CQ WW SSB: Preparation, Operation and Contemplation

I am not especially attracted to SSB single op contests. I made no attempt to join a multi-op and my station is really not ready for it. Since I was going to do it alone I narrowed my focus so that it could be enjoyable and not a time burden. There was also the state of the station to be considered, which is a never ending work in progress.

After considering options I decided on the same category I entered last year: single op, assisted, 15 meters, or SO(A)SB15 HP using the most common abbreviation.

Unfortunately it was not so easy. There were outstanding problems with the 15 meter stack that had to be resolved. When I considered 10 meters to take advantage of the vastly improved conditions there were similar problems to resolve. Besides, I have the option of focussing on 10 meters in December's ARRL 10 Meter contest. 

When I considered the other bands, 80 and 160 meters are difficult on SSB due to the noise level, the 40 meter phone segment is very crowded and split operation is bothersome, and 20 meters would require too many hours of operation to be competitive since it is now open long into the night.

Preparation

There were two problems to be solved with the 15 meter stack:

• SWR was 2 rather than below 1.5
• The wiring of the direction pot wiper was open

With ~100 meters of coax between the outdoor 2 × 8 antenna switch and the stack switch on the tower there is a lot that can go wrong. The problem was isolated to that long length by testing the feed line at the antenna switch and at the stack switch. After doing that, I was relieved to find that the antennas were working properly.

I was concerned that the fault might be in the 50 meters of buried LDF5. I've never had a problem with directly buried Heliax where the jacket was in good condition, but there's always a first time. Since the other cables buried alongside it in the trench were fine I was hopeful that wouldn't be the case.

I tried to find the fault location with my old RigExpert AA54, by sweeping the cable in the frequency domain and using math to convert to the time domain. This model does not have a TDR (time domain reflectometer) feature and my VNWA3, which does, is difficult to use in the field. The plot of the fundamental reflection only told me the length of feed line. There were interesting squiggles on a wider sweep that were difficult to interpret. Some day I'll have to learn how to properly perform a TDR analysis.

I climbed the tower and disconnected the connectors that spliced the main run to the tower run of LDF5. The upper run was fine but the buried cable showed a fault. This test was done with a small 50 Ω load termination where the cable would plug into the antenna switch. I opened the lower connector and found corrosion.

One of the nice features of large hard line connectors is that there is no fussing with coax braid and soldering. The connectors are entirely mechanical. But because they're large so are the wrenches. They had to be carried up with me. That's a fair exchange for connectors that are easy to work on high up the tower. 

A bad connector on ordinary coax can be far more difficult to repair. This week I spent a few hours on a friend's tower diagnosing a feed line problem that was due to a misbehaving N connector on RG213. Eventually we gave up on it. I cut the coax and I installed a UHF connector. That solved the problem but it wasn't fun.

The left panel shows the upper half of the male N connector and the centre pin. The corrosion on both the outer and inner couplings is readily apparent. A few drops of water dripped from the connector when I pulled off the shell, which explains the corrosion. It's repairable but that's a job for another time.

What puzzled me is that the Heliax inside the connector was in pristine condition, with shiny copper and no debris on the dielectric. The connector and female barrel connector for the upper length of Heliax was similarly clean. The removed weatherproofing tapes were also clean on the inner surfaces.

Perhaps it was condensation? It also might have been snow or ice that I didn't clean out when I installed the Heliax two winters ago. Who knows. I descended the tower to get another half shell and centre pin. Up I went and wrenched them on. When I connected the analyzer I read a clean 50 Ω from the load back at the antenna switch.

To get rid of the barrel connector and have a simpler coupling the replacement connector is a female N. That left a 1" gap between the connectors. With the Heliax well tied to the tower that posed a challenge: hard line doesn't stretch! I had to climb to the top and coax the coax through the plastic ties on the way down. I couldn't get more than ½" doing this so it took two trips.

When I was done the SWR was back to normal. I taped it up and moved on to the next job.

I previously mentioned that the new direction indicator electronics require that the direction pot wiper not be grounded. But when I disconnected the grounding wire at the top of the tower there was no continuity back to the shack. There are several splices and cross-connections among the multitude of Cat5 control cables in the path and I had to trace the wire through all of it.

It took a few hours until I found that a wire in a crimp connector at the tower base had snapped off. I had to remove the crimp connector to see what had happened. It's possible that I was overly aggressive with wire stripped and the thin AWG 25 wire was nicked. It took only a minute to repair.

Ugly, isn't it? What mattered is that it worked. In the picture is the prototype direction indicator with an extra current limiting pot and wired into the ±12 VDC supplies in the old controller. The upper yagis of the 15 and 20 meter stacks are shown pointing NNE right after I worked VK9CM on 20 meters after the contest. The controller was problem free during the contest so I never had to run to the window to see where the antennas were pointing.

Operation

For a change there were no equipment problems during the contest. The ionosphere was another matter. I am far enough north that the geomagnetic disturbance blocked many potential contacts in Japan, the far east and Europe. US stations several hundred kilometers south did better since they could "see" around the disturbance to the right and to the left. It was frustrating but there was nothing to be done about it.

This is a regular complaint and I admit that it sounds like a gripe. Yet it is a real concern and one that is not always appreciated. It's just the way propagation works:

• This time of year daylight is longer as you go south, and that enhances and extends openings
• At the slightest sign of a geomagnetic disturbance, we see attenuation or complete blockage of signals between northeast and northwest

In Canada we have advantages that counter those challenges:

• We have few mode restrictions so we can operate SSB where the Americans cannot
• The high ratio of Americans to Canadians gives us far more stations to work

For these reasons Canadian and American scores are not comparable in CQ WW. Yet we habitually do compare our scores despite our respective advantages and disadvantages. This is unsurprising since category plaques for North America often lump us together.

On Sunday the conditions were far better. In an unusual twist I worked more stations in the second half of the contest than the first. But I was still outgunned when chasing particularly attractive multipliers in Africa and the far east. Some of this is geography and some is my station. Big as my towers and antennas are there are far larger. Add in the different power limits and I am dealing with several decibels of disadvantage. Many of the southeast Asian stations I couldn't work Saturday would have been workable on Sunday had they been there. But for them it was Monday morning and a work day.

I worked a similar number of stations as last year but with 10% fewer zones and countries. Despite the lower solar flux, last year I could run JA. Not this year. My runs were solely to Europe and the US. Nevertheless, by pointing the big antenna south and west I was able to garner quite a few callers from South America and Oceania, respectively.

One frustrating miss was zone 2. VE2IM's usual big effort was absent because he went to the Caribbean. VO2AC and VE2IDX were single band and neither of those bands was 15 meters. When VO2NS showed up late Sunday the skip was long to the east and he was unworkable from here. Many North Americans worked him easily.

The dearth of Ukrainians and Russians reduced QSO potential but that had little impact on multipliers.

There were many multipliers, zones and countries, that I heard but could not work. In some cases I had only to wait for conditions to improve but in others the wanted stations moved on before that happened. As is typical with a big signal, many valuable multipliers called while I was running. Most casual operators never run and only call others. That's as true for rare DX stations as it is for those of us in common locales. It is vitally important to run to give them a change to find and call you. 

Lingering in hopeless pile ups lowers your score even when you eventually get through. Experienced contesters learn to balance running and multiplier hunting to maximize their score. Working other stations while the big guns and those with more favourable propagation work the wanted multiplier is usually an effective strategy, but not always. They may leave before the pile up thins enough for you to have a chance.

There are many old articles in the blog that discuss the above points in more detail. Rather than select one or two of them, use the search box at the top left of the page.

When 0000Z rolled around on Sunday evening my final score was respectable but not impressive. I was moderately satisfied and also disappointed. There were many "what ifs" to ponder, which bring me to the final section of this article.

Contemplation

Amateur radio is a hobby and contests are fun and exhilarating events. Winning is great but, for me at least, it is not the primary motivation. I enjoy designing and building a competitive station, learning new skills and pushing myself to see what I and my station can accomplish. I rarely win and that does not discourage me.

My towers and antennas are so far above the norm that I can crack most DX pile ups without an amplifier. Indeed, the amplifier had gone unused since August. I turned it on and used it the day before the contest to reassure myself that it still worked!

Many stations have more and bigger towers and antennas. There really is no limit if you have the time, motivation and resources. The question I keep asking myself is: how far should I go? I'd like to be more competitive, but that comes at a price. Also, while I'm in excellent physical and mental condition, I am not young and I will only get older. VE3VN is over the hill and it's all downhill from here.

I know where to acquire more large towers at a reasonable price. I have not and will not pursue these opportunities. Dealing with the two big towers and their antennas is enough of a challenge. I have perhaps another 10 good years of tower climbing in me. Hiring riggers when my climbing days are over will not be cheap. It's important to keep the future burden managable.

Nevertheless, I can do better with the towers I have. There is also the possibility of a small tower to host a tri-band or better antenna to replace the TH6 that is side mounted on one of the big towers. I've reluctantly concluded that trap tri-band yagis are not up to the demands of competitive contesting.

The possibilities I am currently contemplating include, but are certainly not limited to:

• Swing gate for the fixed, side mounted lower yagis of the 10 meter and 15 meter stacks. That would offer 300° rotation to have more stacking power when chasing multipliers outside Europe. That would prove especially useful for running stations in Japan and southeast Asia, along with multiplier hunting in Africa and the Caribbean.
• Move the XM240 to the current location of the TH6, but put it on a swing gate so that I can use it for more than just NA and SA. I can of course leave it on the Trylon, at about the same height and 360° rotation. The move would free the Trylon for more VHF antennas and small yagis for 17 and 12 meters. I would like more effective DXing antennas for those non-contest bands.
• A swing gate for the lower 20 meter yagi is unlikely due to the antenna's large size and weight and relatively low height. However I would like a 3-element rotatable 20 meter yagi for multiplier hunting. The possible locations for it are limited but I would like to squeeze one in somewhere.

What's missing in this list are tri-band yagis. I would like to find a place for the TH6, perhaps fixed to the south or southwest as a rapid option for easy to work multipliers. I have to ponder this one further.

What does not fit in my plans is the TH7. There simply is no place for it and, as already stated, though it is quite good it is nevertheless a compromise antenna. Another problem is that it cannot be side mounted because the driven elements are close together. It is only suitable for mast mounting at the top of a tower, and I have none available. It can be converted to a TH6 but I don't really see the point. I will hold on to it for a while longer, just in case. 

I have other antenna plans for 80 and 160 meters, most of which have been described in earlier articles. All antenna plans are for 2023 and beyond. My 2022 antenna season is wrapping up. 

The major project remaining is to rebuild the extensive lightning damage to the Beverage. That was one reason I chose a high band focus in CQ WW. I want to be fully operational in time for CQ WW CW. CW Sweepstakes is this weekend and I have yet to decide which category to enter and how serious an effort to make. We are having unseasonably warm weather and I might decide to turn off the radio to spend time in the great outdoors.