ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N5FO
Operator(s): N5FO
Station: N5FO
Class: SOSB/40 HP
QTH: Silver City, NM
Operating Time (hrs): 26
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40: 877 99
20:
15:
10:
-------------------
Total: 877 99 Total Score = 255,717
Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
Comments:
Armed with my new (and just installed day before 8-Pac and StackMatch 2, I
thought I was fully prepared to go all out SO2R SOAB LP (still no 2nd linear).
I had spent the past couple of weeks making some major repairs to antennas, and
homerun cables in addition to installing the two boxes above, replacing my
existing outside patch panel. I had tested everything the day before and Friday
morning. All seemed to be in order. So, I took the middle of the day Friday
"off", relaxing a bit.
At about 0300, I went into the shack to make sure the two tribanders were aimed
correctly and radios set to start frequencies & tuned. Wow, huge surprise -
both tribanders, on both radios were showing very high SWR's way in the red on
my Elecraft W2 meter! To make a long story short, for the two hours before the
contest, in panic mode! I tried everything I could think of to fix things. I
even replaced the shack-to-panel cables and tried the antennas
"direct" (no StackMatch). Still ballistic SWR's!
Shortly after the contest had started, disgusted and tired from lots of
fighting other antenna farm problems last week, I gave up on the "full
blown" idea. I wanted to do 80M to give my 4-sq a try, but decided on 40,
to get a little more action.
The contest was long & slow, with lots of atmospheric noise to the NE when
we did get somewhat of an opening to EU. For the most part though it was just
slugging it out, hoping for a "miracle" opening to somewhere. Even
the first JA run was modest, compared to what we usually see out here in NM. I
did get lots of good practice at SO2V and copying very weak signals. I
remember thinking several times how it reminded me of the recent Stew Perry
160.
Comparing this to my SOSB40 in the 2014 CQWW, the Q's were down by almost
exactly half. The country count was lower by only a handful.
Thanks for all the stations out there who were patient and worked so hard to
get their calls & exchange thru the poor & noisy conditions.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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