CQ WW 2002

I have not competed in a SSB contest seriously for a while but I have decided to give it a go again. In the past I found it quit frustrating running low power with small antennas in a SSB contest, lots of calling but few QSO's !. I wanted to see if my better location and better antennas would change all this. I prefer the contests where everyone work everyone so the CQ WPX SSB was the first major contest that came along. I have never competed in a WPX contest before so that was also motivation to give it a try.

I decided to try an all band QRP effort, my initial station was setup as follows:

1) Main radio, used for 10, 15 and 20m, an IC-756 connected to a Cushcraft A4S antenna. This radio was set to 4W output using a Bird Wattmeter. This radio was used to run on the band with the best propagation at any one time. I also used this radio to call CQ (not something you do often when you are running QRP!).

2) Multiplier radio, used on 10, 15 and 20m, was a second IC-756, connected to a Hustler BTV4 vertical, mostly used to listen and then to QSY main radio for a juicy multiplier. Since the main radio was only running 4w and the antennas were about 25m apart I was not too worried about front-end damage on the second radio if the 2 radios were on the same band at the same time.

3) Low band radio, used on 40 and 80m. I used a Kenwood TS-870S, running 4w, connected to inverted V's for these bands. The antennas are only 12m above ground so this combined with the low power and high noise this time of the year was NOT ideal !. It at least allowed me to collect 2 multipliers.

As it turned out I ended up using only one radio most of the time, on the low bands I did not have much luck with my QRP signal so after the first few hours I gave them up as a bad job. I managed to get a few runs going on 10 and 15 but it was such hard work that I could not cope with that and a second radio to chase multipliers. I ended up using the TS-870S most of the time, the main reason was the build in voice keyer! The spectrum scope on the IC-756 was a major advantage but my voice decided that it liked the TS-870S more ! For the next SSB contest I will have an external voice keyer connected to my main radios.

For logging I used Lux-Log running on a laptop (Compaq). I used a laptop since it produces less (no) interference on the low bands, unlike my normal computer. The fact that it can also run from a battery gives extra security in case of a power failure, less chance of lost QSO's!, a little point that turned out to be important in the end.

I do sometimes use headphones during a contest but I must admit that I mostly prefer a good external speaker. I used both normal microphones and table models. Since I do not like wearing headphones all the time I generally do not use boom microphones.

The week before the contest I tried to get as much rest as possible since I was expecting to get little sleep during the weekend due to the all-band effort. I was VERY busy at work but at least I did not have to work late any night so that did help. The Friday night before the contest I went to bed very early after setting very thing up in the station, ready to start. I know some of the top contesters also look at their diet and change it before a contest but I am not even close to that level!

The contest started rather slow, in the first 1.5 hours I only managed to work 2 stations, on on 40 and 1 on 20, 40 was open but I could not penetrated the European wall and I only worked 1 VE station. 20m was not really open yet so I decided to go back to bed, feeling a bit discouraged (it was about 03:30 local !) A few more hours of sleep saw me refreshed and back at the radio at 04:20 UTC with 20m open. In the beginning it was a bit of a uphill battle and I must admit that I started to question my decision to go QRP at that point. As the sun rose the band got better and I started feeling better about the situation. I worked 20m till about 07:00 UTC when I could hear some signals on 15m. At that point I had 66 contacts in the log, all from search and pounce. I then spend 2.5 hours on 15m, again searching and pouncing, getting the total up to 85 before QSY'ing to 10m. 15m was quite frustrating at this point and I wasted a lot of time calling stations who could not hear me!

At 09:37 I QSY'ed to 10m and the rate picked up. Soon I was able to call CQ and hang on to a frequency for a while, at one point I managed to get the rate above 90 per hour, that was a real thrill running QRP. By the time the band started closing down, at about 03:55 UTC, I had 355 contacts in the log and I was really feeling happy!

I then managed a few short runs on 15 but it was mostly back to search and pounce. The rest of the evening was spend jumping between 20, 15 and 10m, looking for multipliers but conditions were not good enough to get a run going. By 19:29 UTC the bands were getting quiet and I decided to call it a day. At that stage my total was 595, I was happy with this total as the most contacts I have ever managed to make during a contest running QRP (CQ WW CW 2002) was only 403. At that point I set myself the target of 800 contacts (double my previous total) and 500,000 points (because it sounded good!)

I also experienced the only equipment problem that I had during the contest late Saturday evening. My rotator position indicator (Kenpro KR600) stopped working. A quick check proved that the beam was still turning so I was not to worried about it. I have had to replace the drive band inside the control box before so I knew what the problem was (I could still hear the motor running in the control box). Since I had a bit of a headache (from all the noise and the shouting) I decided to go relax a bit with the XYL and get to bed early. I decided to rather get up earlier the next day to fix the rotator when I would be fresh again.

The next morning I got the rotator working without a problem, I also re-arranged the station by removing one of the radios that I was not using to make more space (for snacks, beer etc.!)

From 03:39 UTC till 05:19 I worked 20m, again no runs but a few multipliers, at 05:19, with 653 contacts in the log I made my second contact on 40m, a local one, before QSY'ing to 15m for a few contacts, 15m was not to great so I tried 10m, then the fun started again! At 07:22 UTC with the total on 659 I started calling CQ on 10m and soon had a run going.

During the rest of the afternoon I managed to get a few short runs in, some of the peaking at 90+ before the signals dropped again and it was back to search and pounce.

By 13:23 UTC the band started going down, at that stage my total was 900 so I was quite happy. 15m also produced a few short runs, that along with a few excursions to 20 and 10m looking for multipliers took the total 1094 by 18:01. I started looking for multipliers towards the east but then disaster struck !, we had a power failure that ended up lasting till after the end of the contest (This is Dark Africa !). This would not have been a big problem since I could run my radio at 4w all day from batteries. I could also run the laptop from internal batteries or external 12v. BUT, my antenna was pointing EAST with no signals coming in. I suppose I could have climbed up to the tower, loosened it and turned it but I did not like the idea in the dark. I could also have rigged my inverter to run the rotator from 12v but it was stored in a store room and finding it in the dark would have been no fun. As I was happy with my total I decided to call it a day !. For the next contest I will have the inverter and a generator ready to go!

So, what did I learn? In the past I never tried to call CQ running QRP, this was a mistake, if conditions are good, especially on the higher bands you can get a run going running only 4-5w! Lesson learned!

One thing that I did miss were the pile-ups from North America and Japan. I worked quite a few US stations and the were all strong but I never managed to get a run going, maybe the noise floor was high or they were all looking towards Europe. I also worked a few JA stations but the were few and far between, mostly in the early morning. Some pleasant surprises were being called in a pileup by A51, EP, SU, 9S and other rare stations!

I must also thank all those great operators who managed to hear my little signal among all the big stations! THANKS. I found very few bad operators and I never even go upset at anyone! Contesting is great fun!!

I was also amazed at all the good/rare DX stations that called me. I added many band-countries to my totals and even 2 completely new DXCC entities !. Many stations asked for my QSL information so I am expecting a few QSL cards soon. My XYL, Katti - ZS6KVR kept me supplied with eats and drinks so I must not forget to thank her as well. When things were looking bad she always had a few words of encouragement.

This contest was the most fun I had with amateur radio for a long time !, I am really looking forward to the next contest!

ZS6DX            A         1,440,318
HG5Z             A         1,212,640
TM9K (F5BEG)     A           756,510
S53D             A           718,530
SP6T             A           547,272
LU1VK            A           543,040
N8IE             A           456,120
N4JF             A           326,655
KB3TS            A           243,243
SM3C (SM5CCT)    A           228,810
LU6HPF           28          470,272
LW7DQW           28          297,548
LU8CM            28          125,257
JR3RWB           28           97,125
VE5UF            28           74,910
RU9BB            21          788,190
RZ6HX            21          385,917
T94OM            21          193,764
9A7ZZ            21          138,125
SP5AKG           21          107,520
EA4DQD           14          135,200
WA8WV            14          110,664
YU1LM            14           92,868
ES8SW            14           78,440
AG4PJ            14           49,454
RU$$AIG           7           96,614
W6QU (W8QZA)      7           15,088
UW6N (UR5NX)      7           14,896
OL4W (OK1IF)    3.7           33,292
RW3VZ           3.7           31,740
SP3J            3.7           24,108