Zero-Five - all good things must come to an end

The Zero-Five streak is history!

What the devil am I talking about? I'm talking about the run of 68 consecutive perfect ratings of "5" reviews at eham.net for their 43' multiband vertical antenna. Review #69 was the review to change the course of history...it was a 3 out of 5. A three! Not even a 4, a darned 3! No more 5.

Well, in case you're really intrigued now, it appears that the bottom has fallen out completely...two reviews later, someone gave it a two! 2 out of 5! So not only is the streak dead, but the naysayers are coming out of the woodwork. Someone must've had sour grapes.

Those of you who follow my blog know that I use three different antennas on HF, a Zero-Five multiband vertical (43 feet), a WI4USA-manufactured hex beam (G3TXQ design), and a good ol' G5RV.

The Zero-Five was my primary antenna for all bands before I installed the hex beam. I only switch to the G5RV for those times where the noise level is so high that the signals on the vertical and the hex are nearly obliterated. Often the wire antenna often seems to help. Not always. When I was shopping for a replacement to my Hustler 4BTV, I took a long hard look at the Zero-Five before plunking down the rather sizeable chunk of cash it costs. In fact, one of the very things that made me the most uneasy was the 60-something absolutely perfect "5" reviews at eham.net. Seemed too good to be true. Like maybe the deck was being stacked, or a couple of ringers thrown in? But 60 ringers? In the end, unless you're writing all of those yourself, that's a lot of people to pursuade. There had to be some truth to it. And a little deception too.

I mentioned that to the builder/designer, Tom, N9ZV, and he said he understood my apprehension. He didn't really give me a reason why it was the case, but in the end I felt pretty at ease with his approach and I bought it.

Let me say this. On 20 and above, the hex is almost always a better antenna. Sometimes a far better antenna. At times there's really no comparison. There are times where I can hear and easily copy a station on the hex that I cannot hear AT ALL on the vertical. But this doesn't really surprise me. After spending the dough for the hex, I'm happy that's the case, in fact. My vertical is mounted in the clear with roughly 60-70 random length radials. I don't buy into the notion that you need to cut the radials a certain length. Most of mine are at least 35 feet or more. Some have been shortened by an errant lawn mower :) I feed it with LMR400, to minimize my losses. Does it really make that much difference? I don't know, but it makes me feel good.

Anyway, on 30 and 40 meters, the thing is absolutely killer. Those comments about being able to bust pileups with 100 watts - yeah, you can believe 'em. It's true. If I can hear 'em, it doesn't take very long. And I'm not kidding either. On 80, it drops off significantly and on 160, it isn't worth much at all.

So, for me, there's two questions. One, do I feel that I got my money's worth to be incredibly effective on TWO bands (40 and 30), so-so on another two (20 and 17), and lousy on four (10, 15, 80, and 160)? Well, since I'm going to use the hex on 20-10 almost always, and I don't hang out on 80 or 160 unless there's a contest going on...gosh, I don't know. 30 and 40 meters are pretty important to me and I LOVE being effective on those bands, soooooooo, I'm leaning towards saying, "yeah" - I think I got my money's worth. And once the sunspots start pouring in (heh-heh), I may even feel different about 15 and 10.

The second question, would I give it a 5 in an eham review? Well...no. I'd give it a 4. Actually, I'd give it a 4.5, but since that's not a possibility, I'd have to say "4".

I'm just glad I wasn't the first one to post and break the streak!

On a sidenote, in the past couple of days, I've noticed that the website for WI4USA no longer exists - there's a page that says "Coming Soon". I'm not sure what's up with that, maybe Thom has changed hosting companies or experienced trouble or maybe he's redoing his webpage?

Random thoughts

I have read several blog entries and reflector postings recently about "Xtreme" contesting. You can read more about it here: http://cqww.com/CQ_WW_Xtreme_Rules.pdf. There's a lot of good discussion about this on the CQ Contesting reflector. Along with this are several ongoing discussions about modifying or adding categories to various contests to award or recognize operators who are unable to compete the entire contest. For instance, an op might take his best hour or his best 6 hours and enter his results in a special category. Also, many suggestions have been made to increase the awards for low power entries. Seems that there's a push to encourage semi-serious contestors, who, undeniably, play a large role in helping Big Gun stations achieve their totals.

Being more of a purist, I'm kind of wishy-washy on what I've read regarding Xtreme contesting. But I recognize that if we, collectively, are going to advance ham radio through available and new technology we're going to have to try new things. Doesn't mean all of them will work out, but why not try? As many have pointed out, things that seemed outlandish just a few years ago are perfectly acceptable and considered 'standard' nowadays. Plus, it's not going to change how I participate. At least not right now.

I have stronger feelings about increasing the number of awards and creating special categories for competitors who can't go the full distance in a contest.

When I participate in a contest, I know beforehand that I stand a snowball's chance in hell of winning or receiving an award. There's no way. I'm not good enough. But does that stop me? Heck no. I still have fun. Would I love to be recognized for some accomplishment? Sure, who doesn't enjoy some recognition? But I don't want to be recognized for something "less than" what the contest is supposed to be about. And I don't want a special category created so that I might stand a better chance. It's like not keeping score in a kid's soccer game. What's the first thing out of the kid's mouth? "Who won?" And tell me this, does the answer, "You're all winners", ever work? Not a chance. Tell that to a kid who tried their hardest. Even 5 year olds want to know, who won?

The other night I went to my daughter's band concert. Afterwards, every kid got an award. Every kid. I suppose that creates a 'feel-good' moment (and a photo op for the parents) but afterwards, while driving a van load of kids home all I heard was how unfair it was that EVERY kid got an award, especially those who didn't try hard or contribute. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned?

Now, of course, no one is talking about everyone getting an award or a 'thanks for participating' plaque from ham radio contests. So I've taken this to an extreme. And I'm not saying that the present categories are perfect, but if something prevents you from operating the full time of the contest, then so be it. Better luck next time. If you go all out for an hour and rack up some incredible amount of contacts, is that worthy of an award if you shut it down after an hour while everyone else puts in 12 hours or the full amount? Now that may seem harsh and, yes, it means that us low power semi-contesters won't be getting any awards, but I'm ok with that. I know some may feel strongly the other way and I respect that.

Interesting stuff.

Search and Pounce update

Back in the middle of April I wrote an entry about how effective Search and Pounce really is for a low power (little pistol) part-time contest station. What kind of scores are really possible with that kind of setup and approach? I had some good responses and comments and I thought I'd revisit that briefly, since there was a similar thread not long ago on the CQ-Contest reflector.

In CQ WPX CW I managed just over 500 QSO's - all S&P. That's NOT 24 hours of operating, probably closer to 12 actual operating hours, with several breaks and such. I have no idea what my rates were (I need to look), but that averages out to just over 40 QSO's per hour. Certainly nothing to set the world on fire, but considering that the bulk of those QSO's took place in the first 6 or 7 hours, along with a rush at the end, I probably had a few hours of decent rates.

Again, if I could ever manage to work an entire contest, then my figures might be more valid or comparable.

And I should add, I don't think I busted very many callsigns, but I KNOW that I busted some numbers. So that total will come down. For sake of comparison, some of the claimed numbers by an assortment of world-class contest operators ranged from a low of 90 to a high of 240. So, let's think about that for a minute. At their 'worst', provided their numbers are accurate, they're doubling what I'm doing. At their best, their rates are 7 to 8 times what I'm doing! Add to that the fact that many are probably using another radio to run, and it becomes even more impressive.

Talk about humbling. But I have to keep it in perspective. I'm not much of a contest op. I'm getting better, but until I join a club or decide to really get serious about it, I'm going to make marginal improvements. I haven't decided what to do yet. Also, when those fellows are talking about rates above 100, well above 100, then they're also talking about using the legal limit with antenna arrays that would make me drool. Not all, but most. I wonder what they would do with 100 watts and a vertical? Run circles around me still, I'm sure :)

CQ WPX CW

I did a bit of operating over the weekend in the CQ WPX CW contest. I enjoy this contest because everyone is fair game and since my station is far more suited to CW, I have more fun. I was especially pleased with the conditions, 20 meters was exceptionally good late into the evening and even both afternoons, I thought. Since Friday was my wife's birthday, I only managed about 50 QSO's in between dinner, cake, and all the hoopla. Between Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon I set a goal of 500 QSO's and barely made it. I was thinking that I'd operated in this contest last year but apparently not. They tend to run together.

The hex did outstanding on 20, I was quite pleased with the low noise level both days and I even managed some contacts on 15 and a handful on 10. 40 was also pretty good Saturday night but a bit noisier than I'd hoped. I didn't stay on too late Saturday, though, so it might've improved some after I signed off?

For the first time since early in the year I was able to work some JA's and even nabbed a station in Mongolia that I've heard many times and never managed to work before. Didn't hear anything else from Asia though. Worked a few ZL's. Most of the DX I worked on 20 and 40 was from Europe and Africa, and South America to a lesser extent.

Lot's of fun.

I went to the Durham hamfest a couple of weekends ago, DurHAMfest. Spoke to some nice people but the turnout and the offerings on Saturday morning were kind of sparse. It's really tough to be critical of ANY hamfest, I realize the effort to coordinate and organize is monumental and people are mostly volunteering their time to help out. But there was only a couple of regional vendors were set up inside, ones that you see at every area hamfest, and about 7 or 8 other tables with folks selling stuff. The outdoor offerings were not very large either, I wonder if the Memorial Day weekend cut into attendance? Or perhaps most of the area hams prefer to go to the Raleigh hamfest? I bought a book and some odds and ends.

But, like I said, being able to go to any hamfest is better than not being able to go to one at all :)