SE0X ranks #1 SM Single Band 15 meter when ARRL publishes the results of the 2012 ARRL CW contest. The full contest was operated via remote using the 3-element SteppIR and a Kenwood TS-480SAT controlled via the Remoterig interface, described here.
The final score was 88,275 points.
A 10 man international team is about to embark to St Paul Island, a top 40 most wanted DXCC, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, Nova Scotia, Canada. The activity commence this week July 26 and ends August 1.
St Paul Island is commonly referred to as the “Graveyard of the Gulf” which has also been the theme for the expedition logotype. The landing at St Paul Island is difficult and dependent on weather, but the team is experienced from such landings previously at the Flannans (EU-118), St. Kilda (EU-059), Market Reef (EU-053) and many other IOTA expeditions.
A total of 6 stations will be deployed and be active on all bands 160 to 6 meter using the call CY9M. Hex beams and Vertical Dipole Arrays will be used on high bands while verticals and receiving antennas will be in service the lower bands.
CY9M will participate in the IOTA contest next weekend, giving both DXCC and IOTA hunters the chance to confirm NA-094. Our contest operation will be limited to 20 meters only, and we will operate both SSB and CW modes throughout the contest.
For more detailed information as it become available and your opportunity to support the team, please visit www.cy9m.com.
I had not really prepared for the 2012 edition of the IARU HF Challenge because of intensified preparations of the upcoming CY9M expedition, but I spent an hour reading up on past years achievements deciding it was time for a CW only effort with a goal to reach 1700 contacts. Not checking the propagation in advance I did not bother to calculate a goal for the final score, I was more focused on the number of contacts.
I also decided not to configure the station for SO2R this time as I simply could not find the time to spend setting up and taking down antennas, mounting filters and do the other other preparations needed for two radios.
The IARU contest started out in a decent pace of about 100 contacts per hour for the first 4-5 hours, but never got anywhere. I begun at 20 meter but the rate dropped already in the second hour so quickly checked 10 meter to find it almost dead exept for some big gun HQ stations. Then I spent about 3 hours on 15 meter picking up a collections of DX and EU, but the band did not provide the sweet NA rates that it is capable of. At 16:30 I went back to 10 meter which was now open and stayed there for two hours. The rate was OK, but not great, and there was very little DX around.
Around 20:00 UTC 15 meter where closing and I decided to go there to sweep the band for HQ stations. It was a good idea, almost no QRM and multipliers on a string, I picked up about 20 of the plus one or two DX. I repeated the same tactics on Sunday picking up several missing HQ stations on 40 meter in daylight begging for contacts.
It all went OK until midnight, then someone hit the break… or EU operators hit the bed. Strong Aurora obstructed the DX paths making the slow hours even slower and the hours between midnight and 0400 averaged a rate of 30-35. At 0300 I got bored and decided to take a 20 minute nap to be in shape for the morning.
On Sunday the Aurora was in full effect and DX paths where never restored. Occasional DX where logged, but the bands never recovered to provide a steady rate. Due to the Aurora obstructing the path to North America 82% of all stations logged where in EU.
The claimed score of the IARU HF Challenge 2012 is i 849.760 and it breaks down to this;
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults ------------------------------------- 160: 0 0 0 0 80: 125 0 8 22 40: 290 0 18 30 20: 492 0 21 23 15: 359 0 23 20 10: 174 0 8 15 ------------------------------------- Total: 1440 0 78 110
Congratulations to SM6CNN posting a claimed score of 1.7 million! Being 400 km south west of me might have provided Anders with a better path to NA.
On a side note I tried the new K3 firmware with improvements of the AGC and ran the contest using a threshold setting (AGC THR) of 12 to 15. The AGC worked well, but with the light pileups it can hardly be called a test.
Now back to the preparations of CY9M.
73!
CQ WPX CW is a favorite contest of mine and this year propagation made 15 meter the highlight. The contest started with a small disaster, but then it turned around to be a great weekend.
The tactic chosen was to do operate 24 hours non-stop in the first part of the contest, then do the remaining hours based on the outcome of the first day. I ended up in the chair until Sunday morning at 0100 UTC, then got 3 hours of sleep before catching the morning run. Worked the remaining hours in three different parts of Sunday trying avoiding the slower hours from Day one.
Propagation returned for the WPX weekend and 15 meter was the best performing band with almost 900 contacts logged. 15 meter also provided most of the multipliers, 37% of all prefixes collected. 20 was also good with a long NA run Saturday morning as the highlight. 10 was thinner providing only 49 contacts but some nice multipliers including PW0F, a new DXCC. Summer nights are short so the time spent on low bands was limited, but more than 400 contacts where logged on 40 and 80.
After 36 hours of CW fun at total of 1995 contacts and 1012 prefixes where logged resulting in a claimed score of 4.4 million. It’s not the top claimed score in the category, but it is better than the current SM record which was my goal for the contest. The tactics of hitting off with continious 24 hour shift worked out well. I will save the goals, schedule and prep for next year and then all records will be broken! For sure! 🙂
What about that initial disaster? The contest started the worst possible way with coffe in the keyboard! At first I though all was OK, but after 30 minutes the keyboard started sending garbage to N1MM making the SO2R box go nuts. I had to stop running and open the keyboard to clean out the overdose of caffeine. The moral; Always keep a backup handy, because coffe mugs will never leave the shack.
73 de Björn, SM0MDG
For WPX CW I had planned to install a 15 meter mono beam or use the 3 band Spiderbeam as my SO2R antenna for high bands, but a tight schedule before and after the contest made me trash those plans. Instead I tried Vertical Dipole Arrray (VDA) of the type we plan to use for the CY9M St Paul Island expedition in July.
The VDA is basically a vertical 2-element beam attached to a single 12 meter Spiderbeam glass fiber pole. At the center the elements are spaced 3.4 meters but in each end the spacing is less than one meter. Bending the element this way makes it possible to use only one pole for the antenna.
The antenna was constructed in very short time using 1 mm CU wire for the dipole and reflector and almost a full roll of electrical tape and some cable ties to hold the antenna together.
The result? The VDA worked much better than expected and I was able to enjoy a few nice runs with it. When comparing with the SteppIR it actually produce similar signals but the Bi-Dir setting made the steppIR was fueling higher rates with DX in the front lobe and EU in the back.
To summarize this is a great antenna which can be built very light and portable without spending so much money. It works very well considering its simplicity and it is perfect for a DX expedition which have been proved by VP6DX and most recently by VP6T.
As with all verticals, they will perform best on the beach and the VDA is no exception. During my test the antenna was placed right above the waterline.
Thanks to contest team mate Vincent F4BKV who used this antenna for VP6T and his Pacific tours following the Pitcairn experience.
SM0MDG will participate in a 10 man strong expedition to St Paul Island in the Gulf of St Lawrence, Nova Scotia, Canada, planned to be on the air July 2012.
St Paul Island is commonly referred to as the “Graveyard of the Gulf” which has also been the theme for the expedition logotype. The landing at St Paul Island is difficult and dependent on weather, but the team is experienced from such landings previously at the Flannans (EU-118), St. Kilda (EU-059), Market Reef (EU-053) and many other IOTA expeditions.
The team plans to deploy 4-5 stations to be active on all bands 160 to 6 meter using the call CY9M. Hexbeams will be used on high bands while verticals and receiving antennas will be service the lower bands.
For more detailed information as it become available and your opportunity to support the team, please visit www.cy9m.com.
As the log submission deadline was passed on February 28th SE0X piloted by SM0MDG was the highest ranking single operator effort in SM with a total claimed score of 440.250 points. A total of 1114 contacts where made with 61 DXCC plus 14 states and provinces in 26 hours of operation.
The goal was set at breaking my own 2010 SM record of 615.219 points, but I lowered my expectations because of current propagation. The final result mirrors the rise in solar activity attenuating Topband performance in every Topband contest since 2010.
CQ160 is one of my favorite contests of the year, and logging 1000+ contacts on Topband in one single weekend is more action than my total non-contest related activity on this fantastic band. I am already looking forward to CQ160 in 2013.
Because of the weather it was not convenient to use my own station this weekend, so I arranged to use SM0MLZ’s station SG0X located just North of Stockholm in the CQ160 SSB contest.
Patrik has not been bitten by the “top band bug” yet, but he has a nice station with a nice location for DX’ing and contesting. His topband antenna is an inverted L with 10-12 radials, perfect for picking up multipliers in the big contests, but not really competitive for Topband DX’ing. As Patrik is “in between amplifiers” I had to borrow one and was able to source a FL-2100Z from SM0NOR Ulf, not the most powerful box on the block, but at least an S-unit over the barefoot K3. I also added a N/E Pennant in addition to Patrik’s N/W Pennant.
With this rather modest setup I was ready for a though fight in what could be the most challenging SSB contest of the year, especially in SM where we are restricted to use only 35 kHz of the 160 meter band between 1810-1845.
It was natural that DX suffered, in addition to three NA states worked in Zone 5 I also logged some DX in Zone 17, 20 and 33 but that was it! Longer distances where not possible with the current propagation and my setup. In general I was able to hear better than I was getting out which shows that on Topband a good TX antenna and enough power are vital element of success.
CQ160 SSB Remote Shack
As an experiment the station was hooked up for remote access and the last hours of the contest was logged via the remote interface. To make it even more challenging the remote setup was based on a TS-480, only 100 watts and no RX antennas. 21 stations where logged using this setup, and despite its limitations the low number of stations logged is more likely due to the fact that there were very few left to log at the end of the weekend.
The final result for the weekend ended up at 340 contacts worked in 39 DXCC, 2 US states (ME and MA) and one Canadian province (POI). The total time active was 17 hours. This was considerable less than in CQ160 CW, probably because activity on the band was less and nighttime shorter than in the CW contest a month ago.
When the final results where published for the 2011 edition of the CQ-160 CW Contest I was happy to see that SEØX had beaten the previous SM record in SOHP Assisted.
The previous record holder was SM2M operated by SM2LIY with a score of 453.128 in the 2009 CQ-160 CW contest. The final result of SE0X in 2011 was 480.998 points. Also in CQ-160 SSB did SEØX break the SM record in SOHP (non-assisted) with a final score of 177.219 points.
The top score of SE0X in any CQ-160 Contest was in the CW contest 2010 (SOHP, non-assisted) where the final score ended up at 615.219 which is another SM record.
The 2012 CQ-160 Contest is around the corner, and I am crossing my fingers for good propagation despite the increase in solar activity.
CU in the Pileups!
73 de Björn, SM0MDG
Once again its time to pop the cork of a bottle of chilled Dom Pérignon and celebrate another fun year at SEØX, and what a year it’s been!
2011 was the year when the sun finally got back into the game and once again fuelling fantastic propagation paths on high bands.
For me 2011 started with the failed DXØDX Spratly adventure which after its cancellation was rearranged to to an IOTA tour together with Christian EA3NT and Simon IZ7ATN. During the trip in the Philippine Archipelago trip we activated Palawan Island OC-128, Caluya Island OC-125, and Tablas Island OC-244. It was a memorable trip to and especially the very remote Island of Caluya will be pinned into my mind forever.
With the rise in solar activity the 160 meter band seems to have suffered which might explain this year’s lower result in CQ-160 CW. The goal was set to increase from the excellent 2010 result, SM record in CQ-160 CW SOHP, but propagation did not support the ambition. Despite the lower score, the 1031 contacts logged was enough to place SE0X as #1 SM and break the SM record in CQ-160 CW SOHP Assisted.
If CQ-160 CW was a little disappointing CQ-160 SSB was a positive surprise, maybe because of the lowered expectation. A total of 555 stations where casually logged but at a higher QSO rate than in the CW leg, and the result was enough to put SEØX at the #1 SM position in the SOHP category and break another SM record in CQ-160 SSB SOHP.
After the single operator efforts in January and February the SEØX team went south to the French Atlantic Coast to enter the ARRL DX SSB contest as TMØX. Vincent F4BKV had invited us to his station and we were treated with french hospitality by his generous family. Although the contest was fun, I am sure what the team remembers is all the tasty food and excellent wines served in the beautiful family estate housing Vincent’s station.
Next up was the big multi-effort of the year from the SEØX team in the WPX SSB Contest where we signed as 7SØX (for the “exotic” 7S prefix). The team gathered to have fun consisted of F4BKV, SMØMDG, SMØMLZ and SMØNOR. The station was temporary set up for M/2 and this was the first contest where the higher bands showed some life. 15 meter was quite OK, but 10 meter was not performing at all this weekend. The final score ended up at 8.410.650 score which was a substantial improvement of the 2010 result, but SJ2W with its huge antenna park was well ahead of us in a Single Op effort. SEØX ranked #1 SM and #18 EU in the M/2 category and the team is currently planning for WPX SSB 2012.
In April a lot of work went in to convert the station for M/2 and SO2R permanently. A Kenwood TS-590 was picked as the second station and 5B4AGN band pass filters installed to keep interference to a minimum. A 3-element Spiderbeam is serving as the temporary secondary antenna for high bands and the low bands antennas are shared between stations using a Sixpak antenna switch.
In WPX CW the brand new SO2R setup was taken for a test drive. At a claimed score of 2.069.559 SEØX (operated by me SMØMDG) ranks #1 SM in SOHP and #4 SM overall being beaten only by assisted stations.
In July I departed for Reykjavik to participate in the JX5O expedition to Jan Mayen in the Norwegian Arctic Ocean. The expedition happened to coincide with the IARU HF Championship and the team decided to put two of the four HF stations in the contest. The goal was not to work up a good score to be competitive, but rather to maintain presence at the contest bands during the weekend. The log of 1200+ contacts was submitted as a check-log. AD1C commented our entry in IARU with: “This was supposed to be a CW-only effort my only SSB QSO was with JX5O, an all-time new DXCC entity from CO” and DK9TN wrote “the best QSO was to be called by JX5O on 20m”.
Returning home from the Arctic Ocean I used the remainder of the summer to catch up on life outside the shack. In August I also spent some time getting most of my old personal and contest logs uploaded to LoTW, Logbook of The World.
September is the start of the contest season and it takes off with SAC, the Scandinavian Activity Contest. This might be a small contest for the outside world but for Scandinavians its an intense battle, and very competitive as the local participation is very high compared to most other tests. This year the contest committee decided to publish the results in record short time and SEØX ranked #3 SM in CW and #6 in SSB beaten by team mate SMØMLZ from his station SGØX.
In CQWW SSB it was time again for a team effort and Patrik SMØMLZ (SGØX), Ulf SMØNOR (SFØX) and I teamed up at Patrik’s station SGØX North/East of Stockholm. Preparations started one weekend before the contest when we put up a 2-element phased array for 80 meter and on the Friday before the test we setup the complete second station including a 3-element Spiderbeam yagi and all filters needed. There where no other entries in the M/2 category, but we where ranking #2 overall in SM with only SJ2W outscoring us. But with three operators on two stations we where happy with the result and we had enjoyed the first real explosion of the 10 meter band with some nice runs and funky DX.
Two of my favorite contests where the perfect end to a good contest and DX year, the ARRL 10 Meter Contest and the Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge.
I like the 10 Meter test and have participated the past years even though the propagation was dead. But this year the increase in solar activity made a big difference, and although a little weaker propagation than in CQWW SSB, the 2011 ARRL 10 meter contest was lot of fun.
Last but not least, the Stew Perry Top Band Challenge is a unique and fun contest. What makes it different is that the result is calculated by the total aggregated distance of all contacts worked which, in my opinion, levels the field and make the contest interesting regardless of location and power levels. This is a contest where its less important to win, its more about the challenge of filtering out faint signals from the static of Topband.
To sum it up, the improvement of Solar Cycle 24 is probably the most important news of 2011. Not only does it support contesting, but it also brings back life to DX’ing on higher bands in general. When fireworks and Champagne corks hit the ground on the other side of the New Year, I am convinced that 2012 will be even more fun and challenging!
Happy New Year!
73 de Björn, SM0MDG