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First of all thanks to CQ hall of fame Walter (DJ6QT) who let me use his station on Madeira (CT3) at CQ
WPX SSB now for three times in a row. As the station setup is changing year after year, also expectations and goals would change too.
In 2008 the station was the textbook setup for Three-Band Single-Element – formerly known as
threeband-wire. It had a TH5 Beam and lots of fiberglass rods to built verticals. So the decision was an easy one – my CT9L operation was nice proof what can be accomplished with this very simple setup. I
ended up with almost 4200 QSO’s an 15.9 MIO points to capture the world number one seat and a new world record in this great class!
When the WPX SSB 2009 came closer, the setup at Walters place had changed. The big new highlight was a
two element beam for 40m! Wow, with this antenna there must be lots of room for improvement. On my excel sheet everything seemed to be possible, but just a few hours into the contest it became clear that my
ambitious goals were impossible to achieve. Even with the two element Beam it was impossible to hold a frequency and produce solid runs on 40m into Europe or the US. Conditions were pretty poor as well, and I could
not even chase my last year’s score. Midway through the contest I hooked up the internet connection and changed to the assisted class in order to get some mults in and keep the score up somehow. With 14.3 MIO
points it was still good for world number one SingleOP (Assisted) and a new Africa record.
With what I have learned from 2009 the approach for 2010 was to run SingleOP (Assisted) again –
but really try to chase some mults and go after the old world record from P40W (W2GD) from 2007. The station has changed again and I could use a 5 element monobander on 15m what was the only real contest weapon.
Propagation played well and I made 2500 QSO’s just on this antenna. On the second tower the new addition was a Mosley PRO 57 with WARC bands, but on 20m it was only a compromise three element beam. With the
bands really crowded the 2009 effect was back in play again. No chance to produce solid runs on 40m where I ended up with 500 QSO’s. Only three elements on 20m were not really a big weapon to defend a run
frequency. As a result of this I came short of the 1000 QSO’s mark on 20m as well. Mults and propagation helped at least to compile a score of 17.4 MIO points well above the old world record.
March 2011 ..... I will be back in Madeira for CQ WPX Phone again! It’s to much fun!
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