2005 IARU HF World Championships
07/14/2005 |
W1AW/5
DE W8YRB - Rob Underwood
Received an invitation to participate in IARU Contest operating as W1AW/5 by Stan - K5GO. What a dream come true. Age here is 45 and I've operated many of contest over the 35 years of being a Ham Radio Operator however I've never operated as a Multi/Multi Op/Station with some of the Big Dog in the CW World. This was truely a dream for myself being a Die Hard CW Operator all my life.
Arrived Friday evening around 8pm, and was immediately given to grand tour by Stan-K5GO. After speaking with Stan and getting the tour you definitely get to understand his dedication and passion for the Amateur Radio Community. Stan is the 2nd generation of Amateur Radio Operators in his family, his father-N5DX was a advid Contester/DX'r and now Stan's son Kevin-N5DX is carring on the legend by becoming heavily envolved in Amateur Radio and obtaining his grandfathers call of N5DX. The emotions and pleasure these two individuals share for Amateur Radio is amazing. Not only do they share it with each other, but they go out of their way to ensure each and every guest operator get to experience the same hospitality and pleasures of their facilities and contesting station.
Spent the rest of the evening ragchewing on 40 meters 7.028 with my pals explaining the station, bragging about all the equipment Stan-K5GO and Kevin-N5DX have put together, and practiced using the logging software prior to the big day.
5:00 am, roll call, up and ready. Stan-K5GO, Kevin-N5DX, Rebecca-KB0VVT, Dave-KG0US, and Dave's wife (sorry forget to write down her call) but they are a true all ham family. After the introductions and howdy's Stan and Kevin began firing up all the equipment, going thru the paces checking and double checking each antenna relay, radio, amp, rotor, keys, PC's. The equipment list goes on, and on. Remember were not talking one radio, one antenna etc. here, this is a multi-operator, multi-station setup. Each band 80-10 meters had its own antenna system (hugh antenna system I might add) and each had its own Radio, Amp, Antenna switching system, and PC. Obviously Stan and Kevin had alot of work ahead of them prior to the big show.
6:30 AM, I - W8YRB rev up 15, Kevin N5DX fires up on 20, Rebecca - KB0VVT warms up 40, Dave-KG0US configures 10, Les-K5LG tunes acrossed 80. Remember, these folks are top notch CW ops, speed and accuracy is the name of the game, hit and run. (and when the bands are slow, ragchew and teach) Now is when I discover something really interesting... Rebecca-KB0VVT is 17, let me tell you she is one of the most impressive young lady's I've ever had the chance to meet and to operate with. operating 30 and 40 wpm for this young lady was gravy work she is truely a professional and proficient CW Operator who brings a touch of class to the hobby... Thank you Rebecca.
7:01 (1201 ZULU) BANG - the race is on, wow it was amazing the keys are flying, the fire extingisher is setting near the door way just incase we had to cool down some keying fingers (the equipment was unbeliably safe and ready for the work) it was our FISTS that needed the cooling and break in awhile. The race is off, I'm hammering on 15, station, after station flying left and right the pileup was amazing (the band had not opened yet)... The locals, (USA) were coming from all directions no time to swing the 2x2 7-element yagi, did I say 2 each stacked 7 element yagi's on 15 meters, one dedicated to Europe (NE) and the top rotatable. A 3rd 6 element was on the other side of the mountain top Fixed on JA-Land for later grayline work. By the way every yagi and antenna at this contest station are HOME BREWED by Stan-K5GO and Kevin-N5DX... Stan laughs when I asked him what commercial antenna's he had up, he said well awhile back we had commercial antenna's up, but at this elevation and the abuse we put this system thru the commercial we had just could not hold up. We built every antenna up here by hand and extra heavy duty.
12:00 approx. Lunch Time, rotation begins, each person is rotating on and off every band giving everyone a chance to play with the pile ups, work the dead bands, and just walk around and tour some of the facilities. Stan-K5GO fired up the BBQ Grill and wow wonderful lunch, everyone had food and drink to pass around. Nobody felt out of place, everyone was having a ball.
14:00 jump onto 40 meters, band is getting quiet, dead, little activity here, and there. QRL a couple of QRG, verify the frequency was free, bang, CQ TEST W1AW/5 at about 45 wpm, nothing. Since the band was quiet, I decided to play, I can send CQ TEST at 45 WPM for 1 hour on a dead band and work maybe 1 station, or slow down and see what fish might be lurking around. QRS to 12 WPM, Wow, amazing one after another hitting the CQ, newcomers to contesting, weren't really sure what to send, but they were just as excited as we were to be operating the contest and were having fun. Helped them out with the exchange info, explained alittle bit about the contest station and had some fun meeting new people. It was amazing even at 12 wpm how much fun I was having teaching and explaining the IARU contest to others.
16:00 approx 40's warming up, little more heavy hitter's time to begin chasing the big dogs. Tune to a clear QRG and one after another start rolling in, soon time is flying by. Soon the band is opening up, the pile-ups begin. When your in the driver seat of a station such as K5GO you much be constantly aware of what your doing, see the 40 meter station has a 3 element yagi @ 185 feet, it has 3 beverage antenna's in various configurations and it has a dipole configured for local operations. Depending upon the station that answers your CQ would depend on what antenna you choose for receiving. You would think the Yagi was the best of all worlds. This was simply not the case, the Yagi because of its height and take off angle was great for DX transmit, however on receive the QRN on the Yagi was crazy. Once you heard the call G0, OK1, JA1, whatever you had to know their direction and immediately activate that Beverage Antenna. This was my first experience with a Beverage Antenna System of any kind. Wow was I impressed, the QRN level was down 15 db, yet the signals were bang there loud and clear truely amazing for such a simple antenna. It was nice of many stations to be patient as we changed antenna, fought the QRN, QRM, etc. While working many contest as a single operator and field day, it was amazing to see how much of a pileup you would get and you'd pick them off one by one. Some would move on, only to come back when the pileup was less, the weaker station were persistant which made it even more challenging (thanks to the QRP folks, it was fun digging you out of the noise floors)
0700 AM Time has flew by, everyone is exhausted but still excited for the results. It sure was alot of fun working with all of the other operators and gaining some experience and knowledge from the contesting days. Some were oldtimers at it, other like Rebecca and Myself were truely newbies to the contesting world in the multi/multi configuration.
A personal thanks for Stan-K5GO, Kevin-N5DX. Kevin thanks to your wife and daughter as well. This was truely a pleasurable and wonderful experience for me, and thanks Stan for the open invitation I surely will be participating and more contest to come. Sorry only CW here.
Les-K5LG, Dave & Wife- kG0US, Steve-K0OU, Chuck-KM5G and of course Art-KC2G all whom are all top-notch CW Operators and First Class Operators. Thanks for the Eyeballs.
Looking forward to the next one, 73 - Rob -- W8YRB
Received an invitation to participate in IARU Contest operating as W1AW/5 by Stan - K5GO. What a dream come true. Age here is 45 and I've operated many of contest over the 35 years of being a Ham Radio Operator however I've never operated as a Multi/Multi Op/Station with some of the Big Dog in the CW World. This was truely a dream for myself being a Die Hard CW Operator all my life.
Arrived Friday evening around 8pm, and was immediately given to grand tour by Stan-K5GO. After speaking with Stan and getting the tour you definitely get to understand his dedication and passion for the Amateur Radio Community. Stan is the 2nd generation of Amateur Radio Operators in his family, his father-N5DX was a advid Contester/DX'r and now Stan's son Kevin-N5DX is carring on the legend by becoming heavily envolved in Amateur Radio and obtaining his grandfathers call of N5DX. The emotions and pleasure these two individuals share for Amateur Radio is amazing. Not only do they share it with each other, but they go out of their way to ensure each and every guest operator get to experience the same hospitality and pleasures of their facilities and contesting station.
Spent the rest of the evening ragchewing on 40 meters 7.028 with my pals explaining the station, bragging about all the equipment Stan-K5GO and Kevin-N5DX have put together, and practiced using the logging software prior to the big day.
5:00 am, roll call, up and ready. Stan-K5GO, Kevin-N5DX, Rebecca-KB0VVT, Dave-KG0US, and Dave's wife (sorry forget to write down her call) but they are a true all ham family. After the introductions and howdy's Stan and Kevin began firing up all the equipment, going thru the paces checking and double checking each antenna relay, radio, amp, rotor, keys, PC's. The equipment list goes on, and on. Remember were not talking one radio, one antenna etc. here, this is a multi-operator, multi-station setup. Each band 80-10 meters had its own antenna system (hugh antenna system I might add) and each had its own Radio, Amp, Antenna switching system, and PC. Obviously Stan and Kevin had alot of work ahead of them prior to the big show.
6:30 AM, I - W8YRB rev up 15, Kevin N5DX fires up on 20, Rebecca - KB0VVT warms up 40, Dave-KG0US configures 10, Les-K5LG tunes acrossed 80. Remember, these folks are top notch CW ops, speed and accuracy is the name of the game, hit and run. (and when the bands are slow, ragchew and teach) Now is when I discover something really interesting... Rebecca-KB0VVT is 17, let me tell you she is one of the most impressive young lady's I've ever had the chance to meet and to operate with. operating 30 and 40 wpm for this young lady was gravy work she is truely a professional and proficient CW Operator who brings a touch of class to the hobby... Thank you Rebecca.
7:01 (1201 ZULU) BANG - the race is on, wow it was amazing the keys are flying, the fire extingisher is setting near the door way just incase we had to cool down some keying fingers (the equipment was unbeliably safe and ready for the work) it was our FISTS that needed the cooling and break in awhile. The race is off, I'm hammering on 15, station, after station flying left and right the pileup was amazing (the band had not opened yet)... The locals, (USA) were coming from all directions no time to swing the 2x2 7-element yagi, did I say 2 each stacked 7 element yagi's on 15 meters, one dedicated to Europe (NE) and the top rotatable. A 3rd 6 element was on the other side of the mountain top Fixed on JA-Land for later grayline work. By the way every yagi and antenna at this contest station are HOME BREWED by Stan-K5GO and Kevin-N5DX... Stan laughs when I asked him what commercial antenna's he had up, he said well awhile back we had commercial antenna's up, but at this elevation and the abuse we put this system thru the commercial we had just could not hold up. We built every antenna up here by hand and extra heavy duty.
12:00 approx. Lunch Time, rotation begins, each person is rotating on and off every band giving everyone a chance to play with the pile ups, work the dead bands, and just walk around and tour some of the facilities. Stan-K5GO fired up the BBQ Grill and wow wonderful lunch, everyone had food and drink to pass around. Nobody felt out of place, everyone was having a ball.
14:00 jump onto 40 meters, band is getting quiet, dead, little activity here, and there. QRL a couple of QRG, verify the frequency was free, bang, CQ TEST W1AW/5 at about 45 wpm, nothing. Since the band was quiet, I decided to play, I can send CQ TEST at 45 WPM for 1 hour on a dead band and work maybe 1 station, or slow down and see what fish might be lurking around. QRS to 12 WPM, Wow, amazing one after another hitting the CQ, newcomers to contesting, weren't really sure what to send, but they were just as excited as we were to be operating the contest and were having fun. Helped them out with the exchange info, explained alittle bit about the contest station and had some fun meeting new people. It was amazing even at 12 wpm how much fun I was having teaching and explaining the IARU contest to others.
16:00 approx 40's warming up, little more heavy hitter's time to begin chasing the big dogs. Tune to a clear QRG and one after another start rolling in, soon time is flying by. Soon the band is opening up, the pile-ups begin. When your in the driver seat of a station such as K5GO you much be constantly aware of what your doing, see the 40 meter station has a 3 element yagi @ 185 feet, it has 3 beverage antenna's in various configurations and it has a dipole configured for local operations. Depending upon the station that answers your CQ would depend on what antenna you choose for receiving. You would think the Yagi was the best of all worlds. This was simply not the case, the Yagi because of its height and take off angle was great for DX transmit, however on receive the QRN on the Yagi was crazy. Once you heard the call G0, OK1, JA1, whatever you had to know their direction and immediately activate that Beverage Antenna. This was my first experience with a Beverage Antenna System of any kind. Wow was I impressed, the QRN level was down 15 db, yet the signals were bang there loud and clear truely amazing for such a simple antenna. It was nice of many stations to be patient as we changed antenna, fought the QRN, QRM, etc. While working many contest as a single operator and field day, it was amazing to see how much of a pileup you would get and you'd pick them off one by one. Some would move on, only to come back when the pileup was less, the weaker station were persistant which made it even more challenging (thanks to the QRP folks, it was fun digging you out of the noise floors)
0700 AM Time has flew by, everyone is exhausted but still excited for the results. It sure was alot of fun working with all of the other operators and gaining some experience and knowledge from the contesting days. Some were oldtimers at it, other like Rebecca and Myself were truely newbies to the contesting world in the multi/multi configuration.
A personal thanks for Stan-K5GO, Kevin-N5DX. Kevin thanks to your wife and daughter as well. This was truely a pleasurable and wonderful experience for me, and thanks Stan for the open invitation I surely will be participating and more contest to come. Sorry only CW here.
Les-K5LG, Dave & Wife- kG0US, Steve-K0OU, Chuck-KM5G and of course Art-KC2G all whom are all top-notch CW Operators and First Class Operators. Thanks for the Eyeballs.
Looking forward to the next one, 73 - Rob -- W8YRB
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