IARU HF 2001 Writeup

IARU HF 2001 DL1IAO SO Mixed HP

Where is a flashlight??

I grope my way thru the shack, almost stumbling over a stack of boxes with radio accessories. I can´t remember having had any trouble with the club station´s main power ever before! When switching on the power supplies all I noticed was a dull click from the main fuse and total darkness in the cellar rooms as a result. That´s where the operating position is located.

Studying the "control room´s" wiring does not enlighten me and I call DF9ZW for technical advice. He can´t really diagnose the problem on the phone and promises to come over.

It´s 10:30z. 90 minutes for setting up a station is not too much if you want to be serious! Running IARU from DL0WW was a short-term decision as DK3GI cancelled his plans just a few days before. I was prepared for Single Op CW from home but antennas are so much larger at the club that I never can stand driving up. Due to school obligations I could not start dismantling my home station before Saturday morning. Besides I did not like getting up before 7:30 local as I would need to be well rested for the coming 30 hours.

I usually use the 75min car ride to calm down a bit and think about a strategy for the contest. On which band/mode should I start running? Will the JA´s be loud enough to run them on 15 right from the beginning? In ´99 I had a slow start on 15m phone until I realized I had to run JA! When I arrive at the station I´m usually 100% psyched and organized to set up the shack fast and economically.

When Manfred arrives I´m almost done with the SO2R setup, still working in darkness: TS870 + club´s Alpha87 as run radio on the left, the club´s FT1000MP + TL922 for S&P on the right. 1 Topten decoder + WX0B 6way bandpass filters between run radio and amp provide sufficient protection as all antennas are conservatively spaced from each other. There is virtually no interaction. I still run a 2-notebook CT v9.23 serial network as v9.65 crashed during initial testing. v9.23 has a bug in Check Call and Check Country so that verifying and moving new multipliers is somewhat difficult, but it runs extremely stable.

Thanks to Manfred´s efforts power comes back quite promptly and there is just enough time for a light meal, bathroom trip and finding a run frequency on 15 CW. At 11:50 I lose power again but get the problem solved pretty quickly by myself. My frequency is gone, however, and S52JK is my first QSO at 12:02.

I start running 15 CW and S&P 10 on the 2nd radio as the band is no good to NA. 20m is mostly EU´s and HQ´s which I should be able to work later. HS0ZCW and HL5FBT call in for zone multipliers and I keep beaming Asia until US gets louder around 14:00. To my surprise N3AD and KZ5D are workable on 10 and I hope for a real band opening later this afternoon. ZS4TX and OA4DKC are good ones at 14:20 and I fully concentrate on 15m S&P. Besides the HQ stations I snag J75KG at 14:27 and settle down to run NA on phone at 14:52. VE3EJ is only S8 with some aurora sound when he calls in and I have 435 QSOs and 67 multipliers at 16:00.

As the rate drops I heavily fill in 20m 2nd radio QSOs. Asians are getting louder! I work BV2YA at 17:10 and move ZS6SRL and DU1IVT down to 20m at 17:23 and 17:30. Occasionally things get fast on 15 phone and I check 10m again at 18:00. South America is wide open and I S&P with 2 VFO´s yielding several more multipliers incl. 9V9HQ. I try CQing at 18:26 and run a decent phone rate until 19:00. One lesson from ´99 was that I checked 40m too late for many Asian multipliers because high band rates were so good. But the band sounds horrible on the 2nd radio, like BC-splatter, and I know that CQing would not cut it. I S&P CW for 20min and phone for 10min to get 41 QSOs and 20 multipliers, and hit 20 CW at 19:30. The band rocks and I run 80 stations incl. KL7, XE and ZS in the next 30 minutes. At 20:00 my totals are 888/153.

15 is wide open, too, and I start running CW at 20:17 and checking 20 CW. But something seems odd: Surprisingly enough I don´t get loud W6 calls as expected but weak UA9´s and JA´s. I hear DF0RI right beside me working stuff I cannot hear! I need 2 more minutes to figure out that I´m transmitting on the 20m antenna with pretty good SWR. Fortunately, I did not kill any hardware! The mistake costs about 20 QSOs and as a result the 20:00 hour is the first one below 100 QSOs - uggh. I´m running with the correct antenna for 45min and get called by KH6ND and VK4EMM who I move to 20. Finally I decide to move down to 20m phone. I can´t get any substantial rate, however, and continue on 20 CW and 40/80 S&P. Good stuff like TF/DJ1YFK/p, FM5CW, P29IO and YB calls in and I move ZS4TX from 40 to 80. I even work a few UA9/0 multipliers thru the 40m BC QRM. At 22:35 40 CW seems runnable and I need 3 minutes to pull out TF/DJ1YFK/p who tuned up a short wire from the car! The BC QRM is still terrible but I´m able to close some EU zone gaps and even work PV8DX for zone 12 at 22:49. It´s getting hard to decide which band would offer the best run rate. 15 phone gives me a 114 hour while working 80m 2nd radio multipliers. My half time score is 1282/211.

I try 20m phone again vainly for 15min. But CW is still way better and I rip off a 122 hour. I stay until 01:30 and work 13 multipliers on 160m. Back to phone I finally get to command a frequency. But hey - the first North Americans on 80 CW are quite loud! As my 20m frequency is somewhat crowded anyway I move to 80 CW and work W1MK, VO1RAC, VA3RU and K1ZZ (AC) as multipliers until 02:00. Then it´s time for 20m phone and I work 332 stations in 2 hours - wow! At 04:00 I have 1844 QSOs and 244 multipliers.

Now the sun is up and I´m running out of time working LF multipliers, including 40m which I did not hit for the last 5 hours due to QRM. 20m is still roaring and one more 120 hour seems possible when returning to CW after about half an hour. As my multiplier already tops my ´99 totals I should continue running 20 and trying to find 3 or 4 zones on 40m with the 2nd radio. Instead I do something odd: I give up my 20m frequency and start CQing 80 CW at 04:00, knowing that the Bobtail gets out like a gun to the west. I work NU1AW for a new HQ mult and successfully move F6BEE to 160m for a still missing zone 27. 7099 is clear at 04:23 and I quickly work zones 8, 7, 4 and 13, plus KP2/AA1BU and EA4URE on S&P. At 04:37 I S&P 40 CW but only find W1AW/6 for a new mult. W7OM is 439 and I can´t rise his attention which is unusual. I have already spent 40 minutes for 40 QSOs and 9 multipliers and need to catch up on QSO rate. I get some run going on 7012 and get called by VA3RAC, LU4MHQ, P3A, HC5AI, NU1AW, ER7HQ, ZL2BR, CT3KN and VK4EMM for new multipliers. At 05:39 I return to 20m phone. The band is still open to US westcoast with occasional VK/ZL´s, ZK1CG and KH6GMP calling in. Knowing that my LF multiplier trip might have been a mistake I finish this hour with 105 QSOs and continue phone until 08:00. I DID stay too long on phone as the 07:00 hour could have been close to 100 QSOs instead of 70. My 08:00 totals are 2182/273. That´s an average rate of only 84 QSOs/h for the last 4 hours - not enough for wide open bands!

10/15m don´t sound too productive and I milk 20 CW for every single US station. I complete this 91 hour with FK8GM on 15 and VR2BG on 10 and try a short run on 10 CW. I work DK3GI and a few UA9´s and work up the phone band with 9Q0AR as the best QSO. As JA´s begin to sound workable on 15 I work phone until 09:36, and CW until 09:49. I´m definitely running out of stations and can´t get much going. KQ2M is still about S9 on 14151 and working Europeans. I throw in 20 CW until 10:16 and return to 15m CW JA´s. Signals are quite reasonable but activity definitely went downhill for the last 1 or 2 years. I end up S&P´ing and need 6 minutes to break the KH8/N5OLS pileup who listens split. I finish this hour on 10 CW and find YE1ZTC for a new one. With only 1h left I try getting attention on 20 phone while working up 15 CW with the 2nd radio. Both techniques yield about the same rate. I move down to 20 CW and work the first North Americans on 15 CW. K3WW is loud! I fire off some CQs while tuning 20m but can´t get any rate. Then I decide to try something different and finish the race on 14072 with 82 QSOs in the last hour.

My final score is 2,63M / 2491 Q / 288 M for a claimed #2 World / #1 DX.

Thanks to Manfred/DF9ZW for fixing the power problem and KQ2M / VE3EJ for the great competition - Bob´s 3,2M certainly are hard to beat!