ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: WO1N
Operator(s): WO1N
Station: WO1N
Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 39
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 4 4
80: 313 64
40: 352 77
20: 557 76
15: 491 82
10: 13 9
-------------------
Total: 1730 312 Total Score = 1,619,280
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Station: FT1000D, C3-SS@38', DX-LB@55', 80M Vert. Bent Dipole, N1MM
Soapbox :
Wow! A new all time high from the WO1N station. I informed K0TV I
wouldn't be available long in advance and fended off all other
invites to join/form other mini-Multi's. My goals were to 1) avoid
the trip to the emergency room in the middle of the contest like
what happened during the 2009 edition 2) put 40 hours in the chair
and 3) 1500Q's in the log.
The emergency room avoidance was easy, though strangely enough my
wife and I managed to vist the same restaurant for lunch on Friday
that played in a part in last years ER fun. We had a good laugh
about that.
40 hours in the chair would be a new goal. I've done 33-35 hours
as a single op several times in the past, but I find myself at
Multi-ops in recent years, which are fun, but I often end the
contest with a feeling I wanted more operating time. Now, in
fairness, particularly when there is SSB involved, multi-op'ing
can be a great way to keep peace in the family and sanity in
the mind while still having fun.
Finally, on a morning run in the week prior I decided a Q goal
would be a good thing to go along with the chair time goal.
Without much analysis I set a goal of 1500Q's.
In some last minute pre-contest planning I dug up my previous
best effort write-up from the home station which was 1156Q's
in the 2004 edition of this test. While I spent a lot of time
this winter playing with ropes in trees, I only managed to match
my 2004 antenna complement. However the tree's have grown at least
5' in the past six years ;-). Seriously though, I replaced the
balun I had been using on the 80M vertical bent dipole this
year and that antenna has been playing better than it ever has.
I opened on 80M with a 73 hour, basically I swept up the band until
I found a hole and then did a bit of running. That was encouraging start!
Let's get the whole Murphy discussion out of the way. All season long the
station has been playing fine. I start the contest only to find what
sounds
like RF feedback on my sidetone in my headphones. It didn't sound like it
was on my transmitted signal. I wiggled and repositioned some wires here
and there, tried two other sets of headphones, but decided to live with
it. About 36 hours into the contest it suddenly cleared up. I was calling
CQ and it just went away about half way through a CQ sequence. I'm sure
it will be back but I was happy was gone for the remainder of the contest.
Next in his bag-o-tricks was while CQing on 40M he decided to set off the
house powered carbon monoxide detector causing my wife to jump up from
snoozing on the coach with a very pissed off look on her face. After
deciding it really wasn't CO poisoning us, I moved it to another outlet
and all was fine.
Old Mister Murphy wasn't done yet. At 7:01 Sunday morning local the power
company decided it was time to throw some switches somewhere and I lost
power just long enough, let's say 1 second, to 1) Sound like I was
receiving about 13.8KV through my headphones and 2) cause the logging
computer to shutdown throwing me into what seemed like total
darkness. It scared the piss out of me! Fortunately everything came
back cleanly.
OK enough with Murphy. Now I need to document some body energy tips
for myself for the next one. I've decided that avoiding meals is the
way to go. Both mornings I could not surpress the urge to have something
for breakfast to supplement the peanuts and raisins that seemed to be
doing fine. Saturday was a bowl of Granola cereal (probably loaded with
sugar) and Sunday was a simple fried egg on wheat toast. Both meals
resulted in an energy crash about 45 minutes later during prime
run times. As Nancy Reagan used to say "Just say No!". I'm certainly
not going to waste away without a meal or two (OK, even six). Peanuts
probably weren't the best snack I could have used but the raisins were
great.
As a heavy coffee drinker I made a mistake of not drinking coffee during
Saturday. That resulted in a persistent caffine withdrawal headache that
I really could not shake even after firing up some extra stength fresh
ground Sumatra. Just drink coffee, at least in the morning, as you
normally do.
Back to the contest. The second day offered up the best hours. I went
straight to 15M Sunday morning as it was wide open at our sunrise. While
15M day one offered a 98 hour during 1600Z, day two offered a 101 during
1300Z. 20M day one my best hour was 91 during 1900Z, day two I had a 100
followed by a 110 during 1700Z through 1900Z. 40M was my weakest band.
My best hour was a 51 during 2200Z on the second day.
At contest end I started to fall into the pig-pile traps on 15 and 20
trying to snag a mult or two. These can be a huge waste of time with a
low power/low antenna station. So, I went to 80 to close out and was
rewarded with 3 mults.
The mini-packet pile-ups were awesome all weekend. Sometimes I handled
them
better than others but good fun none-the-less. IS0IGV, if you are reading
this, my apologies for that whole 20M thing. Let's just not talk
about it, OK?
Conditions like this past weekend are what keep us coming back. 21 years
of operating and I've worked only 3 JA's on 40 from the home station. I
worked 5 more this contest alone. TX4T on 4 bands. I found a 30 second
opening on 10M and snagged a ZL.
In summary, I smashed the Q goal, that was easy. I still have some
work with energy management/chair time. My off time notes show I
only managed 39 hours. Something to improve on in the next one.
Staton improvements needed include: An antenna for 160. That would
have been useful. Solving a huge noise problem that affects all of
80M with peaks every 50KHz (switcher switcher come out where ever
you are). And, finally, some sort of gain antenna towards Europe
on 40.
It will be great when 10 is back, but really do we care if the
rest of the bands are as good as they were this weekend?
CU in the next one,
Ken
WO1N
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