Manchester Mineira All America CW Contest
Call: K7IA
Operator(s): K7IA
Station: K7IA
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 9:07
Summary:
Band QSOs Prefixes
----------------------
80:
40: 34 9
20: 73 24
15: 26 16
10:
----------------------
Total: 133 379 Total Score = 49
Club:
Comments:
Other than annual Field Day, I haven't operated as QRP in contests for about
five years. But responding to a recent whim to build a transceiver kit, I
ordered an Elecraft K2 with the DSP upgrade. The K2 took about 50 hours, and
the DSP another ten hours (including parts inventory, sorting, and placing into
labeled containers. Whew! A lot of parts, and they're considerably smaller
than those of Heathkit days!). For those interested, the K2 is built in
phases--each phase is finished with resistance checks, a smoke test, and some
alignment procedures. A careful builder, who isn't in a hurry, gets a periodic
reward! The K2 passed all of the tests and alignments, and, after some QRP
raghews to get familiar with the knobs, buttons, and menus, I built and
installed the DSP board. What a difference in noise reduction! It's easy to
see where the K3 came from...
Assembly was finished five days before this CW event, so with a little op time
behind me, I decided to road test the K2 in this contest. The 100 watt
amplifier upgrade remains unassembled, and it contains the RS232 port for
computer control and logging. I surely missed N1MM's bandmap display and synch
between rig and logger with band changes, etc.! But the CW function was
flawless, and with the low rates associated with QRP and low SFI, there was
plenty of time to correct bandswitching synch mistakes and mysterious callsigns
in the entry window (QSYing doesn't empty the entry window without a computer
connection!).
Saturday conditions on 20 and 15 weren't great, so I was limited to S&P,
selecting the strong stations. With no bandmap to display stations already
worked, the loud stations quickly became the ones I had already worked, so when
cruising the band yielded no new ones, I took time off to do house and garden
chores and to troubleshoot a TIVO that suddenly went west.
40m on Saturday night offered a surprise. I tried running and got several
strings of replies and unsustained rates in the 50's.
Overall, the stations I called fell into two groups--those who came right back
and those who never answered no matter how many times I called or whatever I
did with the XIT offset. In fact, the responses were so poor on Saturday
afternoon on 15 meters, that I dragged out the K2 manual and realigned the K2,
thinking that there must be a difference between my RX freq and my TX freq.
There was, but I was able to reduce the difference somewhat, and perhaps that
did a better job of keeping my Tx signal in the other op's passband.
Sunday's SFI was no better than Saturday's, but 20 and 15 seemed better. More
productive, anyway. I heard a few very weak signals on 10, and, always
optimistic, called them to no avail.
This event was a great shakedown cruise for a new radio. In addition to
building the power amp and RS232 port, there are some alignment issues that
I'll have to research with Elecraft. Besides a backup radio for the K3, the K2
will find service in the portable ops that I like to do--next event will be
Field Day as 1B Battery (QRP). Alignment issues, if there are any, had nothing
to do with the K2's receiver--sensitivity and selectivity are excellent and more
than enough for FD and QSO parties.
Thanks to all for the QSOs, and I'm hopeful that this year's event will
continue the trend of increased number of participants year by year. This will
be quite an event when all five continents are invited to participate!
Special thanks to those who added some commentary regarding my QRP signal.
That's a compliment to the guys at SteppIR! Best comment: "you're as loud as
the big boys" by K5ZZ/M. With that, you've gotta wonder why so many never
heard a copyable peep from me, but that's QRP for you!
Thanks to Grupo Juizforano de CW, who sent a lovely booklet with 2009 results,
2010 Rules, and invitations to join this event. It arrived by snail mail about
two weeks before this event--a nice reminder and an indicator of their interest
in making the MMAACW Contest a growing celebration of the CW mode. See you
next year!!
73,
Dan k7ia
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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