ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 34
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 102 44
80: 198 67
40: 363 80
20: 704 104
15: 459 89
10: 36 15
-------------------
Total: 1862 399 Total Score = 2,216,844
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
I didn't have any time to prepare for this contest because of other
obligations. About 2 hours before the start I found that the beam on
the new tower would not rotate via remote control. I wasted about an
hour troubleshooting without success and finally accepted that I would
have to walk out to the tower base to turn the antenna manually.
I also found that my SO2R setup would not route audio properly. More
time wasted troubleshooting did not identify the defective part right
away but eventually the audio appeared.
I started about 20 minutes late because of these problems. Both 15
and 20 meters were quickly worked out and I moved to 40 expecting lots
of QSOs. I always try to use diversity reception since it seems to
help when it works well. However, the second receiver in the K3 was
not working. After more troubleshooting, I found that the radio was
at fault and not the cabling although the intermittent audio seemed to
be the line-out cable. Is there a good 6 foot cable with 1/8 inch
stereo plugs?
Since I had recently replaced the synthesizer boards in the K3 with
the upgraded versions, I figured the cable from the AUX RX input to
the second RX board was loose. However it turned out that the prior
removal of the second RX broke a connector. Fortunately a solder blob
was sufficient to fix the connector and the second RX was restored. I
put the radio back together and continued.
Note that the broken connector affects reception only when the AUX RX
input is used. When using the second RX on the main antenna split,
then everything works. I normally use the second RX to monitor the
pileup when chasing DX which is why I missed noticing the problem
until the contest.
I operated until European sunrise and then my low motivation and
overall disgust with the technical problems put me to sleep until
about 1100Z. In the morning darkness I chased multipliers on the low
bands until about 1300Z when I went to 20 meters. 20 was of course
full, so I went to 15 to see what was happening. 15 was decidedly not
full but busy, so I made a trip to the new tower to turn the beam and
then found a hole and CQed. The usual sunrise cluster-fueled rush
occur ed but the rush did not last as long as usual. I assumed low
sunspots were to blame and went back to 20 after peeking at 10 and
CQed some more.
After the morning rush, I made another attempt to troubleshoot the
remote rotor control. I eventually decided that remote control was
not going to work because animals had damaged the temporary Ethernet
cable that I had hoped would survive from CQ WW CW until ARRL DX CW.
Saturday proceeded rather normally although I did not recover any
motivation. I noted that the 20 meter multiplier count had reached
the high 80s. I again operated the low bands until European sunrise
and then moved to 40 for "daytime in Eu" DX. I have found that I
can
run stations on 40 for and hour or two at a decent rate. I'm not sure
where the signals come from since the Beverages on 40 have numerous
lobes. But it's great fun to work the whole world without changing
antennas. The "daytime in Eu" DX phenomenon does not seem to play
as
well during the CQ WW contest.
After the run died down, I went to sleep until 1300Z. The Sunday
morning rush was much more typical and I made 400 contacts in 3 hours.
Furthermore the 20 meter multiplier count was in the high 90s and 15
meters was in the high 80s. So I made my goal to react 100 mults on
20.
Sunday afternoon I found I could run stations on 15 meters (slowly)
and hunt for multipliers on 20. This worked very well for a first
time. In the normally slow 1800-1900Z hours I worked a few dozen
western European stations while adding several new multipliers on 20.
I found 6 new multipliers in the final 40 minutes on 80 meters. By
the end of the contest I was wishing I had not been so sleepy during
the nighttime. I guess that's just life.
Surprise multiplier: VK4ACN via long path on 20. I almost always work
a VK in that time frame, but I had forgotten about the long path and I
had not yet worked VK on 20. So I got a pleasant surprise. FK8IK and
9K2NO on 40 were also surprises.
DX worked: 4X, 5B, 5H, 5R, 6Y, 8P, 9A, 9K, A3, BY, C5, C6, CE, CE9,
CM, CN, CT, CT3, CX, D4, DL, DU, E5/s, E7, EA, EA6, EA8, EI, ES, EU,
F, FK, FM, FY, G, GD, GI, GM, GU, GW, HA, HB, HC, HI, HK, HK0/a, HL,
HP, HZ, I, IS, J3, J7, JA, KG4, KH2, KH6, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU, LX,
LY, LZ, OE, OH, OH0, OK, OM, ON, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PJ4, PJ5, PJ7, PY,
PY0F, S0, S5, SM, SP, SV, SV5, SV9, TA, TF, TI, TK, UA, UA2, UA9, UN,
UR, V2, V3, V4, V5, VK, VP2M, VP5, VP9, VU, XE, XX, YB, YL, YO, YU,
YV, Z3, ZF, ZL, and ZS for a total of 116 entities.
The following stations were worked on 6 bands: TI5W, PJ4X, TO7A, PJ2T,
P40R, CW5W, and P40L. There could have been many, many more, but I
did not find the Caribbean stations on 10 meters. I checked several
times.
Equipment: Elecraft K3/100; Alpha 8410; Elecraft K3/10; Hardrock 50;
ETO 91B (thanks Jeff); homebrew SO2R stuff; homebrew SDR stuff (beam
steering RX antennas on 160); Cushcraft X7 at 60 feet; Cushcraft X7 at
100 feet; full sized verticals on 40 and 80; 65-foot "tee" on 160.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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