This time CN8WW was a multi-OP operation. Ben, DL6FBL, was accompagnied by Mark (DL1MFL) and Hajo (DJ9MH). Together with our local friends Said (CN8LI), Mohammed (CN8NK), Younes (CN8OO) and Omar (CN8OR) we operated the 1999 CQ WPX SSB contest in the Multi/Multi category. Although we had only three station setups available at the same time, we managed to pile up a score of 56 million points, which was well over the old Multi/Multi World Record of 47 million points.

 
Left: Setup #1: 40m first night, 80m second night, all 15m (operated by DL6FBL, CN8LI, CN8NK);
Right: Setup #2: all 20m (operated by DJ9MH, CN8OO, CN8OR)

 
Left: Setup #3: 80m first night, 40m second night, all 10m (operated by DL1MFL);
Right: Our operating site, a "villa" in a small resort village, some 20 kilometers south of Rabat, directly on the coastline.

 
Left: The three beams on the mobile tower (two Cushcraft 10-4CD 4-ele monobanders for 10m, one fixed to the U.S.A. and one fixed to Europe; on the top a Tennadyne LP-6 LogPeriodic (in the contest used on 20m, before/after also for 17 and 12m WARC bands) were mounted and dismounted this way. It looks a bit funny, and one had to think a little to attach coax lines and guying wires for the diverse layers in the correct way... But is was fun to stand on the controls, throw a few switches and watch the tower going up to its 30 meters...
Right: There you can see the mobile tower at its full 30 meters with the three beams.

 
Left: The 4-ele Cushcraft for 21MHz (15-4CD) in the "impressive" height of 9 meters close to the house. On the right side is our "Sierra-antenna", a 26.7m long Titanex V160E vertical antenna. We did never care to get it standing straight, so we called it the "Sierra-antenna" because of its "S" shape...
Right: Our attractive 7MHz antenna (11m long fiberglass fishing rod, empty plastic water bottle as insulator, vertical piece of wire, some twenty radials, line of coax, two electric connectors and some tape...). Attractive also, because before the last night, someone else found the radials extremely useful for something else and decided to cut them off and run away with them... Radials: R.I.P.

Click here to see a panoramic view of our antenna beach.

            CQ WORLD WIDE PREFIX CONTEST -- 1999

      Call: CN8WW                    Country:  Morocco
      Mode: SSB                      Category: Multi Multi

      BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/Q PREFIXES
     --------------------------------------
      160        0        0   0.00
       80     1015     6064   5.97
       40     1215     7250   5.97
       20     3075     9186   2.99
       15     3398    10177   2.99
       10     3101     9257   2.99
     --------------------------------------
      All    11804    41934   3.55     1344  =  56,359,296

      Operator List: CN8LI,CN8NK,CN8OO,CN8OR,DJ9MH,DL1MFL,DL6FBL
      Club Affiliation: Bavarian Contest Club (BCC)

Three networked computers with K1EA CT v9.23. Some little switch boxes and interfaces...

Personal Goals:
This time there was no real goal. We simply wanted to have fun. At home I had looked upon the existing world record of 47 million points. I had calculated that if everything went fine, we could have a realistic score of 59 million points, but we never really set the goal to break the old world record. Well - in the final our actual score of 56 million points tells me, that I was not too wrong with my calculations ... *smile*

Some landmarks:
Sat. 0000z: CQ contest, CQ contest, CQ contest [three at the same time]
Sat. 0026z: After 111 QSOs on 40m the amp broke. Try to repair it for half an hour, some QSOs barefoot in between, but no way. Rest of the night and all 15m the first day with 200W barefoot from the IC-775DSP...
Sat. 2145z: CN8LI brings his veteran Collins 30L1. This amp gives us 500W instead of 200W - wow!!! Going QSY to 80m. I am surprised that 500 Watts can hold a frequency in the DX edge (3,790 - 3,799 kHz) for many hours without being driven away by the big alligators...
Sun. 1354z: Our score is 45 million points. Still 2 million to go to break the old world record. But the neighbourhood is tired of our operation, electricity is switched off in the whole town. [our interpretation ;-) ] After waiting a few minutes, but nothing happening, we decide to activate the 4.5 kVA generator coming with our mobile tower. A new power cord is run and...
Sun. 1423z: CN8WW is back on the air again (DL1MFL at 10m first).
Sun. 1428z: CN8WW is back on 15m also (DL6FBL). 20m stays off the air, DJ9MH is sleeping while sitting on a chair in the garden.
Sun. 1531z: The neighbourhood realizes that they cannot stop us this way, electricity is switched on again [our interpretation ;-) ]... CN8WW is back on the air with all three stations again.
Sun. 1700z: We have broken the old world record. And still another seven hours to go...
Sun. 2359z: The end. 56 million points. Hopefully the new world record. Let's see how the other teams do...

DL6FBL, 28/02/00
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