WPX
contest, in my opinion is the funniest contest we have. Is the time to take the
fancy calls to take a ride, actually it was the main reason why I decided to
ask for a special call: 5K3R. Following you will read some thoughts about my
participation, unexpected situations, etc.
Shack
Improvements:
Preparation
for the wpx ssb started to me in the previous week. I decided to add new
features to my shack previous to the event; I went to a brief risk analysis in
order to mitigate any hazard. First one was “Lack of AC”. From time to time is
easy to notice in Bogota some smalls lack of AC, just a matter of few seconds
or couple of minutes. Form the the transmission point of view it can be traduced to the fact of missing couple of DX
and some of those could be easily multipliers. Besides this, there is one
important fact: log integrity. Logs can easily get damage or can be partially
lost if suddenly the AC just go away!!!
Based on
this, I decided to move from my desktop to my net book, although, log backup
were performed during at least every couple of hours. So now is ok, let’s
assume the data is going to be properly saved but how can we keep our signal on
air?
I decided
to participate as a LP so my 12VDC power supplied must accompanied with a BBU
capability. Having a lack of budget I just connected in parallel a 12VDC@7Ah
battery which is nothing to handle 100Watts operation but I made calculation
and I could manage at least two hours with about 25 watts, this is 6dB under
100Watts but is for sure “better than be out of air”.
The food:
That
weekend I was going to be 100% by my own at home, without any help so there was
a need to leave all needed food in advance. I have prepared on Friday some
roasted chicken, rice and salad. Beside this, plenty of fruits were available
at the shack, including water, orange juice and coffee. Table at the shack is
big enough to accommodate and also be reached without un-attending the contest.
Friday
finally arrived:
My wife had
to travel from Colombia to Uruguay that day, she was also going with our 3
years old daughter (that is why I said I was 100% by my own) ,she had to take
care of some paper issues in Montevideo so, after lunch we went to the airport,
she made all needed checking, there was a need to “equalize” luggage weight” as
usual and after that she moved to immigration.
I was
already on my way back to home and I got a call from my wife saying that
immigration was asking form a “father permit” in order to allow Luciana (our
daughter) to travel. Just two hour left for the flight to leave so I moved to
the Town Hall and filled all needed papers and went back to the airport, it was
a stressed situation but we managed to get all needed papers and they finally
get into the plane.
Back at
home I could not sleep the couple of hours before as I planned, I was not planning
to work low bands but just 15m so impact was minimum. I just turn on the radio
on 15m and made some QSO 1 hour before the contest starts, mainly for waking
and warning up purpose! It is so great how the fun starts couple of hours
before the test, people is sharing their expectations or just promising they
will pass to give you 59 plus the number, brotherhood can be filled, is a very
nice sensation.
The target:
Last year,
I have attended to a web-minar performed by “Potomac Valley Radio Club”,
presenter was Randy Thompson and during the presentation the share some
important aspects regarding “how to approach the WPX contest” (this is
web-minar es available at their web http://www.pvrc.org/webinar/webinars.htm).
I ended up with two main words: Clear target and Fun!. For the first one I went
as recommended through all the data available at the WPX page, checked out all
previous World and South American Records, focusing on 15m bands. After
analysis decided to beat Pedro’s records (hk3jjh) who placed it back in 2002,
at that time he made 2.4MM points and worked around 600 prefixes. It was not a
Sout American Rrecord but just a Colombian one. Regarding the second, it was a
matter of keeping focused but also relaxing and enjoying every single QSO,
keeping in mind what is behind one QSO, there was another operator who must
probably was also struggling against some challenges or just relaxing and just
chasing new DXCC form his shack.
The first
night:
Well, for
us, in Colombia (-5 UTC) the party starts at 7:00 PM Local time. I moved up as
the starting hour arrived and turned off the radio at 23:00 hours (Local time)
with around 220 QSO and 200 prefixes. Propagation was not that good as we
expected but there is one basic fact: “if it is bad, is bad for all” so it was
going impact all participants. It was just the first night and there was still
a long way to go.
The first day:
Well, day started at 6:00 AM (local time), I went to the kitchen, prepared
and eated my breakfast and also a fresh cofee fo the whole day. I went to the
shack and started pointing out my homemade hexbeam to Europe, as per R1 band
allocation, I decided to start around 14.144. Propagation was again not the
best and besides this a rainy and stormy day accompanied me and forced to shut
down the whole stuff. I took this decition when one lightning beated couple of
Km from my home but I noticed at the shack when the radio automatically turned
off for around half second so, there was no need to put the whole thing on
risk.
I went again on air at the time that propagation get open wit US so moved
the antenna to the North and stated towork those fellows. It was also very
interesting to see how propagation switch form US to the pacific, it become
intermitent up to the point whre I did not hear any longer both of them but
just station from Sout America. As ussual, I have worked most of the
Argentinian and Brazilian stations. Operation Finished arund 10:40 local time
with aroung 700 QSO and les than 500 prefix.
The second and last day: “the day”:
Again, 6:00 AM at the kitchen feeding my body and preparing all needed
drinks and started as I did the day before. Pointed out the “umbrella” to
europe and this time propagation was much better. There was much more stations
than Saturday, must probabbly because Sunday is culturally a day off so there
was much more people chasing for a new country. Beside this, defenetely
propagation was good, this time it helped a lot.
On Sunday morning, my initial target was still so fare away, to be honest
I did not have a hope to overpass it but I keeped strugling and moving forward.
As the morning goes, I ended up with a huge european pile up who helped me to
move from 800 to 1100 QSO. US pile up started
more less at 2:00PM and the hopes came back when I saw my score around
2.1MM and there was still 6 hours to go!. These fellows were loged more less
from 1100 ro the final amount of QSO: 1437.
There is no doubt, Sunday was the best day, around 80% of the QSO handled
with europe were new prefix and also a lot of rare callsigns from US came out
on late Sunday
The summary:
Previous WPX SSB experience was performed on 2011 with my previous calll:
HK3ARR. I enter at that time as SOSB 20m QRP and I ended up first SA and 2nd
WW. It was a big steep to move from Phone-QRP to Low Power. When performing on
QRP mode, you need to keep frustration out, this is the first fact. This is
clearly noticed when calling someone who is arriving with s9 and he do not
replys to you. Overall results are positives, 1437 QSO, 733 prefixes, total of
3.069.000 points (claimed score), there is nothing to be regret and as you can
see the target was beated and there was a lot of fun during the whole event!
Anibal Dos Ramos,
HK3R – 5K3R
(Former-HK3ARR )
PROUD MEMBER OF ARAUCARIA DX GROUP
