversations. Life goes on. My family has history in that part of the world and I know many hams with close ties to the region. Conversations on bulletin boards are lagging and so are the page views on my blog while all of us are preoccupied by world events. 

73 to all.