The biggest contest on the 160 Meter band starts Friday night at 2200z (5 PM local time here) and runs until 2200Z Sunday eve…rules and full contest info can be found here: http://www.cq160.com/
It’s an all-CW event with a simple exchange for us: RST & state
A list of some of the expected DX participation is here: http://www.ng3k.com/Misc/cq160c2012.html
The T32 expedition gang will be active as T32XX. HK0NA and VP6T DX-pedition stns were heard here faintly before sunrise this AM under less than ideal condx…who knows what the weekend will bring?? Not sure they’ll specifically be active but much other DX will be.
I’ll have limited participation Saturday eve due to other commitment. Hope to hand out RI a few times on Friday Night.
Good luck to all in this intra-club competition qualifying event. BTW, the SSB version of this contest is held in late February.
CU on Topband, Bill W1WBB
Hope to hear and work a few fellow CTRIers this weekend. Last night the conditions were very good with stations from Saudi Arabia, Oman and the Congo on. I may have worked the 7Z, but the pileups were terrible.
I did notice extremely DEEP QSB on all of the stations I mentioned.
73
Dave
W1CTN
Radio Ansonia
Highlight was working HK0NA with Zone 9 in his CW exchange at 1000Z this morn second call simplex up in the phone portion. Just 5 hours in so far with some very good rates for me…240 Qs, 44 ST & PRV, but only 5 DX :>( **Only** EU was CR2 in Azores who was quite weak…just no mainland EU at all strong enuff for me. Only other DX: 2 C6s and KV4.
Band got fairly quiet after storm activity in Atlantic moved away but wall to W6/W7 Pac NW existed similar to ARRL 160m so didn’t stay up late. Won’t be on ’til much later tonight. Good to work many of you so far. Good luck riding the crests of the QSB waves to work that DX! 73, Bill W1WBB
AT the 1/2 WAY POINT: Dave, you gotta be kidding. I found condx terrible. Working EU was a struggle and a half I musta returned to YT8A’s frequency a dozen times (right under AA1K)…before I finally got him. DR1A is usually very strong….worked him but he was weak. Best highlight was HK0NA calling ME in the secocnd hour for my first DX mult. My DX mult = 14 and my 10-pointers are way way down from last year. Saving grace is my Q count is actually up at this point by 70. W/VE mult count = 49 with many easy ones still out there. I went to sleep at 1:30 (that’s too early) as I saw no improvement in the EU SR prop. Overslept a bit and got back on at 5:30 with west coast condx better but not good. E.g., I still need WA. Neatest trick was working two stations at the same time. You know sometimes comeone comes back to you when you are calling another station (like an EU station underneath)…so you usually ignore. This time the timing was exactly right so that both stations copied my exchange at the same time…so I logged both. What the heck! Let’s hope for better condx tonight and, Dave, I hope to work some of the stations you already got. Apologies to KO1H: I have a mental block on your callsign…SRI. How about some more CTRI’ers on tonight? 73!!
— John, W1XX…W1M (Oh, not now Kato!)
John – think Dave was referring to Thurs eve condx the day just prior to contest. I worked CU8AS then (now CR2W) and he was loud here that night. What a difference a day (and a major solar flare Fri afternoon) can make! Plans @ W1WBB have changed on short notice…should be more active tonight than originally thought. So, let’s hope for better DX condx. So far, have W1AN, W1XX, W1BYH, K1DM, KO1H, and K6ND in the log. Anyone get a sniff of T32XX or VP6T yet?? GL es HV FUN…Bill W1WBB
Also worked Jack K2RS…good activity on Topband so far!
To all:
The reference to the good DX conditions were on the night before the contest.
First night of the contest was just terrible. Saturday night and Sunday morning we good..not great, but you could at least work some good DX.
Here is my summary/score
CQ160CW Score Summary Sheet
Start Date : 2012-01-28
CallSign Used : W1CTN
Operator(s) : W1CTN
Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
Band : ALL
Power : HIGH
Mode : CW
Default Exchange : CT
Gridsquare : FN31ST
Name : DAVE ARRUZZA
Address : 32 BENZ STREET
City/State/Zip : ANSONIA CT 06401
Country : USA
ARRL Section : CT
Club/Team : CONNECTICUT RHODE ISLAND CONTEST GROUP
Software : N1MM Logger V11.10.3
Band QSOs Pts StP DXC
1.8 310 1204 54 41
Total 310 1204 54 41
Score : 114,380
Rig : FT 2000 VL1000 1.2 KW
Antennas : 1/4 wave inverted L – 70′ vertical section
Soapbox : 12 hours in the chair. Worked all states with exception of KL7 and Idaho.
Idaho had a good signal but the pileup was LID city.
There were more alligators than usual on in this contest. Big US signal that simply could not hear. I actually asked a few to QRX (which they did) so I could work the DX under them on their frequency. I also did not see any sunrise enhancement. I worked as far east as LZ, South to CE1 and back up to KH6. The G crowd was very weak as was the one Swedish I worked…that was an ESP contact.
73
Dave
W1CTN
Radio Ansonia
This can be a tough contest for DX without a FB antenna, running only LP and the solar cycle well into an upswing…the story here! Lost the ‘mojo’ by Saturday night, quit early and didn’t even wake for Sunday S/R.
Positives were some of my best rates running Friday night and, no doubt, working the HK0NA DX-ped for a new one on 160m. Future Topband station improvements needed here as lowband condx remain in the doldrums. Still, its always interesting on 1.8 MHz. CTRI CG was *well* represented in this one… 73, Bill W1WBB
CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: W1WBB
Operator(s): W1WBB
Station: W1WBB
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 11.5
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 399 State/Prov = 48 Countries = 16 Total Score = 63,872
Club: CT RI Contest Group
Comments:
Part-time effort…lousy DX condx and no station improvements this season. Some
great rates Friday night with eastern USA with my usual 100 watts as no Europe
was really being worked by anyone. Took a number of breaks each evening and
quit early each night… and missed out on Sunday S/R. Highlight was certainly
working HK0NA 2 hrs before my Saturday S/R.
Only 13 10-pt Qs and 32 5-pt Qs were logged.
ICOM IC-737 @ 100w into 3/8 wv Inv-L (up < 40', over 150'), 18 assorted gnd
radials, N1MM logger.
Gang,
I thought conditions were pretty quiet here on Friday evening late. I’ve been fighting a bad cold, and so Friday afternoon, I felt really lousy. Decided to not start the contest – in fact – I wasn’t planning on operating at all. About three hours into the fray, I decided to take a listen and see what I could hear. I just finished putting up a 160-m Pennant antenna, and so I wanted to see what it could hear. I couldn’t use it during the contest because I have no way to switch it in and out of the transmitter path without throwing switches – pretty tough to run QSK that way.
Things were slow, and I was nursing my cold, so I knocked off with 160 Q’s at around 0446 Z.
I got back on around 1148 and played until 1300. On again at 2100 and shut down just before 0800 with 359 Q’s. I had 53 Sections and 26 DX Entities which I thought was pretty good – especially compared to ARRL contest. I got back on Sunday afternoon at 1900Z and started running – a misnomer at that time in the afternoon. As time passed, the rate improved. Finished up about two minutes before the contest expired due to ED1R popping up right underneath me.
Final count was:
416 QSO’s
53 sections
26 DX entities
Final Score – before the “Official” corrections: 94,247
10 pointers – 32
5 pointers – 35
73, Mike, K1DM
Hi Gang!
Preparation for the 160 contest started with amplifier repairs. Tuesday I pulled the cover off the AL1200 to replace the meter lamps and clean the T/R relay (again). I also pulled off the resistor on the plate parasitic network as it appeared to be cracked. It was. The ohmmeter measured it as 300 ohms. An email to Ameritron confirmed my suspicion that it was supposed to be 100 ohms and they advised changing the network to the newer design. The correct parts were ordered but I needed to get it all working for the test, so I found some appropriate capacitors in the parts bin and made a road trip to JAN Electronics to fetch some metal oxide resistors. I replaced the meter lamps with white LEDs, cleaned the relay, redid the suppressor and assembled all in place by Wednesday afternnon.
Thursday I did a walkdown of the beverages to clear dead branches. A couple small trees holding up the insulators had also fallen, so some quick repairs were made.
On Friday morning I put the MFJ antenna analyzer on the T vertical coax end in the shack. It was windy (outside) and the analyzer showed wide fluctuations as the antenna swayed. Did I also mention it was raining? Thanks Murph. After a two hour struggle from below with a twisted pulley line at the 85 foot tower level and some surgery on the antenna all looked well except for one wet ham op. A towel, dry zapatos, a cup of hot coffee and warm shack were all I needed.
I was near ready to operate. The CW macros for N1MM needed some tweeking. For some reason I had not saved them where I could find them from the last CW contest. So I edited the defaults and had things tested and ready. At the last minute I made an attempt to save the macros and somehow ended up losing them on reboot just before the contest started. Anyway, if you’ve worked with the macro editor in N1MM you will see that it does not handle copy and paste very well. It can be annoying. Also for old eyes it is difficult to see the small font and difference between brackets and parenthesis. I’ve discovered that you can open the .mc files in notepad and see and edit things there more easily.
Finally ready, I started to listen to the band. There was much stateside activity early in the game. I did a little S&P to get a feel of how the station was performing. It was not long before I found that RX was intermittant. The amp T/R relay was not working (again). So I used the beverages for receive at times. With the beverage some stateside stations were weak and I knew I was not going to run the whole contest this way. I was also too tired to disassemble the station to get at the amp again. This would wait until the morning.
Saturday afternoon after the amp was repaired I got back working. Most of the activity was running but I did work S&P when things slowed. It seemed it wasn’t real difficult to find a place to run, especially high in the band. I did have to avoid interfering with the plasma TV noise since the FCC has given Part 15 devices primary allocation in the HF bands.
Conditions were definitely down from last year. EU copy was difficult. Many usually strong EU stations were weak and fewer. Few Caribbeans and SA. It was nice to work HK0NA early with no difficulty and have 7Z1SJ answer my CQ and spot me! I did hear VK6LW but was not able to work him. Nebraska was not worked despite my 20 minute attempt an hour after sunrise Sunday to work a strong K0HA. Strange one-way propagation. ID and LA were also missed. My score was 25,000 less than last year, but 25,000 above 2010. Several CTRIers are in the log. W1XX, K1DM, KI1G, K2RS, W1BYH, W1WBB, K6ND are among them. Thanks for the Qs!
73,
John, W1AN
Call: W1XX
Operator: W1XX
Station: W1XX
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
Total: Qs = 838 State/Prov = 54 DX = 34
Total Score = 227,656
Club: CTRI Contest Group
Comments: It is no secret that condx were much better the 2nd night. Was able to get some pretty good runs going into EU…but found that some S & P was warranted. SR on Sunday AM saw little or no enhancement. W1AN and I called both VK6LW at SR for about a half hour to no avail. Never heard the T32. All stats are down from last year by 25%. Missed ID, LA, and the usual Canadians. 6s and 7s were plentiful during the grave yard shift. Still can’t figure out why my 2x beverage’s noise floor is down (attenuated) by -20 dB compared to the normal forward direction. Switching directions required bossting the AF gain. I have to find a slicker way of switching RX antennas. If I’m listening to EU, chances are I will miss the weak W7 calling….so switching back and forth constantly is required. Anybody got any ideas also for at least a 4 position manual antenna switch that is really smoooooth? Is anyone using the Ameritron RCS-4 Remote Antenna Switch for RX antennas? Or is pushing buttons on the control constantly not good? I wonder how the big stations do it….or are they using some sort of diverse receiving? 73!!
— John, W1XX
Mike — that’s a terrific effort…were you running Low Power or the amp? Now for you to get the RX ant switched in full-time!
When I got back on Sat. nite after a 4 hour break some Eu Big Guns were loud…but I was competing against the USA KW crowd who missed ’em all Friday night due to very poor propagation and I therefore pulled the plug early. I’ve been spoiled by the previous few year’s fine condx on Topband! Bill W1WBB
Here’s the K2RS results. Apologies for not posting sooner.
ARRL-SECTION: CT
CALLSIGN: K2RS
CLUB: Connecticut Rhode Island Contest Group — CTRI
CONTEST: CQ-160-CW
CATEGORY: SINGLE-OP 160M LOW CW
CLAIMED-SCORE: 81420
OPERATORS: K2RS
NAME: Jack Russell
ADDRESS: 21 Glen Drive
ADDRESS: Ansonia, CT 06401
ADDRESS: USA
CREATED-BY: N1MM Logger V11.11.4
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 444 State/Prov = 49 DXCC = 20
Total score: 81,420
Equipment:
FT-1000MP Field, 100 watts; 1/4-wave “Perverted-L” antenna with 2 raised radials
Soapbox/Comments:
As many others noted, the contest very slow. There were definitely Jekyll-and-Hyde conditions between Friday and Saturday nights. Curiously, as Dave, W1CTN mentioned, conditions on Thursday night, preceding the contest, were outstanding with the Middle East and Africa booming in. I heard just one European signal the first evening of the contest. Only had 5 DX countries after Friday night. But added another 15 countries Saturday night when conditions improved dramatically. Although he was never much above the noise, I heard VK6LN Sunday morning at our sunrise. Unfortunately, I didn’t work him. But I did add 3 new countries to my DXCC total, bringing me to 86 worked with low power. Also nabbed North Dakota for 160 W.A.S. state #49 (still need Alaska). Was glad to work a few club members, including W1AN and W1WBB. Even though conditions on Friday were terrible, it was still a fun contest. Gotta love the Topband!
73,
Jack K2RS
A great summary of claimed scores for this 2012 CQWW 160M CW (3830 reports + submitted logs) can be found here: http://pileup.ru/cq160_cw.php?year=2012
Of note from CTRI…K6ND’s 368k pts using a killer 4-Square and beverages.
Bill W1WBB