Station: BI1TMQ
Antenna: BG7XWF 2-2-3 Yagi antenna, 40m inverted V, 10m telescoping GP
Radio: FT-857
Group: SOAB-LP-Rookie
(This was my first time participating in a field day, and I didn't have all the necessary equipment. I want to thank several other stations for their support, including BI1MCZ who recommended the location, BI1NIZ for providing the mast, BG7XWF for providing the GP, BD1KV for providing the radio, and BI3ARY for providing the headset stand, as well as my family and other friends for their strong support.)
The chosen location for the competition was a campsite on a hilltop in Pinggu District, Beijing. Since it's about 100 km from my home, I packed up all the equipment a week before the competition and arranged time off from school. On Thursday of the competition week, I made arrangements to pick up the supplies. After school on Friday, I immediately drove home. Once all the equipment was loaded into the car, I set off for the campsite around 2 PM. After arriving at the campsite around 4:30 PM, I quickly started setting everything up. Because it's a steep, winding road, I had to make sure my family arrived before sunset to help me.
Based on the propagation conditions observed in the days leading up to the competition, I expected relatively good communication during the event itself. Therefore, my initial goal was to break the BY Rookie Group record. The antenna is a 20/15/10-band Yagi-Uda antenna, constructed by BG7XWF, with a 9m support pole and two layers of guy wires (3 per layer) for stabilization. In addition, a 40-meter band inverted V antenna, oriented north-south, was mounted at the top of the support pole. I had also planned to install a 10.68m GP antenna provided by BG7XWF, which had been tested in a park near my home. However, when attempting to mount it on the summit, I found that the space was too limited, and its proximity to the support pole and tent would cause abnormal standing wave ratios and potentially disconnect the computer. Therefore, I decided not to install it.
On Saturday morning, around 6:00 AM, I noticed that a US station was operating on 15 meters from CQ. I decided to start by working North America, and after an hour, I switched the antenna direction to focus on domestic and Southeast Asian stations, while also trying to contact VK. Later, I shifted my attention eastward to work JA. Since I could operate for up to 36 hours alone, I scheduled a 2-hour break at midday. In the afternoon, I started working Europe around 2:00 PM, and soon the 15 meters band was very busy. I quickly made contact with many stations, and street scanning was almost always successful. However, setting up a station proved difficult, as only a few European stations responded to my calls for 30 minutes, likely due to low power output or strong local interference in Europe. I continued street scanning, but the 10 meters band remained largely unused. In the evening, with weather forecasts predicting rain overnight, I covered my tent and any items outside it with tarpaulins. From then on, until around 1:00 AM, I worked both the 20 meters and 40 meters bands, making contact with European stations on 20 meters and doing some domestic and neighboring country QSOs on 40 meters. I eventually went to sleep early.
(Image source: BG7XWF, taken during the competition on a Sunday afternoon in Beijing)
I slept for 5 hours, leaving myself ample time to rest the following day. I continued operating from 6:00 AM on Sunday, but propagation in North America was even worse than the previous day. There was no other choice but to continue working with JA and Southeast Asia. Following the same schedule as the previous day, I took a two-hour break at noon, and European activity on the 15m band opened as expected. I then started calling CQ, and one of the European stations quickly responded. After about five minutes, the entire operation was set up perfectly for the first time. However, things were not going smoothly. Just as I had established a stable contact, the tent began to sway. Without warning, a strong gust of wind with speeds around 10 knots blew in from the mountaintop. I couldn't continue calling CQ, so I put on my socks and went with my family to secure the support pole and reinforce the guy ropes. However, a sudden blast of wind ripped the anchor in that direction along with a chunk of earth, almost tipping over the support pole. There was no other choice but to slowly lower the support pole during the gusts, but I found that several sections were already slightly bent, making it difficult to retract them. The wind continued for about an hour, and my family and I worked tirelessly for another hour, re-securing the Yagi antenna on the ground. When we tried to call CQ again, we found that the standing wave was too high, so we had to use our handheld transceiver to bring it down. However, calling European stations proved difficult. In the end, we missed out on the best 2-3 hours of calling CQ in Europe, and we were forced to sweep for large European stations. We still needed another 100 minutes of rest, so I decided to take a break first.
In the evening, although there was a slight breeze at the top of the mountain, I still thought about trying to get even better results, raising the support pole again to around 7 meters, and switching between 15m/20m as much as possible to call European stations. Before 3:00 AM, the signal on 40m was relatively weak, so I used both 20m and 40m simultaneously, but the results were not good. It felt similar to last year's WAE competition, when the 40m European signals gradually increased after 3:00 AM, so I switched to 40m for calling. However, at that moment, the wind at the top of the mountain became stronger and it started to rain, so I had to put on a raincoat and manually lower the Yagi antenna again. Once I lowered it, the 40m inverted V antenna attached to the top of the support pole could no longer be used. By around 5:00 PM, I turned the Yagi antenna back towards North America, hoping to pick up some more coefficients, but the strong signals were mostly heard on the first and second mornings, so I only had time to scan for Japanese and Southeast Asian coefficients. This is how the competition ended. Unfortunately, my Raw Score did not exceed the record.
After the race, I quickly tidied up and felt exhausted and cold. As expected, the high altitude combined with wind and rain caused a fever. After briefly reviewing the logs and discussing compensation for the damaged support pole, I headed back down the mountain to rest at home.
This competition was my first time participating in a full CQ WPX SSB contest as a single-operator, and while I didn't achieve my initial goals, it was definitely a valuable experience. I also gained insights into the limitations of my own operating skills and the lack of experience with using a single station. However, I still have another opportunity to participate in the CQ WPX SSB Rookie group next year, and I hope to continue improving. DE BI1TMQ VY 73!
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