The contest and initial observations
Posted: Jul 11, 2006 03:29 PDT

In the minutes before the contest started, W2SC and I looked out over the ocean and discussed our strategy for the contest. We wanted to work phone as much as possible for maximum rate and we would chase multipliers as much as the rate would allow. Tom asked one final question, should we start on phone or CW? "Phone," I said. "After all, if it doesn't work out, it will be easier to move to CW and get a frequency than the other way around."

The contest begins with Tom CQing on 15m. We go 3 minutes before our first QSO. A few minutes later we switch to CW. Even so the rate is not fast. Listening on the second radio, I don't hear any other WRTC stations that are doing much better. Conditions haven't been great in the mornings, so we decide we should concentrate on mults until the bands improve. First hour is around 85 QSOs. Yuck.

We are teased by 10 meters. It is open, but not very well. Europe has sporadic E so they are working each other with loud signals while we are weak. 15 finally gives us some good rate. We keep trying to make things happen on 10m, but probably should have stayed on 15m.

We make the move to 20 in the afternoon and get a huge pileup. It lasts for an hour and we go to 20 ssb. Another pileup, but not for long. Even though we are not making a huge QSO total, we are motivated and sure that everyone is facing the same propagation challenges.

We listen on 40m and hear a few WRTC stations getting answers to CQs. Signals from Europe are loud so we make the move. The sunrise/sunset program we are running shows we are just before twilight. The terminator runs from Brazil, to Europe, over UA9, and down into southeast Asia.

One CQ on 40m and the receiver explodes in signals. The rate is filled with very loud UA9 stations. B4HQ, BA4DW, and DU3NXE call in along with everything else. I have never experienced gray line propagation like this.

Based on prop forecast and previous logs, we expect to run Europe on 40 for awhile and return to 20m to work USA. When we returned to 20, the band was on the way out, never to open again. (It had been open until midnight on Friday while we were setting up the station.) Thus begins a long evening of grinding it out on the low bands.

We listened on 80m and signals from Europe were loud. We call one and he comes right back to us! Wow. Our shortened inverted V is actually working. We CQ on 40 and chase mults on 80. Work all of the Europeans we hear on 80 including good multipliers like R9HQ, two ZS stations, ZL4BR, etc. We are very happy with our score on 80.

As we approach the gray line in the morning, again we experience a fantastic opening right along the terminator. JA signals were booming! Because that was the only band open, there were WRTC stations lined up shoulder to shoulder! I found a spot and was able to work 50 JAs or so. It was nice to get a run after many hours of poor rate.

40 died as quickly as it had opened. 20 wasn't showing much sign of life until I heard a loud K3WW calling CQ. This is what we had been looking for. We switched to 20 phone and began calling CQ. Rate is slow. We hear other WRTC stations running but we can't get any answers. We even hear some working guys we can't hear! (Looking at the DX cluster spots later, someone has spotted us as "very weak".) We switch to CW for the last 15 minutes but still not much rate.

The contest ends and we are very happy with our result of just over 2 million points. Conditions weren't the best, but we felt like we got maximum result from the station. We worked well together and were very effective at making fast band changes to work multipliers. I am thinking we are in the top 5...

When referee YU1LA calls in to HQ to ask what time we need to meet the bus to go home, he asks for the results. Someone reads him the Top Ten scores and we are not there... Ouch. What a terrible feeling. Tom and I are both competitive guys and we do not like this feeling of losing so badly.

However, we notice the scores are very close and we are not far from the #10 score. We have a history of high accuracy, so have some hope we will gain ground in the log checking.

Even through our disappointment and fatigue, we quickly pack up the station. Our host calls for a taxi and we load two cars for the 1 hour trip to Joinville to meet the bus. We are last to arrive there and the bus leaves immediately.

On board, we meet SM0W and OZ1AA and hear about their line noise problems. I move to the back of the bus and visit with VE3EJ and VE7ZO, the owners of the highest claimed score. They beat us by almost 600 contacts! Ouch. It is immediately clear that our struggle during the first hours was not shared by them.

We arrive back at the hotel at 4pm. Just in time for the World Cup finals. However, since Brazil is not in the finals, everyone gathers near the WRTC headquarters room and begins sharing stories about the contest.

The stories fell into 3 groups. Group 1 was the highest scores. They all had great locations and spent a lot of time in the contest running stations. Group 2 were in the middle. They faced some challenge (line noise, equipment failure, etc.), but enjoyed the competition. Group 3 had location or line noise problems that made it almost impossible for them to make a competitive score. This confirmed the importance of the drawing on your chances for success!

We learned from the scoreboard that we had been as low as 25th place early in the contest. Once we go to 40m and the night time, we managed to climb back up to around 7th. During the last hour, when we couldn't get any answers on 20m, most other WRTC stations reported big totals for the hour and we dropped to 13th. That hurt because we were there -- just not with the signal required. This confirmed a feeling we had all weekend that something may have been wrong with the log periodic. It had an intermittent SWR on 20m so maybe something was loose in the feed system. Worked fine on 10 and 15, but maybe we just had a dipole on 20...

After talking to as many competitors as we could, Tom and I summarized our observations this way:

1. A station on a hill with the ground sloping away is best. With Brazil being far away from population centers, the best signals were from those that could generate low angles. Those guys who had a slope down to Europe or USA did very well in that direction. Some stations had this to both areas.

2. Stations on the water worked best in the direction of the water. Being near the ocean was great, but you needed the ocean to be in the correct direction. We did very well to Europe (our water direction), but not so good to the USA.

It was interesting to note that there were other stations that shared our challenge on the high bands yet did very well on the low bands. Others were the opposite. So perhaps other site or antenna issues played a role.

Compared to the guys with big hills or line noise, we consider ourselves very lucky. As I told Oms after the contest, "We were very very happy with our score and our effort... Until we learned our place in the standings." We appreciate the opportunity to be at WRTC and especially to enjoy 24 hours of competitive drive for the top spot.

Now we wait for the final results at the awards dinner.

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