Ohio QSO Party
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Fairfield County EM8
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 208 0
40: 169 0
20: 122 0
15: 7 0
10: 1 0
--------------------
Total: 507 101 CW Mults = 101 Ph Mults = 0 Total Score = 102,414
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
I have been avoiding high power the last few Ohio QSO Parties to make
SO2R easier and less noisy, but I really want to earn one of those
nifty plaques. So I operated high power and stayed on CW with the
hope that I could get the highest CW only score.
I put up a low 40 meter dipole to enhance short propagation paths but
there seemed to be very poor short propagation on 40. After a couple
of hours I just used the ground mounted vertical which seemed to
perform just as well (or poorly). I also noticed that the 80 meter
vertical worked just fine but maybe high power overrides the pattern
disadvantage of the vertical.
The QSO party makes SO2R easier than about any other contest: just
turn on dueling-CQs and log as appropriate. There was only one
occasion when I got called on both radios simultaneously.
Unfortunately the first station I called needed fills and the caller
on the other radio thought me a lid and departed. For the first few
hours I let the CQ running on the other radio complete before I came
back to a caller, which unnecessarily slows everyone. If there were
several callers, then I canceled the CQ on the other radio. Later I
just always canceled the CQ when there were effectively no callers on
the other radio.
In previous contests, I always used the right side radio for running
and the left radio for searching. But for the OQP, running on both
radios became normal and I didn't screw-up too many times. The one
way I would most often screw-up was by using Alt-K to enter keyboard
mode to type a fill or some other comment which just doesn't work in
dueling-CQ mode, which makes me appear to be silent when something
important needs said. Eventually I learned to bash the Escape key and
arrow keys to make sure the transmit focus was correct before I
Alt-K'ed.
I still need to do some work on the SO2R switching. Every time the
dueling-CQ switched to the other radio, the PTT keying would bounce,
as if the PTT would hang for a fraction of a second after the keying
was routed to the other radio. I observed this problem last year and
threatened the software developer, but the lazy developer bum (me)
didn't do anything.
The first couple of hours had a very nice rate which then began to
fall a lot for the middle third of the contest. I worked K8NZ and
K8RYU in several counties early, on both 40 and 80. I heard no other
mobiles during the first half. I dragged N8BJQ to 10 meters for my
only 28 MHz contact.
I worked both KH6 and KL7 on 20 so I briefly entertained thoughts of
WAS, but then reality returned.
Around 5PM the sky got dark and the static seemed somewhat more
obnoxious than it had been. The weather radar showed a rather
impressive line of thunderstorms approaching. Also the kid was
pestering for a frozen pizza. So while the pizza heated, I directed
the kid to "batten down the hatches". Just as the sky got darkest,
the pizza got done so I went to the kitchen. Just then the power
failed so I was lucky that I didn't lose a QSO. The power came back
after a few seconds and suddenly all of the darkness went away and no
rain fell. The static died down and the sun came our. That was the
most anti-climatic thunderstorm ever.
One very obnoxious side-effect of the power glitch was that the Alpha
8410 became stuck on the highest blower speed which was very, very,
very annoying. I suspect the temperature sensor is kaput. Someday I
hope to find a 4 KVA 220 volt UPS good for a 15 second power glitch.
For the evening hours, the rate recovered somewhat as darkness made 80
meters more practical. The SCC RTTY signals were particularly loud
and irritating this year.
Once dark, I finally worked K8MR and W8UE and N2CU. I never heard
K8NZ again after he passed through Franklin County the second time.
However, the last hour was extremely slow, except for the last 30
minutes when the fresh meat specialists appeared. All of the action
was on 80 meters except for an almost endless but extremely slow
supply of Kansas stations on 40 (so no rate working KS).
I worked TI8/AA8HH on 80, 40 and 20. I worked Uli, DM5EE on 20. I
count 56 counties, 42 non-Ohio states, 2 provinces, and "DX" for the
same number of multipliers as last year and a whole bunch fewer QSOs,
which is probably as result of the crummy conditions and the
competition with other contests.
Equipment: K3/100, P3, 8410, K3/10, Hardrock 50, 91B, Writelog,
tribander, and verticals.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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