ZX0F, CQ WPX SSB 2001 M/S
(thanks to Peter, PY5CC , for his permission to post his story)
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(® Pictures by André Sampaio, PYØFF / PY7CW)
The story behind a World Record !
By the end of the 2000 CQWW SSB contest, we started planning the operation for the 2001 CQWW SSB.
The goal was, as in the previous years, to break the HC8A World Record, that was standing still since 1993.
The operation starts with Peter PY5CC / PY0FM and Nicolau arriving to Fernando de Noronha the 17th of March, with maintenance of the antenna farm
as the main objective.
Our Host Andre, PY0FF, had gone through the computer aspect of the station in advance, with the acquisition of a new logging software
(writelog), he saved a lot of time and he made sure the 3-computer network was working without a hitch.
With the arrival of Fred, PY7ZZ / PY0FZ and Jim PY5ZBA / N5FA 2 days after, everything seemed to move according to our plans and to our surprise we had nothing
else to do, we got a whole day to relax before the contest, getting ready for the 48 hour marathon that lies ahead.
Saturday 3/24th - 00:00z , WPX starts with an amazing rate from Jim on 15 and 20 meters. Due to the lack of experience with Writelog, we had some misfortunes using our
new logger, causing the computer to lock 3 times in the first hour alone, adding a total of 20 minutes, we lost 100 QSOs for sure
While Jim was imposing his usual high speed pileups, Fred kept telling us to check the multipliers, we were amazed as to how easy it was to get new mults in the first
couple of hours alone. The score grew bigger and bigger, that made us believe the record was getting closer hour after hour
We ended the first 24 hrs. with nearly 4000 QSOs that helped us keep dreaming about the record, dawn came and to our desperation the rate kept falling down !
We didnt work much for nearly 2 hours, and we were having problems with the TS850 of the S&P station that wasnt transmitting nor receiving on 20, 15 and 10 meters (that was work for Don PY5ZBU, Sorry Don, hi hi !). We swapped radios with a TS450 that proved withstand the situation.
Using the propagation slowdown to our advantage, Peter decides to rest a little to gain some energy, since we would have a long Sunday ahead of us, as to Jim and Fred, they were battling the noisy (QRN + QRM) 40 and 80m.
The propagation was getting better by daybreak, with an optimal opening to Japan. Fred wakes Peter up to relay Jim, and a monstrous JA pileup begins on 15 meters, forcing him to work split and call areas!!! it was such a fantastic opening that helped us pick up a little, making up for those bad propagation hours.
After the JA's on 15m we went to 10m and to our suprise we found more JA's among the Europeans !! that was great, since its not easy to work them from Noronha and it
gives us mults !
During the day, alternating openings between the US and EU were providing a big rate, of 150 QSO/hrs.
2 hours before the end of the contest, propagation took a dive to our desperation, we kept calling but getting almost no answers, what to do now? so close to the record
, will we get it?
Jim, with his great skills was jumping between 10, 15 and 20 meters, trying to find a breach and get some more contacts, 15 meters starts to pick up and we start working the
US and EU around 100 QSOs/hrs.
 |
We passed the World Record 30 minutes before the end of the contest !! such a joy for the whole team, we broke HC8A's record after 8 years of trying.
We finished the 48 hours of competition with 344,000 points past the record! take a look at the score :
|
|
Band |
QSOs |
Points |
Prefixes |
Total Score |
|
160m |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
|
80m |
82 |
463 |
30 |
|
|
40m |
624 |
3624 |
126 |
|
|
20m |
1883 |
5583 |
496 |
|
|
15m |
1943 |
5743 |
261 |
|
|
10m |
3109 |
9169 |
422 |
|
|
Totals |
7642 |
24584 |
1336 |
32.844.224 |
Equipment: Ts850 (2), Ts450, Alpha 89, LK800c, Alpha 76.
Antenna(s)
10m 7 x 7, 15m 6 x 6, 20m 5 x 5, 40m élem + èlem Yagi, 80m 3 elem + rotating doublet, 160m inv L.
Operators
N5FA / PY5ZBA (Jim), PY7ZZ / PYØFZ (Fred), PYØFF / PY7CW (André) and PY5CC / PYØFM (Peter).
Qsl Information
The Qsl's for ZXØF will have to be sent by manager, W3HC.
Remarks
We couldnt have made it without the organization and determination of the whole group
Thanks
to GOD for the beautiful propagation that provided an excellent score.
Atilano, PY5EG - Araucaria DX Group, for their support, none of this would have been possible without it.
Andre, that with his usual hospitality provided us with another big contest
Morena, PY0FF's wife, for all the support and for enduring us making QRM in their QTH (hi, hi)
Gil, Baiano, Andrezinho and all the personnel at Morena's
Celpe - Electric Company of Pernambuco for the maintenance and energy during the 48 hours.
everyone in our logs, for participating and giving us points and multipliers see you in the next contest !. 73s Team of ZXØF - Araucária DX Group!
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