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CQ WPX CW CONTEST 2002
STORY
By Valeri Stefanov – LZ2CJ ( Wally)
After contest expeditions of YM3LZ team in year 2000 with operations in WPX SSB 2000 and WAE SSB 2000 we started planning our activities for year 2002. It was decided to operate in WPX CW 2002 and WAE SSB 2002 this time. Since Berkin TA3J is not a CW operator and since he also had other plans for WPX CW weekend we decided this time to organize our operation from Grand Efe Hotel located near Ozdere about 60 km south from Izmir. In March I contacted Berkin and he has talked to the Manager of the Hotel Mrs. Dilek Uslu and arranged that we could install our antennas on the hotel’s roof and operate from Grand Efe in WPX CW contest.
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After
unsuccessful attempts to find a company which to become our “antenna sponsor” we
decided to go on our own and thus a “Home Brew Delta Loop Team” was born J !
A 10m telescopic mast has been purchased for 20-15m DL antennas and
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another one 6 m tall has also been assembled for 10m DL.
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On
80 and 40m we planned single element Delta Loop antennas. On 160m an Inv.Vee was
planned,but finally we used 80m loop on 160m,too.
In
first half of April Ceco LZ2FV has made all other small parts we needed for proper antenna
installation at his company facilities. Second weekend of May we all gathered on LZ2FV’s
roof for “antenna party” and installed two masts with 2el Delta on 20m ,3 el Delta on
15m and 3 el Delta on 10m. Antennas were tuned and tested in the air. They shouldn’t be
too high since main target was Europe and lower end was made around 3m above the roof as
it was planned to be on the Grand Efe Hotel roof. Antennas
worked as expected and we put them all down and prepared them for transportation. LZ1UQ
and LZ2HM took them to Sofia which was to be our starting point for our contest expedition
to Turkey.
The
next step was to find and hire the minibus. This proved to be most expensive part of our
expedition. The cheapest possibility was to hire the minibus from Technical University of
Sofia and in spite of this the transportation “has eaten” a half of the contest
expedition budget !!!
On
May 21st we loaded the minibus with 300m coax cabel, two masts, 300m wire,
verticals for 20,15 and 10m plus 2 pcs of
IC735(LZ2CJ & LZ2UU) , 2pcs FT 900 (LZ2FV & LZ1UQ),
800 W PA (tnx LZ1KDP). Around 03.00 LZT
in the morning we headed to Bulgarian – Turkish border.
Since
there are no longer visas for Bulgarians when visiting Turkey and since we had a license
for YM3LZ operation in our hands (tnx the efforts of Yasar TA3D and Berkin TA3J) there
were no any problems at both borders and we entered Turkey at the sunrise. After 18 hours
of driving we reached Grand Efe Hotel at 2.00 PM local time in the afternoon of May 22nd.
Tired enough most of us decided to relax this afternoon,but Andy LZ2HM and Mitko LZ1UQ
were eager to run the pile ups and installed within few minutes a 10m vertical and one of
FT900. Operating from TA land means pile up even with such a simple set up (especially on
CW) ! Next morning we started installation of
the antennas and it took us whole day under the heat (34deg C) to install all Delta Loops.
The Turkish member of the team Yasar TA3D came around 11.00 and helped us finish the
antenna work. Here we have to mention the full collaboration and help from the staff of
the hotel during antenna installation.
We
also decided to use Yasar’s ready made 40m Delta. His TS850S and home brew KW amplifier
became a run station set up. Other radios and LZ1KDP amplifier were used for chasing
multipliers with vertical and dipole antennas we made on 24th of May.
After
some good time under the sun around the nice pool and the sea during late afternoon the
time to call CQ CONTEST finally came.
We
started on 40m making 74 QSOs during the first hour. The multiplier station added another
44 QSOs. Thus 118 Qs for an hour on CW was not a bad start at all. Second hour rate was
already 180 QSOs and we were doing quite well. Around 03.40 Z we moved to 15m and then
depending on the conditions were changing bands accordingly.
After
24 hours we had 2068 QSOs and we still were hoping we could reach our preset goal to
finish with at least 4000 QSOs after 48 hours. Conditions on 10m however were marginal to
say the least and that affected our final QSO and multiplier total badly compared to our
Carribean rivals. We have been listening to the guys at 8P4A running USA and we were not
hearing even a single dot or dash L. Mother nature favoured guys at
3V8BB, too since they were running EU all the time while we hardly reached OK and HA land
via sporadic and ended the contest with a total of 227 QSOs on 10m.
During
the second day we were jumping constantly between 20 and 15m bands since conditions on 10m
were not any better. After 36 hours of operating we figured out we could not reach our
goal of 4000 QSOs and revealed a realistic expectations would be a total of 3500 QSOs.
That
is what we finally were capable to make. We finished with 3533 QSOs and 904 multipliers.
Surely poor conditions on 10m from TA land reduced our QSO and multiplier totals, but even
with just 227 QSOs and only 65 multipliers on
28mhz band we claimed a final score of 10 829 920 pts and we hope this will be sufficient
to enter top ten World in Multi-Single Category.
We
want to thank : 1.Our Turkish member of the team – Yasar TA3D for help with obtaining
the license for YM3LZ callsign, for letting us use his TS850S, KW amplifier and 40m Delta
Loop antenna and for taking part in the contest together
with us. 2. Our friend Berkin TA3J for doing
his best to arrange our operation from Grand Efe Hotel. 3. Mrs Dilek Uslu – Manager of
the Grand Efe Hotel and her staff for letting us install our antennas on the hotel’s
roof and for full cooperation during our stay at their hotel.
See you all
in next contest. 73 & 88’s
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