ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: K5NA
Operator(s): K5NA
Station: K5NA
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1446 Sections = 83 Countries = 41 Total Score = 413,664
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
This has always been my favorite contest and this year is the 42nd year that I
have participated and sent in a log. In spite of what I was thinking at 4:00
am, it won't be my last if I am able to keep going.
I was surprised that I managed a sweep of all the sections. I operated in the
Unlimited category and it was helpful to have the DX cluster spots working for
me. Every section called me except for the last two sections. Early Sunday
morning I went out looking for VY1AAA and found him for a QSO and my 82th
section. Then, a little later, I started looking for VO1HP and got him for the
last section.
I had worked all sections in the ARRL 160 before in 2004. But I was a single-op
with no assistance for that one. I see this year that a large number of people
worked all 83 sections.
The contest seemed odd in that the band would sound terrible at times and all
of a sudden show some incredible openings. There was a lot of heavy QSB on most
signals. The peak tinming was important to getting all the information at the
right time.
I have an excellent transmit antenna, a full size 157 foot tower with an
insulator section at 30 feet and 4 elevated radials. I am also blessed with
superb ground conductivity.
The problem in Central Texas is receiving because we always have high static,
noise, and frequent thunderstorms. This weekend was no exception to that. On
Friday evening we had a storm front arrive about 0200Z (Saturday UTC) that
included rain and thunder crashes. The lightning never got so close that I had
to shutdown the entire station, but I did disconnect everything else except the
160M antennas. The rain and static lingered through Friday night and all of
Saturday night. I must have sent "AGN" and "?" over 500
times. It is still raining as I type this on Monday morning.
I had a Hi-Z 8 circle for receiving that previously had problems that I fixed
over the past few months. I also had 4 beverages that I continue to keep
operational. I peaked about 5 years ago at having 11 beverages on this
property. I started out the contest using the beverages because they were much
quieter. The 8-circle had good directivity but was much noisier. However over
the course of the contest I gradually migrated to the 8 Circle because I could
copy some stations there that I couldn't pull through with the lower output
level of the beverages. Plus the 8 Circle gave me some receive directions that
I didn't have using just the beverages.
Sometime a DX station would pop in over the noise and I would get a QSO and
maybe a new mult. This happened mostly when using the 8 Circle. So my
evaluation is that the 8 Circle gave me better signal peaks but more noise and
the beverages gave me less noise but reduced signal peaks. When the band was
open to Europe I could hear a weak buzz of signals calling me. I am sorry that
I may have disappointed many of them who didn't get into my log.
I thought Saturday night was better than Friday night for conditions. There
were European QSOs on both night but more on Saturday night. I had a great run
of JAs on Sunday morning after working just a few of them on Saturday morning.
One particular pleasure was when W0ZTL called me from North Dakota. I remember
working him in 1971 for the ND multiplier when I first did the ARRL 160M
Contest. That was a big thrill back then and I never forgot that QSO and his
call. He must be really getting up in years now.
This is the first time since my illness in 2012 that I really pushed myself
this hard in a contest. Believe me I had thoughts of "why would I do this
to myself" when I was fighting exhaustion at three or four o'clock in the
morning. So every now and then I took a small break of 15 or 20 minutes just to
keep myself going.
All in all, it was a fun contests in spite of the QRN. Thanks for all the
QSOs.
73, Richard - K5NA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|