Before every contest there is a question you must ask yourself: which category?
There is no right answer, just the one that works for you. Elite competitors aiming for WRTC qualification will almost always choose single op all band (SOAB), assisted or unassisted if the rules treat them separately. The rest of us pick a category that interests us, whether as an opportunity to chase DX, win a more focussed category (e.g. 15 meter single op, or SOAB for a country or continent), to shakedown station issues, or as practice to improve operating skills.
Although not particularly competitive, I wanted to push myself and the station in CQ WW CW. My intent to host a multi-op again didn't work out because there were too many lingering station issues and I really didn't have the time or energy to prepare. That led me to select SOAB HP (single op, all band, unassisted, high power). Hunting for stations and multipliers while running on another band was a test for me rather than the station; the latter could more conveniently done with assistance.
Since we are at the solar maximum and the propagation forecast for the weekend was favourable, I decided to operate as many hours as I could and run up a high score. I knew that I could achieve high run rates. That posed a dilemma with my modest SO2R and 2BSIQ skills. I intended (and did) do both of those, but not enough to be truly competitive. Winning was not in the cards. My objective was instead to try something that I have never accomplished on my own: 5000 contacts.
SO2R is very helpful to that objective but not mandatory if the runs are high enough. That afforded me a degree of flexibility when the stress of running precluded hunting or running on the second radio. It is still daunting; had I operated 40 hours my average rate would have been 125/hour, or just over 2 QSOs per minute.
The result
This blog is not a mystery novel! I'll show you the result up front and then discuss. My official on time was 44 hours (per the rules); my actual operating time was no more than 42 hours. That's useful for keeping statistics but it does not factor into the result -- you operate as much of the 48 hours as you can. It is a meaningful number in this case so I self-reported it to 3830.
Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 238 13 38 80: 556 14 57 40: 1118 23 79 20: 1195 31 82 15: 1016 28 82 10: 963 27 77 ------------------------------ Total: 5086 136 415 Total Score = 7,507,375
I passed the 5000 QSO mark at 2323Z on Sunday. It was a near thing! We'll have to wait to see whether the result stands after log checking. I know there are errors, but I hope there are no more than 86!
A meaningful comparison of my result is with my friend Vlad VE3JM since we live in the same area and our stations are similar. The difference is his skill level. He made over 6400 contacts and many more multipliers for a raw score of about 10.4 million. His objective was 10M points so he also succeeded.
To give you an idea of how competitive the SOAB HP category was, my rank in the raw scores is #22. Despite meeting my objective and scoring well, my result will be of no interest to anyone but me. I'm okay with that. I had fun and accomplished something I've never done before.
Preparation
There was a rush of antenna work to be done over the preceding weeks. The previous blog post describes the repair of the Beverage system. I did not mention that the southwest direction was not functioning. That is the reverse mode of the northeast-southwest reversible Beverage. With 5 other directions to choose from I didn't worry about it. A failed splice along the 175 meter long open wire Beverage antenna was repaired several days after the contest.
Copper corrosion on a wire to the radial system hub of the driven element had taken the 80 meter 3-element vertical yagi offline. It took me a while to discover the fault since I thought the problem was due to a Heliax connector. I cleaned the wire, tightened it down and it was back in service. With that done, all of the antennas were operational for the contest.
Finally, a bug was lurking in my antenna switching software which I had to track down and fix. I hadn't noticed it since my last software update since it was triggered by an unusual (and untested) SO2R conflict for a subset of antennas and switch ports.Preparation of the operating desk was easier. I stacked the Drake L7 on top of the FT950 as the second (right) radio, plugged the second keyboard into the PC and plugged in the SO2R Mini. That took 10 minutes, and a few minutes more to configure N1MM Logger+ for SO2R. This is routine for contest setup. The operating desk looked similar to what you can see in this article, but with two keyboards and an Icom 7610 in place of the FTdx5000.
Since this picture was taken after the contest and there is one notable difference: the FT950 has been replaced by an acquired Icom 7600 that arrived a few days after the contest. That will be my SO2R setup going forward. I'll might say more about the rig change in a future article.
Propagation
Solar flux was high but not very high. A minor geomagnetic disturbance was also forecast. As it turned out, propagation was very good on all bands from 160 to 10 meters for almost everybody in the contest (high Arctic stations excepted).
Propagation for the CW weekend of CQ WW is usually not as good for us as during the SSB weekend since the solar flux was lower. Also, it is a month later. Less daylight means shorter high band openings the higher your latitude in the northern hemisphere. Since it is summer in the southern hemisphere, there are also fewer hours of joint darkness to work across the equator on the low bands.
Unlike for the SSB contest, 10 and 15 meters needed full daylight to be sufficiently open to work DX. Although 20 meters opened before sunrise, signal levels were low. Sunrise was instead an opportunity to hunt multipliers on the low bands. I was able to work many new ones on 160, 80 and 40 meters at that time of the morning. Since the ionosphere was undisturbed, it was possible to work stations on 80 and 40 well into the morning, whether that was here or in Europe or west Asia. As the sun rose above the horizon, 10 and 15 opened and there was a mass exodus from the low bands.
Here are two examples of the good conditions. During a run Saturday night on 160, I had callers from W6/7, Europe and the Caribbean. On Sunday afternoon, a lengthy run on 20 meters attracted callers from every WAC continent (not Antarctica!). The repaired 20 meter stack was pointed to Europe and north to spray in multiple directions.
Notice in my score that I was able to work about the same number of stations and multipliers on 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters. The number of contacts on 40 and 20 lagged until Sunday when more stations moved down from 15 and 10 as rates there declined.
In short, there was little to complain about -- the ionosphere cooperated. Short path, long path, and trans-Arctic DX paths were all available, with multi-hour openings on the productive path to Europe.
44 hours
That many hours, at my age? It was easier than I expected. My official on time was 44 hours, and no more than 42 hours in the chair. Several breaks of up to 30 minutes were needed to periodically refresh myself. Had I only operated a more civilized 30 hours, my average hourly rate would have had to be 170, or 3 QSOs per minute. That's far more difficult than 120 per hour.
Since I'm a nighthawk, I made the wise decision to operate throughout the first night and then catch a few hours the second night. I was certainly not alert for the entire time, just alert enough to run the pile ups. Fatigue occasionally prevented effective SO2R so I would stick with one radio when that happened.
Operating close to a full 48 hours has bodily effects beyond sleepiness. That proved more difficult but still endurable. I was early to bed the following two days and I made sure to spend a lot of time on my feet to "reset" my body.
Running
It is still true that I hate running. I enjoy building up the score and being called by many multipliers, but it can be difficult and frustrating. With my "big gun" signal I could usually start a run on a clear frequency by sending "TEST VE3VN" just 3 times. Often the pile up would become quite large within one to two minutes.
It is a challenge to get stations other than the ones I'm calling to stand by. They end up wasting my time and theirs with discourteous tactics, and that lowers everybody's score. Yes, it's a competition but courtesy and ethics should never be set aside. Fatigue makes the problem worse, since it gets harder to pull out full calls. Sending partial calls doesn't quench the enthusiasm of many.
A common source of errors is callers who won't correct their call signs. When I suspect an error, to save time I may send their call as I have it along with my exchange. But they respond with their exchange and do not correct their call. Then I have to ask again, and many times they've already moved on. Others don't seem to understand "call?" and just repeat the exchange. Sending a partial followed by "?" can be more successful but it takes time, and time is of the essence when running a pile up.
SO2R and 2BSIQ, though beneficial to everyone, are particularly difficult during hectic runs. Although 2BSIQ is often easier because the operator is in control of both frequencies, I would lose sync between the runs when callers were unruly. Unlike the best contesters, I could not operate both radios as much as I'd have liked. When 2BSIQ worked well (not too many callers and all were courteous) my rate soared to 6 QSOs per minutes. Alas, it never lasted for long.
Yet run I must. You won't make 5000 contacts by calling others. My patience was severely tested but I persevered because it was what I knew I must do to reach my objective.
Hunting (S & P)
S & P on the second radio is difficult when you are unassisted. While running on one radio -- you should always be running on at least one radio when operating SO2R -- the pile up makes it difficult to spin the VFO and copy call signs. Then you must delay the run radio to make your call. It can be very fatiguing in a 48 hour contest.
It is easier when you a little pistol. During contests like NAQP, with 100 watts everyone is more equal and the number of callers is never large. I can copy the callers on the run radio while hunting and copying call signs on the other. As the intensity of the pile up increased during CQ WW, I frequently had to abandon the second radio to focus on pulling out a call signs from the horde replying to my CQ.
Assisted operators have it much easier. You click on the spot and you call after confirming the call sign -- human and skimmer spots are often wrong. On CW you rarely need to touch the VFO knob. Due to the lack of skimmers on phone it is often necessary to spin the knob. Human spots don't include the majority of stations available to work.
I focussed on running when hunting became too difficult. Look at the summary screen on N1MM where it tells you the equivalent value of QSOs and multipliers (other logging apps show a similar statistic). Towards the end of the contest, mine was about 9; that is, 1 multiplier is worth 9 QSOs. Since hunting mults was difficult and slowing the run rate it was acceptable to abandon the hunt so that I could run faster.
That's how I coped with the difficulty of S & P while running. With more skill I should be able to do both. The best operators can do it far better than I can.
Lessons learned
The station itself only requires incremental improvement. It's big enough for me. I am working on several antenna projects and control systems that will give the operator(s) better options and fewer distractions. One major impediment was the FT950 -- a radio well beyond its time -- which I have now replaced with the Icom 7600. I'll keep the 950 for backup.
My intent is to give both radios the same "look and feel" so that fewer mistakes are made when the operator is fatigued or inattentive. Although the 7600 is a newer and better rig than the 950, it is hardly modern. I hope that it will work out; otherwise I will not hesitate to replace it. The FTdx10 is available at a similar price but I have concerns about it. That's a shame because its receiver is superb.
The FTdx5000 remains inoperative and I am not convinced it is worth the cost of repair. It is in many respects a fine radio that is also showing its age. In particular I am concerned with its key clicks; the impact on others can no longer be ignored when I run a kilowatt with my large antennas.
My SO2R skills and setup must be improved. I have to do better even if I never again go all out as a single op in CQ WW. I need the skills for shorter and smaller contests like NAQP. That will require practice. No one can help me with that, but I can learn from others. It is important to learn from the best, either from what they say publicly or by speaking to them. I have no illusions or intent to become an expert, just as far as my interest and ability allow.
If I want to improve my single op results, there are the changes that I must consider. These include:
- Rig placement: Some put the radios side-by-side while others shove them off to the sides. I fall into the latter group. I prefer to touch the rigs as little as possible, using standard and custom buttons in N1MM to control them. The main exception is the VFO knob. SO2R ops that like to keep them in front of them like the situational awareness that arrangement provides.
- Amplifiers: Ideal amps for SO2R and multi-ops is broadband no-tune. Both of mine are manual tune tube amps. The need to tune the amps makes me reluctant to do frequent band changes and, in some cases, antenna changes. It doesn't take long to tune them but it feels like an eternity in the midst of the contest.
- Keyboards: I quickly migrated to two keyboard SO2R for what I believe are good reasons. I haven't changed my mind. I notice that many of the best operators do the same. What I need to consider is keyboard type and placement. Small keyboards (no numeric pad, etc.) with large keys, including function keys, take up less space and require less physical movement to pivot from one to the other.
- Stereo vs mono: For 2BSIQ it is better for the audio from the radio with receive focus to play in both ears. Copy is much better that way, and that means fewer mistakes and repeat requests. I've avoided it since it tends to confuse me; that is, you have to keep track of which radio you're listening to. If you haven't tried this with SO2R, trust me, it's a challenge. The visual cues from N1MM are poor, in my opinion. Manual stereo/mono switching when S & P on one radio is usually better, but I have been doing it for 2BSIQ may have been a mistake.
- Paddle position and use: Some contesters have dispensed with manual sending entirely, whether SO2R or not. I still like to have paddles available for the times I might greet a friend (dit dit) or send a rare message such as "QRL" when someone tries to steal the frequency. For this contest (see the picture above) I moved the paddles off the desk to get them out the way of the radios, mouse and rotator controllers. I copied the idea from others. It reduces clumsiness induced errors but sending can be awkward.
- Logging software: Differences abound among contest logging applications. Some are arguably superior for intense SO2R. This has led to a quandary: stick with the evil I know (N1MM Logger+) or switch to DXLog? Although I don't like the overall UX (user experience) of DXLog, I know that it better for SO2R in comparison to N1MM. I must give DXLog another chance, if only to help improve my SO2R and 2BSIQ results. Once I have experience with both I may write about it.
Do it again?
After getting this far in the article you might wonder whether I actually had fun. Yes, I did. Part of the fun is challenging myself to do as well as I and the station allow. Of course there is frustration when I fall short, but that prods me to improve myself and the station, which is also fun.
Is a blow-by-blow of my contest experience of interest to anyone? Probably not. There is little drama in discovering that I could easily run on every band and work pretty well every station that I called. My challenges were ones less familiar to casual contesters: how to increase rate and how to find more multipliers?
Since I'm planning to improve, that implies that, yes, I'd like to do it again. Perhaps. It is equally likely that in the 2025 CQ WW CW contest I will host a multi-op. I can use any improvements between now and then for other contests.
I admit to the temptation of another single op entry next year to see how far I've come in what might be the last CQ WW contest of this solar maximum. The next maximum is more than a decade in the future and who know where I'll be then.
To close this article I'll paraphrase the words of the renowned philosopher of life, C. Lauper:
"Hams just want to have fu-un,
Oh oh, hams just want to have fun!"
