The icing on the cake after years of strategizing and searching for the best solution to achieve DXCC on all bands from 6 meters through 160 meters.
Also the last certificate for a long time, as the cost of American awards is starting to get out of hand.
A 10-Band DXCC once seemed unattainable, but by focusing on one band at a time, using the right antennas, and investing enough time and perseverance, it was ultimately achieved.
The 100 days are over!
Thirty years as a radio amateur do provide some insights.
And this is my final conclusion about this hobby:
What good is a shack if there’s no transceiver in it?
But what good is a good transceiver if there’s no perfect antenna available?
And what good is that setup if there’s no other station or no propagation?
But the very worst is having a good transceiver, perfect antennas, and far-away expeditions or propagation… but not being there yourself.
The most important element in the amateur radio hobby is T I M E — free time - being able to be there at the moment you need to be, day and night.
Starting today, my greatest investment ever begins to pay off.
I have closed the door to the capitalist world behind me, sold the most important part of my business, and with a part of that money I bought time — a lot of time.
Enough time to bridge the period until retirement.
Enough time to hopefully be present for at least two more solar cycles and to achieve all the goals I have set for myself.
The new OT1A story starts now…
After I had sworn last year never to compete again in the non-assisted category of the CQWW contest — due to the excessive FOMOM (fear of missing out multipliers) stress — I decided this year to participate in the low-power category, albeit assisted.
This, too, is a challenge.
You instantly know where the multipliers are, and you can usually hear them fairly well, but actually working them is another matter. You constantly end up in pile-ups with high-power stations, while the clock keeps ticking and running isn’t an option.
Operating with 100W, however, gives a much better sense of the antenna’s performance. That was my main concern this year: to answer the question — does a 5-element Yagi really make a difference compared to a standard 3-element Yagi?
In other words, can I build my station around a 3-element multiband antenna — such as an Ultrabeam VL2.3 — or should I (also) invest in several monoband Yagis?
The answer is clear: the antenna definitely makes a difference. I received numerous superior signal reports. With these excellent propagation conditions, 100W was enough to work the entire world on 10m. Sure, 1500W would have improved efficiency, but that’s about it. And this time no QRM complaints from neighbours.
For the future, it’s clear that in addition to the 5-element on 10m and the 2-element on 40m, I should add a 5-element (Momobeam?) for 15m and a 4-element (DXBeam?) for 20m.
Compared to last year, there were two major improvements: the entire contest was recorded, and the voice keyer was properly configured this time, resulting in excellent modulation.
That I had to run above 29 MHz is just a detail. It probably cost me quite a few QSOs (and a bit of ego), but the upper part of the band is much quieter — which should have had a positive impact on my error rate.
>1000 QSO with 132 countries and 38 zones as a fantastic multiplier result. I only missed ZD7, and zone 1 was so briefly open that I didn’t make it either. I also noticed that very few stations, even in the HP category, worked more than 38 zones. The icing on the cake was KH6 as my final QSO — worth two multipliers.
The ON record in SO(A)LP 10M will surely have been broken — propagation conditions were truly exceptional.
Onward to CW, as SO(A)HP 10M…
I’m active again on 160m.
The inverted-L antenna I used before could be reinstalled without any issues, and the old measurements are perfectly reproducible.
At the moment, I’m only using 9 radials, each 1/8 wavelength long, which I hope will to be buried in the ground during wintertime. In a few weeks, additional temporary radials will be added.
The SWR is OK within my operating (CW and FT8) range of the antenna and is 1:1 with the help of the TunerGenius.
Over the past few evenings, 230 contacts have been logged, including 3 new countries (CU, OD, and T7), bringing my total number of unconfirmed entities to 99. Since I never received confirmation from JT1CO a few years ago, I hope to reach 98 confirmed DXCCs within a few weeks — just 2 more to go for 10-band DXCC.
The other day I picked up a single signal from ZS1J, unfortunately too brief to make a QSO, and yesterday I was heard in ZD9 and in Antarctica by DP0POL, but no one was active there at the time.
The most important thing is that the antenna clearly has potential. One of these days, the BOG will be connected so I can improve my receive performance.
The Final Countdown starts today.
Exactly 100 days left until the biggest change in my radio career, with more impact than any transceiver, amplifier, or antenna.
