2014 COOKEN CONTEST ANIMALS: (updated 9/9/14)
JANUARY/FEBRUARY: CQWW 160m Contests
CW Contest: Fred and Bob ran 100w. at Brads FB QTH, and managed 500 QSOs in 24 hrs. But after a strong start, M. Nature snowed us out of Day 2.
SSB Contest: Brad, Steve, Fred, TIZ-Bob and HKK-Bob put in 32 hours and racked up 741 Q's, 61 mults, and nearly 98k points this year. However, the Forces of Nature were again brutal, with powerful levels of QRN the entire first night, including a blackout at around 10pm Fri, as well as reduced activity levels during the 2nd night due to solar eruptions and their after-effects.
MARCH: ARRLWW SSB DX Contest ( Mar 1-2): WW8OH completed 730 QSOs during excellent propagation on 10-80m, from Brad's QTH.
APRIL ARBOR DAY from Dawes: W8TNX had a great turnout and operated three stations fully solar powered, but encountered marginal conditions - both weatherwise ( chilly, windy, rainy in the morning, sunny and cool in the pm until our solar power batteries were drained; and on the bands ( 40-20-15-2m) due to an active sun/multiple flares on the days leading up to Arbor Day. QSO total were around 50. Better luck next year.
JUNE FIELD DAY at Four Church Farm: W8FD decided to go qrp for FD, using Brad and Kevins terrific KX3 5w Elecraft rigs. which performed admirably. They have great receivers which made scrambling for qsos as easy as possible. Total Q's= 325 on cw and ssb. Also, Alan and Mike put up a GOTA station using their buddy-pole antenna and mast.
AUGUST - JOHN CLEM DAY: W8TNX: Thanks to Jack-Easy Money and his connections, we again were permitted to set up on the porch of Webb House, this year deploying two rigs and two antennas. Mike-DZ brought his multiband vertical for 20-15-10m, which we set up in the front yard, and Ralph's donated 4BTV was the 40m antenna, delivered by Kevin who assisted with the set up in the usual place ( the back yard.) Jack-EM brought his trusty rig for the 40m station, and Bob-HKK brought his TS-50/tuner/power supply for the 20/15/10m station, and logging laptop. Conditions were fair on 40m, which again was the main band. 20/15/10m: power line QRM was severe on all three bands, a notorious side effect of using vertical antennas. No sigs were heard on 10m; one QSO was made on 20m, and the remaining 97 were made on 40m ssb. The notorious mid afternoon doldrums kicked in from 2:30 - 3:45pm, but contact rates really started to skyrocket on 40m as the 4pm "pull-the-plug time" approached. ( of course!)
The day's festivities began at 8am with station and antenna set up, with the first RF being radiated at 10am, the August club meeting interlude at noon, chaired by Russ - W8ATA, and we pulled the plug at 4pm. A good number of folks were on hand for set up and tear down which greatly facilitated/expedited those activities. Thank you to all who participated.
AUGUST - OHIO QSO PARTY: WW8OH did not participate in this years OHQP. Those who did found fair conditions on 80m, very good short skip conditions throughout Ohio on 40m, and good conditions to the USA on 20m.
SEPTEMBER - OSPOTA: WW8OH did not participate in this year's Ohio State Parks on the Air contest.
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2013: Year End Numbers: 9530 total QSOs - a new club record! 56% higher than in 2012!
Club on the air presence continues to climb dramatically, year over year. Thanks go out to the many who participated in one or more of our contest and special event activities. Special Thanks go to Brad, AC8GX for his yeoman work in station set up, contest operations, and his generosity in hosting/feeding/sharing his station with the gang during 2013.
ARRL Mixed-Mode 10M Contest at Brad's. SSB and CW modes: The results are in and Ol' Sol DID cooperate by producing the best conditions in over 10 years. The WW8OH team of Brad, Kevin, Fred and Bob knocked out 1047 QSOs/209 mults, and a final score of 566,390 pts., all club records for this event. Operations were at AC8GX's station: The SSB Station ran 800w to a SpiderBeam at 50'; and the CW Station ran 100w to a SpiderBeam at 50'.)
PA QSO Party at Brad's. This is a cw and ssb contest. This year WW8OH increased it's operating effectiveness, contacting 512 PA stations , and raising our PAQP score to a record 50,100 points, just 5% less than the #1 score in the World, outside PA. Our station consisted of two barefoot rigs ( one cw, one ssb), 100 watts output, to Brad's 70 ft high 160m loop and 40 ft high fritzel antennas. Thanks to all the visitors and operators/loggers who stopped by for some contesting camraderie.)
CQWW DX Contest (SSB) at Brad's. His new Spider Beam at 52 ft got a good workout on 20-15-10, and his 70 ft high 160M horizontal loop was used to bring home the bacon on 40/80/160m. RESULTS: 1058 total qsos and 1.295 million points scored by the team of Brad, Jack, Fred, Kevin and Bob. WW8OH enjoyed the BEST propagation in over 10 years as all the bands were open worldwide and filled to the brim with activity. One hint that cndx were good was the 78 qsos we had with Japan - the single largest number in any one country in the contest. Our 2013 scores were club records for any DX contest, and amazing to behold by those who were there.) ==================================================================== 2012: 6120 QSOs That's how many QSOs COOKEN club stations made during 2012 during our contest, FD and special event station activations.
WW8OH competed in nine different contests. We activated W8TNX - our Special Event station - for Arbor Day at Dawes Arboretum, and Johnny Clem Day at the LCHS in Newark. And, of course, W8FD, was on the air from Four Churches Farm, for ARRL Field Day!
WW8OH took home 1st Place in Ohio in the January 2012 CQWW160 meter CW Contest, in our first ever attempt on Top Band! . Club members erected a 40 ft inverted L with 22 x 65 ft radials on a cold December day, at The Barn, another of our operating locations, using it for both the CW and SSB 160 meter CQWW contests.
WW8OH brought home several 2nd Place finishes in events like OSPOTA, FD, the PA QSO Party, etc. In addition to having the #2 score in the world outside PA, we won the coveted Clean Sweep plaque for working all 67 PA counties!
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2018 ARRL FIELD DAY: W8FD @ Ellas Park:
With DZ-Mike at the helm, COOKEN made a return to contesting for the 2018 FD. It was a true group effort that put two stations on the air, operating from 80-10m as well as 6-2m. A new end fed wire for 80-10m plus a windom for the 2nd HF station, and an impressive 2m and 6m pair of yagis gave W8FD a solid presence on those bands. We managed to operate for over 16 hours of the 24 hour contest. As always, a few more operators would be welcome.
Thanks to everyone who were generous in providing antennas, gear, equipment, generators and food, as well as help in set up and tear down, and to Eldon for his massaging of multiple logs for submissiion to the ARRL. .
Hopefully, this spirit of adventure and activity can be carried forward to future events.
2014 COOKEN CONTEST ANIMALS:
CQWW 160m Contests ( Jan and Feb):
CW Contest: Fred and Bob ran 100w. at Brads FB QTH, and managed 500 QSOs in 24 hrs. But after a strong start, M. Nature snowed us out of Day 2.
SSB Contest: Brad, Steve, Fred, TIZ-Bob and HKK-Bob put in 32 hours and racked up 741 Q's, 61 mults, and nearly 98k points this year. However, the Forces of Nature were again brutal, with powerful levels of QRN the entire first night, including a blackout at around 10pm Fri, as well as reduced activity levels during the 2nd night due to solar eruptions and their after-effects.
2014 ARRLWW SSB DX Contest ( Mar 1-2):
Up next, this weekend, at Brad's.
2013 CQ WW VHF CONTEST produces a Record Score for WW8OH:
Brad and Bob operated this 27 hour ong contest from Brad's QTH, putting in c. 18 hours in as Multi-Op Low Power entry on 2M ssb/cw and 6M ssb/cw. Tom, W8TNI assisted on Sat night, and urged us on.
Propagation was - similar to the ARRL VHF Contest in early June - very spotty, with just two notable openings. Some say this is not unexpected during solar maximums like the current year.
Sat night the 6M band was fairly well populated by weak to fair signals from all over
0 and 7 land, requiring a diligent combination of search and pounce and single frequency CQing to produce a steady string of takers. At about the same time, a small opening into Europe produced two easy contacts with Portugal, and a couple of weak EA8's (heard but not worked) that barely rose above the noise here at WW8OH.
Then Sunday morning NP4A appeared and was nabbed by Brad at around 8:30am. A few sigs were in and out, until around 10:30 when a nice one hour opening into FL produced a steady stream of takers on 50.130, with peak rates of 48 per hour (on a 20 min sample) and 33 actual qsos during that one hour, before conditions dissipated.
The rest of the day was slow and we almost burned out the MFJ CQ Contest voice recorder, with just the occasional taker to show for our effort.
Meanwhile on 2M, we finished with 35 contacts, many via ducting, with the farthest being Milwaukee, WI, and Ontario, Canada. Indiana, IL, WI, NY, PA, MD produced the most contacts, outside of Ohio. Inside Ohio, Central Ohio and NE Ohio were best represented, as one might expect.
Summary: VHF skills are developing as only they can be, when you operate a band in contest mode and learn just what is possible, during good times and bad. Our 11 el 2M yagi at 55 ft produced better than expected! 2M is fascinating to listen to during a contest, with signals popping in and out, in spurts. (Brads newly acquired IC746 proved excellent for both ssb and cw. This is a very good HF+VHF rig. And the 6M 5 el M2 yagi at 51 ft is a nicely directional but not too narrow front lobe antenna that worked anyone we could copy.
We have the set up at Brad's to be competitive on VHF. Very early returns on 3830scores.com put us in 17th place in NA out of 80 submitted logs. Pretty good for two guys and a truck. Especially considering that propagation really favored the Pacific NW, FL and the East Coast this time around. Oh to live on the coast where VHF openings happen with far greater frequency than here in the midwest.
With the weak signal levels this year, and QSB that produced stations that were here one second and gone the next, we missed out on 30-40 contacts that could not be completed. Ah ....Life on VHF.
One of these days we will again see the multiple openings of 2010 and 2011, perhaps once the current solar peak has passed. Now with our quality set up, we are ready, willing, and able to give it a solid GO!
Lessons learned:
1. Use a voice keyer/memory keyer for routine CQing and save your voice for "runs."
2. Always have CW capabilities ready to go on the fly. We made numerous extra contacts including Portugal on cw mode, with other cw contacts on both 2M and 6M.
3. Headsets are almost necessary when both stations are in the same room. Brad had a supply of excellent headsets including Heil ( which really are terrific.)
4. Never forget to be ready for the "Final Putsch." It works.
5. Have a band plan. Anticipate openings and be around for them.
6. A good contester doesnt pull the VHF plug when the band is dead. S/he works thru it with various operating techniques.