ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: K8BL
Operator(s): K8BL
Station: K8BL
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: OH
Operating Time (hrs): 17.9
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1001 Sections = 77 Countries = 24 Total Score = 204,020
Club: North Coast Contesters
Comments:
Propagation seemed to be quite good. QRN was a problem at times from snow
static and occasional static crashes. There was tons of activity and it always
amazes me how many stations can fit into 100 KHz along with a handful of
stubborn SSB blabbers!!
The only Sections I never worked/heard were PR and NT. I would have been
very surprised to work NT, but I'm sure PR wouldn't have been a problem IF
there was a station there during the Contest.
The Section count should say 78, but I don't know why CTWin didn't credit
me with VI/KP2 when I worked KV4FZ. He said VI and CT showed KP2, but the
score didn't increment as a Section. I tried to enter KP2 as his exchange,
but that didn't fix it and I couldn't change the "New Section" entry on the
screen to enter VI there. Must be a glitch in the CT database where it chooses
Country versus Section.
Friday night, I put in 9 hours plus 1 hour break and hit the sack at 3AM. I
was very happy with 571 Q's, 16 Countries, 70 Sections & 12 Dupes for a score
of 102598 and only stopped when I couldn't find any new stations to work. On
Saturday night, I put in almost another 9 hours with a few more breaks and
packed it in at 4AM when the Q rate was almost zilch. I wanted to hit 1000 Q's
and I finally did when you include the 30 overall Dupes which resulted in 971
actual QSO's!!
Radio and antenna and computer and software all worked quite well with some
minor exceptions. This was the first time I used CTWin after swapping out my
old crashed DOS machine for a new (refurbed) XP computer. Had to build a new
keying circuit to work off the LPT Port and play around to make the display
fill the whole screen, but all that came out A-OK.
However, after trying for about 10 minutes to break the pileup on ZF2AH he
finally came back to me. But when I hit the command to send the Exchange back,
nothing happened!! The Computer Keyboard was dead!! I sent the Exchange by
hand to make the Q, but I couldn't enter it! I jotted down the info to enter
later and tried to figure out what went wrong. No lights on the keyboard and
none of the keys would work.
Over the many years of contesting, I've had virtually everything fail during
a contest - radio, antennas, rotator, computer, software, keyer, etc., etc.
But
I've NEVER had a Keyboard fail. Maybe my banging on it constantly for hours on
end was just too much (finally) after probably 10+ years of using that
keyboard. It's a small footprint one with full size keys, but the Insert and
"+" keys are on the edges where they're easy to hit during quick exchanges and
I don't have to go looking for them.
I tried to quickly troubleshoot the problem and saw that the leds would
flash
and the computer would beep when I unplugged and plugged the KB. A couple
times
I thought it was fixed, but after hitting a few keys it would go dead again. I
tried it on a DOS machine that was sitting there running GeoClock and it
seemed
to work fine. Why it goes dead on the radio XP computer, I don't know. So a
quick visit to my computer junkpile (that my XYL keeps asking me why I'm
saving all that "crap") found me an old MS KB that worked FB. It took a while
to get used to the different placement of the vital keys, but I was back on
air!! I entered the ZF2 Q and corrected the time and life was good again.
Last Section worked was SF and 2nd-last was LAX - both quite late on Sunday
AM. It was a pleasure to be called during a nice run by VE4EAR which is always
a tough Mult. and later by an OH, F and DL. I usually have to search out DX in
160M Contests.
The trusty old 160M Inverted "L" with Bazooka Feed continues to do a GREAT
job for me. Not only is it broadbanded and doesn't require a tuner across most
of the Band, but it gets out like a bomb and I often get through pileups
against High Power Stations and I can grab a run frequency and hold it for a
reasonbly long time before getting squeezed out by Big Guns!
KYFC that Mr. Sun is kind to us for good condx next week during the 10 Meter
Contest!!!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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