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© 2010 Arctic Diamonds - TF4M
CQ 160 Contest – TF4X #2 in Europe, #6 World !
Yuri, K3BU operated TF4X in the CQ WW 160 meter contest in the Single Operator High Power category.
A solar flare about a week before the contest started caused worry that conditions would be poor. The band seemed to have recovered nicely, but the Aurora Index stayed high during most of the contest and it became clear that conditions were disturbed.
Iceland is greatly affected by any Auroral disturbance, much more so than neighboring countries and Yuri observed, for example, that my Great Beverage antennas showed almost no directivity during the contest. I know for a fact that they work very well, but during the weekend it seemed that signals appeared to come from all directions simultaneously. I understand this may be due to a high arrival angle during disturbed conditions.
Some juicy DX was worked, two KH6 stations for example, it is only recently that the historic first QSO with KH6 was made from my station – this is quite remarkable considering the disturbed conditions.
The raw score is as follows:
1643 QSOs
51 States/Provinces
80 Countries
Total Score = 1,317,729
At present TF4X has the second highest reported score in Europe and is #6 worldwide. This may of course change as and/or when other stations report their scores, but it is incredibly satisfying to see all my hard work being justified with such superior results.
It was quite illuminating to observe such an experienced operator running my station – at times I feared that my amplifier would literally melt, but it performed to my full satisfaction and there were no equipment/antenna issues whatsoever during the contest.
Yuri wrote in his comment to the 3830 Reflector:
Last minute adventure to the Aurora zone, taking up Thor’s invite.
Being rusty from dormant period, problems with equipment setup,
drivers, but got ready for the start.
Stories about Aurora wipeouts made it a big if.
Thanks to Thor and his magnificent station it ended up being fun and decent
score, even if coming short of beating the Eu record.
The background noise is probably the lowest in the world allowing to
hear lot more of the juicy stuff than working it.
Thanks for wonderful hospitality and station from Thor, TF4M and all the QSOs
and points. Lot of dirty clixing signals and rude behaviour by “CQ pirates”.
Will have more later.
Yuri, TF/K3BU
I used my PERSEUS SDR receiver to record the entire contest 1800-1900kHz. The recording obviously contains the entire contest effort of TF4X and in addition it contains the contest effort of everyone else heard at my location.
This consumes two hundred GB of data, please contact me if you are interested in specific time periods.
A new chapter in the History of Amateur Radio has been written.
Siggi, TF3CW was going to activate TF4X in the CQ WW 160 meter contest, but unforeseen circumstances caused him to cancel.
Yuri, K3BU, has stepped in and will operate the station in the Single Operator High Power category.
I sincerely hope that there will be no sun spots and no Aurora.
This may be the last chance in our life time to enjoy these fantastic conditions on Top Band.
I also hope the activity will reflect this – it would be so very cool if Yuri was able to work All 40 Zones in the contest !
It is interesting to note that I have followed the Tesla Radio Club project for years and several times I have been on the verge of writing to Yuri to invite him to my station !
Last year I almost finished a QSO with KH2L in Guam.
The contact was ruined by a LID with a HB9 call who began calling non-stop on top of the QSO preventing KH2L from hearing his report.
Seconds later the window of opportunity was gone and I have not heard Ed on 160 meters since.
Apparently the LID was cheating by listening on a remote Web based receiver, since he probably could not hear KH2L at all from his own station.
He did not account for the inevitable delays over the internet, causing his transmissions to be completely out of sync with what was really happening.
Although this could be chalked up to a beginners mistake – after all there are many moral aspects of DXing that need to be thought about and we all make mistakes, a cheater will always be found out eventually.
At the time I did not respond to the LID in any way, but perhaps I should have sent him an email asking for an explanation.
This morning, I saw KH2L spotted on my private DX cluster and immediately listened for him on the JA Beverage but he was quite weak.
The amplifier tripped and another 4 minute wait ensued but KH2L was still there and I was able to raise him for #140.
This is the first ever QSO between Guam and Iceland on 160 meters.
Of course the recording software did not work for some reason, I must usually start a new log file in Win-Test to solve that issue.
The contact has already been confirmed on LOTW.
While checking the LOTW award status, I discovered that I had a confirmation from SV5DKL in Rhodes, Dodecanese, which I had completely overlooked.
The DXCC-160 now stands at 141.
What a pleasure.
