ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: N1UR
Operator(s): N1UR
Station: N1UR
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 42
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 27 22
80: 140 53
40: 159 62
20: 629 90
15: 211 73
10: 28 7
-------------------
Total: 1194 307 Total Score = 1,100,700
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
For anyone who read my ARRL DX CW post, you know that I had a major problem on
15M that initiated a -15F Wind chill tower climb mid contest. Well, I fixed
the bad 15M feed line last week in a much more sane 25F with calm winds tower
climb. 15M worked great all weekend so the feedline to the stackmatch was
definitely the problem. I felt good going into the contest and decided that my
goal would be to match last years score of 1.25 Million in even less conditions.
I even got in a 45 min nap before the start...love it when that happens.
The contest started with S & Ping on 40 and 80 at a pretty decent clip, ended up
the first hour with 47 Qs all on 40/80. Then I realized my contest was not
going to be my NORMAL contest. I tried to turn the beams south to work some
loud 20M SA stations, normally this is a fast S & P at 60+ rate. The rotor is
dead as a doornail. THANK GOD it is pointed at EU, but it is dead. I am hoping
it is just frozen but temp is at 10F outside and the rotor has been working
reliably down to -10F this winter so I am doubting that... it never did work
all weekend. That is a HUGE problem for me on 20 and 40. My only other
antennas on 20/40 is a 2 band vertical dipole that I typically use for a quick Q
to a loud Carib station when the beam is to EU or JA on 20 and 40. I routinely
use the beams on top to the south. And obviously they are all I have to the
west and Asia.
I do have fixed small beams to the south on 15 and 10 (2 el wire yagiis at 40
ft) so at least I wasn't too handicapped there (no 3 el at 80 feet to swing
around). As I look back at the contest, the problem would have been fatal on
any other contest except ARRL DX (where we typically have 90% EU from here).
I decided as I realized Saturday morning the rotor was NOT coming back for this
one and to just make the best of it and really enjoy those EU runs because it
was just luck that is where it died.
The rest of Friday night was typical 40/80/160 S & P. Decided to try running 80
at 05Z and got a decent run going that put 40Qs in the log from 05 - 0620Z. As
all LP ops know a 40Q run on 80 is a rare treat especially when using a dipole
at 60 feet. Then it was off to 40 to try running. 40 SSB is the worst, as we
all know, but I did get a little run going putting about 20 run Qs in the log
from 0630 - 0730 while S & Ping 80 and 160. The rotor problem really killed me
in the middle of the night on 40M and I was betting that there would be no 0930Z
20M opening to EU so I decided to do an uncharacteristic 3 hour sleep the first
night. The frustration of the rotor was becoming tiring and I decided that a
"clear head" had value at this point. I had 195Qs in the log as I went to sleep
and had already equaled my 160 and 80 Qs count from 2005 for the whole contest
so that part felt good (EU run did that!).
20M was slow to open and didn't really get going until just after 11Z so I knew
that I didn't miss anything there. Felt very handicapped with 40M although was
working a few stations off of the back (no big deal for you 1.5 KW guys but a
big deal with LP). When you are trying to work LU on 40M with no one else on
his freq and you hear "the station ending with RADIO" and have to spend 2 mins
working him when you know that the 40M beam at 80 feet would be a 1 call and
move on...its frustrating....
GREAT 20M run at the start...had a 100 hour from 1145Z - 1245Z on 20M (never
felt so good knowing that the rotor was stuck...hi,hi). That was really the
running highlight of the contest. 20M got more and more of a slugfest as time
went on. 15M second radio was harder than normal because the digging through
the QRM on 20M was on overload to hear people and made second radio listening
very hard. But I did pick off 15M Qs and when I finally got kicked off my run
freq on 20M switched to running 15 and S & Ping 20M. The run rate was slow on
15M with about 50% of the callers from Italy and 9A. When I succeeded in
combing the entire 20M band over a 90 min period while running 15 (20M was at 2x
the 15 M "run" rate), I decided it was time to just S & P 15M. I was actually
surprised that it was as thin as it was.
Spent the rest of the afternoon back and forth with this stuff and getting
really bruised up on 20M. Busted the 15M S9SS pile-up with only the EU antenna
which was nice. 20M around 18 - 21 Z was a nice time on 20M from here. In
addition to some EU runs, had KL7, JA, UA9 call me with decent sigs (again beam
to EU).
10M had 3 Qs on the first day (LU and CX). Sat night saw A LOT of frustration
again on 20/40 to SA for me. 80M made up for it as I again had a "decent" run
on 80 of another 20Qs and a mini run on 40M of about 20Qs. The rest was 160 -
40 S & P. 160 to EU didn't seem good at all this weekend. Had some Qs but not
a lot and some notable guys were not that loud. Did the 3 hour sleep again
because that worked well the night before and the frustration on the rotor was
peaking at 07Z.
Sunday morning never did get any decent run going on 20M compared to the day
before. A lot more of a slugfest Sunday morning but took my advice of last
year's bust and said to keep moving and keep trying new CQ freqs. I was able to
post a 60 hour from 12 - 13Z and was happy with that. S & Ping was starting to
yield just 10 - 15 Qs with an entire band sweep so I knew that slower CQing
wasn't so terrible. Same deal Sunday with 15M. Tried some CQing with very
limited success while S & Ping 20M. Probably had 50 - 60 15M "run" Qs all
weekend. When you are pumping RF with an 8 el Monbander on 15 and the freq is
clear as verifyed by stations answering and getting that many "run" Qs, you know
that conditions are down, especially for us LP guys.
Sunday was highlighted with 5 more JAs calling me between 19 - 20Z while CQing
on 20 (a new high for me while running on 20M). Lots of 20M frustration at the
end with no ability to "break a pile-up in SA or Carib". I figure that just on
20/40 alone the rotor cost me at least 70 Qs and 15 Mults on people I gave up on
and much, much slower rate.
Despite the rotor issue (still to be determined), I enjoyed the contest. Found
greater appreciation for "running EU" knowing it was stuck. Missed my goal but
know that it WAS achievable...
73
Ed N1UR
now to diagnose the rotor.....thankfully weather will be getting warmer soon.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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