CQ WW SSB 2015 Results

dlwarnberg

Mike... you and me both.. I got away with the vertical.. could I tell the HOA it's a old time clothes hanger to dry my cloths????  hummm.... not sure I could get away with that when it's 20 feet in the air... drat...  specially in Florida... hahahaha

dlwarnberg

FYI... no need to post via e-mail.. they now have a way to post right on the web site.. just FYI...

Tim Hill - KI6LSB

Hi Guys,

This was my first contest, I was not doing it for the points I was doing it so I could get 100 Country's, I made 81 contacts in 52 Country, not bad for my first time, I must say that I learned some tricks to help me since I am in Oregon and every time I point the beam 95 degree I have to go through everyone on the east coast to make a contact.

I have to say that using the Tracking Notch Filters is a game changer, they eliminate 98 percent of the Noise coming from everywhere.

Tim
KI6LSB  

dlwarnberg

amen... very easy to get rid of the "deliberate interference"  and pick the call you want to answer.. I found it very very easy to pick and choose, make my contact and  move on to the next one.. Way to go FLEX radio...

Jon_KF2E

I worked about 9.5 hours and here are my results.



I would have liked to work more but I had other commitments. I was pleasantly surprised that after working TO4K on 2 bands I found they were in St Barthelemy. I got a new country...and they already confirmed via LOTW. I hate the contest calls that confuse the country they are operating from.

Jon...kf2e

EA4GLI

I contested this year Single Op, Low Power Single Band (15m) Assisted.
We are legally limited to 500w in Barbados so trying to compete in the High Power with a third of the power is just not doable. I imagine it is the same case for UK hams.

Nonetheless my aim was to improve on the score I got on the same contest I run last year with the Flex 1500. This year doing it with the 6300 was great.
I am quite happy that I added about 50,000 points to my final score. Last year it was 391,368 points SO, Low Power SB (20m) Assisted which yielded #1 in Barbados, #1 in NA and #4 World for the category.

km9r.mike

Yes the lab was in jest. I was trying to come up with a wild extreme : )  I would imagine a very cost effective alternative for the Caribbean and SA for you would simply be a dipole broadside north south for 10,15,and 20. Not ideal but would provide quick switching while the big gun is aimed elsewhere.

km9r.mike

+50k FB OM !

Ken - NM9P

Very nice, especially for single band! I worked you on 15 meters on 24OCT2015 at 19:44:25 UTC. Last year I got you on 20 Meters on 26OCT2014 at 22:54:33 UTC. Thanks.

EA4GLI

Yes, indeed you did. Next time we cross paths outside a contest we need to have a chat Ken. I was using proc and 200-2300 narrow with no eq to try and squeeze through. How did it sound? Not sure if you recall.

EA4GLI

15m was odd for me this year. I had times were I was copying with S7-9 and they couldn't hear me back, at all, and there were sudden drops in propagation and weird openings. I would be working Europe and all of a sudden get Reunion Island. 20m was way more consistent last year. Which is also the nature of the bands. I like this contest because there are so many people out there that it tests the radio in a truly crowded environment and because cq is smart enough to have tons of categories. It is not that difficult to get a #1 in one of the many categories.

Ken - NM9P

Whoo Hoo! I just saw my latest LOTW report and the scores are starting to be recorded. The contest just needed me #'s 99 and 100 on 40 meters! That makes four bands, 10, 15, 20, & 40. Now I need to build a good antenna for 80, where I only have 38. All of these are LOTW confirmations, BTW, and most of them since I got the 6500 two years ago.

EA4GLI

You would be surprised about lotw. I made about 1400 qso and have received so far 800 lotw confirmations. I think, like with sdr, people are finally realising the convenience of a new way to do radio and specifically to confirm contacts.

Ken - NM9P

I'm afraid that I don't remember. In fact I was going so fast and furious that I didn't even recognize your call from the forum. I would be happy to help compare audio profiles for you next time we hear each other. Ken - NM9P

EA4GLI

I love the hex, it is a great antenna. If you had a telescopic pole... Would you be able to lower the antenna below the tree line when you are not using it? There is also the possibility of the portable spiderbeam and just put it up for the contest.

Ken - NM9P

Do they allow a person to enter multiple categories at the same time? I have always entered in the ALL category. It would be nice if they would automatically run every entry through all the categories that they might qualify for. For example, if they ran everyone through the scoring for individual bands, even if they were running multiple bands, it would make for more interesting competition in additional categories.

Bob KN4HH

Ken, I am not as fortunate as you with a fine antenna system.  When we get our Maestro's I'll be your remote second op for next year.  Congrats.

EA4GLI

As far as I know, you can enter in the CABRILLO file the category that you want even if you have made contacts in other bands. For example, you could enter single band 15m, and the rest of your contacts will provide the points-confirmations for the others but your final score will be computed just with the contacts in that specific band.

EA4GLI

That would be great. This is the 3rd year in a row you start this thread. Thanks Ken, I really value the content and advise that all of you provide in this forum. Particularly, these threads with advice on contests is great.
I am relatively new, licensed (callsign) only since 2013 (even though I pass my exam back in 1989) and I am already having a blast in the contest and now the proud owner of a 6700. It arrived a couple of days late for the contest, which I guess it was a blessing because it allowed me to run the contest with the 6300 which made it a great send off for that radio. The point about the new 6700 is that I would be more than happy to have a QSO soon Ken. I would love to get your feedback on my different audio settings.

EA4GLI

This wasn't at the highest rate by far, and you can hear one of my twin boys in the background, the band was just opening but at least I was able to have a video-memento of the contest. The audio I hear is better than what the little mic on the cellphone is capturing. I normally don't have the speakers on if I have the headset on, I turn them on for the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyS-__rw8-o

philip.theis

Hi Ken, I also played with the contest this weekend and managed to squeeze in a little more than 18 hours.  The 6700 was flawless and absolutely no ADC overload with all of the strong signals.  I particularly liked the ability to sharpen up the filters when going after the weak signals with very strong signals in their passband.  Used N1MM and the integration was great.  Looking forward to the next contest with this great radio.
Phil K3TUF
btw, broken antennas on 160 and 80, gotta fix them for CW next month

Ken - NM9P

Thanks for the flowers for my antenna system.  It is certainly much better than I have ever had in 41 years, but as a mid-level height it has now served to make me dream of bigger things that I probably will never own.  Now I must be careful of "antenna envy" against larger stations at more competitive heights.  it can become a never-ending pursuit of "more and bigger" unless one learns to be content with "good enough."  But what defines "good enough?"  I used to think that a dipole at 35-40 ft and a good vertical was good enough!  Ha ha!

I just sold the unused remnants of my Rohn 45G to a local ham (used:  3 full sections, one 9' top section, one half-section, and 3 sets of guy brackets, torsion bars & turnbuckles, and all the used bolds for an 85 ft. tower and two new sets of bolts all for $400)  I just wanted to get it off my driveway.  He got a good deal, I got rid of it, and I got half of my money back from the  tower.  I had about $800-$850 in it, including the 500 mile round trip to go get it almost two years ago.

Now I need to decide whether to apply that towards a used amplifier, or encourage my wife buy me a Maestro for Christmas!  The Amp would probably be more useful at this present time, but the Maestro might be more fun to play with, especially after v. 2.0 is released......

Decisions, decisions...
In any case, nothing can happen until I sell my 1500.  But I am not in as much a hurry to unload it.  If I get my price, I will sell, but I am not going to give it away.  It doesn't take up as much room as the tower and hardware.

Ken - NM9P

BTW...I never thought about the possibility of using Maestro to do two op contesting... simultaneously?  or were you talking about taking turns?   Either way, it is an intriguing possibility that could make up another whole thread!

Ken - NM9P

Very nice effort!  Congratulations!

My guess is that you were you running high power and able to hold a run frequency for much of that time?  That is a total Q-rate of 45 per hour for the entire contest!  

The last few hours I started to get wise to the importance of keeping my rate up, even if I had to skip stations and come back later.  Once I got my act together I was able to pull about 40-50 and sometimes even 100 Q/m for a few periods with S&P, but not for the whole contest.  My total Q-rate was 25 for the whole contest, which is much better than I have ever done.  But next year will be even higher.

Roughly where are you located?

Ken - NM9P

Ken - NM9P

Thanks, and congratulations on the 6700.  Just think how much fun the next contest will be!  Not to mention everyday operations now with dual SCU's and the ability to listen to 2 Meters.  

Steve Jones gw0gei

Warning long! and flexless this time - but missed my flex 6500 bandscope and filtering

Its a while since I did single op all band in cqww ssb and as my current valley bottom home is not competitive, due to just having wires and vhf beams up and a huge hill to the west, I was kindly hosted by local friend GW6LHF in Cardigan, who has a fully automated station with a large Optibeam on HD homebrew tower (see the photos on his qrz.com page of him building new replacement tower sections this summer at the age of 73 years! Along with his clever disk brake idea to lock down the rotator in high winds).

Preparation and strategy is key to this contest and I failed, due to lack of time, to do enough of either. My band moving strategy came out of my head based on previous experience on Anglesey Isle at my last home. Preparation was limited to setting up an older version of n1mm which I had used at gw6lhf in IARU as it was quicker than loading my usual N1MMplus and setting up all of the automated stuff from scratch. At least N1MM is just as stable so no issues with the  software all weekend. The Friday was spent in work with a full Board meeting most of the day so it was only around 8pm that I confirmed that I would be doing the contest and rushed to the supermarket to pick up some provisions before the drive down to Cardigan.


The large Optibeam at gw6lhf had been upgraded during the summer to a longer 36ft boom model and the elements of a 2 ele 40m Optibeam were reused on the new boom along with the addition of a third element on 40m. The tower has large auto winches on it and a microham auto switch at the bottom is driven by a band decoder off the back of the ic7800. I had had limited operating time with the ic7800 previously so I took a bit of time to find my way around the radio and testing the N1MM software controls out for turning the beam etc. The beam covers 10-20m with 4/4/8 elements plus has the 3 elements on 40m.


I decided to do low power section to see how the large beam and high dipoles for 80m and 160m over the salty earth approx. a field away from the tidal estuary of the river Teifi would play. The bonus aim was to set a new low power assisted soab record without having to do the full 48 hours. Its a while since I did more than 24 hours in an hf contest and the week in work meant I was likely to need sleep on the second night.


I started on 40m and moved around 20 80 and 160 as well as 40 during the night before looking for greyline mults on 160 and 80 before settling down for a split freq run on 40m after sunrise. As planned I stopped for breakfast after 40m and then moved to 20 15 and 10m. I did a mixture of s and p and running, but finding and holding a frequency with low power 100w was hard at times and I missed the large bandscope of my flex radio. The big beam helped hugely though on 40-10m in hearing the weaker mults and getting the qso with very few calls, which helped the zone and country scores to rack up.


I stopped for lunch and evening meal and then continued the same pattern on Sunday but did sleep for 5 hours or so after midnight - always looking for 3 pointer runs but found that the decent run rates of up to 400 q per hour were short lived and mainly due to being spotted on the cluster. I finished the contest around 9pm as I had to tidy up and drive back home to get sleep before work on the Monday - but the draft score was 1,3m which is the previous record times 4; so I was happy to happy to have a final cup of tea with my kind host and then head off home.   


Draft score summary is as follows:
 Band     QSOs     Pts  ZN    Cty
   1.8             74      79    5   31
   3.5         171     254   12   55
     7          281     522   19   81
    14         376     858   26   90
    21         228     493   25   82
    28        153     356   22   64
 Total      1283    2562  109  403
Score: 1,311,744
1 Mult = 2.5 Q's


Plenty of lessons learnt in terms of poor band move choices and poor energy levels at times but still enjoyable to use a large antenna system again  which was  turn up and play. Major mistake was not setting up the voice keyer so I ended up with a very sore mouth! Compared with the previous 2 ele optibeam the upgraded longer boom and extra third element on 40m made a big difference. The reports I was getting from usa on hf were very complimentary, and I am sure that if I had used the auto amp and entered the high power section the ability to run for longer periods of time would have  made a big difference to the qso total. I enjoyed the instant band moving ability and was moved several times by some of the dx stations to give them the gw mult on another band by simply typing in their requested frequency into n1mm entry window - made a change from having to manually change antennas and re tune a manual amp.


Thanks to Danny GW6LHF and his wife for being great hosts and allowing me to have a play in the contest from a better location for USA and with a decent set up. Still nice to be back in my own shack today though with my flex 6300 and 6500 radios watching on hf and 4m bands whilst I catch up on emails:-) 


73 and roll on cqww CW weekend for the best contest of the year


Steve GW0GEI / GW6J @ gw6lhf .

Hunter - K3IE

Hey Ken - This was my first CQWW contest w/ my 6300.  In a fit of delirium, my grandiose plan was to test the SO2V capability of the 6300 in the Low Power (A) category.  After the first 45 mins of the contest I came to my senses and switched to the HP category w/ my Ameritron 811.  100W and a HexBeam @ 24 feet is as much fun in a phone contest as dropping a bowlingball on your foot.  Since my amp requires manual tuning, I did not pursue the SO2V approach.

In my advancing years, my enthusiasm for phone contests is dwindling but my love for CW lives on.  I look forward to next month's CW contest.  That mode is more appropriate for the LP category and I look forward to trying the SO2V capabilities of the 6300.

BTW - I really enjoy your instructional videos.  They have been very helpful to me for adjusting my EQ settings.

All the best - Hunter K3IE

Burt Fisher

EA4GLI

For someone that publicly "denounces" contesting in this hobby you spend a large amount of time in threads that have to do with contesting... including being the first to post something in a video a recently posted about contesting.

Sour grapes much?

Burt Fisher

It is clear many here really enjoy contesting. I would never think of taking that away from a contester. Almost as much as the actual contest, bragging about it also provides enjoyment. I said nothing here about a video. As far as "sour grapes" (Nowadays when somebody expresses sour grapes, it means that they put down something simply because they can't have it.) That does not apply I have no desire to have what you as a contester but I do wish I had what you have, your ability to speak so well in more than one language. How did you get so good at language, amazing!

EA4GLI

I really do not know how to read you Mr. Fisher.
Are you complimenting me or making fun of my English because is not my mother tongue? I don't think that doing radio in a contest converts me into a contester the same way that "rag chewing" one night with friends on a net doesn't make me "rag chewer". 

The stories told in this thread by our fellow ham aficionados are great. I am enjoying reading them. Learning about how they set things up, how they defined a strategy prior to the contest or how they didn't and how it pan out for them. It is great to read about how the different equipment choices worked in the crowded scenario of the contest.

I don't like horror films, so I do not go to the theater to watch them. I also do not like romantic novels, so I do not read them.... but I am not even in the vicinity of considering banning either. I indulge in the things I like and don't in the ones I dislike.

I don't start complaining to the theater management because the viewing of some horror flick is taking away from having more movies of a genre that I enjoy displayed in all the available showings. That would be..... silly?

I don't understand what is it that you get making a joke about my video saying that "I played this for my class when they were acting up and they promised to be good if I would only turn it off". As you did in my youtube video.

Again, I do not know how to read you as a person. Are you trying to offend me? Attack me for posting a video? Make fun of me? Are you trying to get me upset so we can go back and forth and derailed the thread from a very nice discussion among fellow hams?