I soooo much wanted to use the Flexradio 6500 for this contest just to justify its purchase, but in practice sessions before the contest I could not get SO2V, semi SO2R or 2BSIQ to work with N1MM+. The problem was that there are so many guides written for old versions of both SSDR and N1MM+ and the wrong version of radio (ie 6700 or 6600) that only confusion and wasted time results. I tried setting up 2 slices on the same band but annoyingly if I clicked with the mouse on the screen N1MM+ would crazily swap the audio to the wrong VFO meaning I just couldn't use it. After a week of reading every available guide I finally gave in having never been beaten by anything radio/computer related in nearly 40 years.
I packed up the 6500 and instead switched to using my trusty FTDX101D. The difference was instantaneous, I was playing radio rather than fighting interacting software with different authors. The added benefit was that now I had a hope of dealing with ridiculously poor signal quality from the likes of Todor LZ4TX. Todor hasn't yet realised that with big antennas and big power comes the added responsibility of ensuring a CLEAN TX. On 10m Todor is around 599+30 here but the big problem is the width of his transmission which during the last YO contest reached 25KHz wide on the FTDX101D effectively wiping out 10m. A quick internet search revealed that he uses an Alpin 200 (2.5Kw) linear amplifier and a 7 element yagi on 10m. I guess he hasn't read the manual properly and doesn't know driving it full tilt will cause problems.
Anyway with the 6500 safely packed away , I finally got down to selecting my entry category. I'd have loved to do a 10m mono band entry as 10m was in great shape, but Todor could show up and with the resulting 25KHz of key clicks and QRM I would have just had to pack up. I've always dreamed about activating a rare island and experiencing handling big pile-ups and really enjoy short, snappy efficient Qs and trying to get the run rate up. I would be working right up to Christmas and was involved with trying to deliver a new product in a stressful environment so didn't want to completely knacker myself for Monday morning. The 'classic' category being only 24 hours would help and also would ensure high run rates. I wanted all bands to be able to move according to the conditions. No cluster was allowed, but I intended to RUN RUN RUN anyway to see how many Qs I could make. This doesn't make sense if I was trying to win the contest as you need to S&P to get multipliers, but this wasn't going to happen anyway as there are too many retired contesters who have invested in their properties and antenna farms and can therefore run with substantial pile ups for the full 24 hours no matter their skill level. I've listened in to some of my competition and the amount of inefficiency on show should really relegate them into obscurity, but their station always secures the result. With this is mind and my pip-squeak scaffold pole in the garden, I decided to have fun and train for pile-ups instead.
I would be using an Optibeam OB10-5w wire, 5 band yagi (2-3 element on 10m, 2 element on 15m. moxon on 20m) at 5m over the ground. I live in a residential area of a large town and have close neighbours who have been very patient with me over the years. I want a bigger station, but in reality I'd have to move to larger premises to achieve it. At 5m over the ground, if my antenna were to come down the wrong way it would still land in a neighbours garden, so I'm already pushing the envelope. My garden resembles a long strip of land with the house in the middle, so I can just about shoe horn in a straight 40m length from the back garden over the house roof to the front garden. The antenna used for this location was an 80m doublet fed with 300 ohm ribbon feeder but due to the centre proximity to the house bedrooms, I wouldn't be able to use it late at night.
The back garden support for a doublet leg is a 5m light weight aluminium pole. I decided that this could double as the initial vertical section for a centre loaded quarter wave inverted L for 160m. I designed a coil that would give me the correct inductance that when coupled to the top of the pole and then extended with a 10m wire section would be resonant on the 160m band. The resulting antenna was a real inefficient mess, but I hoped it would allow me some contacts with some of the bigger stations.
The stage was set for an all band effort and with my category picked and strategy decided for me, I got ready for the contest.
The contest started and Todor was no where to be seen (result!), but 10m wasn't in such good shape as it had been during the week lead up to the contest. I operated for 24 or the 48 hours and made 2430 Qs (around 0.6 Qs per minute), peak rate was around 130 Qs per hour on 20m.
The dirtiest signal encountered belonged to DP9A. They moved onto 14.042 at 08:00 (1KHz above me) and instantly wiped me out. I QSY'd up and asked them to QSY (ignored) then later on I asked them to check their linear amp, but just got ignored again. With my run frequency smashed I had no alternative to give them my frequency. At 6KHz wide key clicks, my radio (FTDX101D) just couldn't do anything to allow me to continue on my frequency. A quick look up of the internet on their callsign (DP9A - Callsign Lookup by QRZ Ham Radio) revealed another superstation. Why oh why do they spend so much money on antennas and ignore their transmit IMD? I think we all know why... they are cheats, plain and simple. It is advantageous to make make your transmit signal as dirty as possible to punch a hole in the band where your receiver can survive all the other stations trying to compete. The result is a lovely clear frequency to pick up rare multipliers. It must be fantastic to operate during CQWW CW within a 6KHz window clear of QRM unheard of to most competitor actually playing by their license conditions. Maybe the Bavarian Contest Club can educate them before they do too much damage to the clubs reputation.
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