ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: K1WHS
Operator(s): K1WHS
Station: K1WHS
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: FN43mj
Operating Time (hrs): 13
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1023 Sections = 80 Countries = 51 Total Score = 328,860
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
The plan was for Art, K1BX, to operate here and check out all the modifications
and hopefully improvements to my little 160 setup. I never did complete my dual
beverage EU beverage until after the DX season last spring. I was hoping that I
could use Art's results to see any differences in the score. The best laid
plans went out the window as a conflict developed and Art could not make it here
to operate. My revised plan was to try operating myself with my tin ear and poor
CW skills. This past week, a bad storm of heavy wet snow dropped all of my
beverage wires and they were in rough shape with numerous trees down across all
the wires. I spent a few days in the woods with a ladder, some insulators and a
chain saw.
So this time, I was going to try out my beverage changes myself. I checked the
ARRL website and double checked the rules so I was sure of the exchange etc. You
would also think I would also check the starting time! Imagine my surprise
while working out in my shack on an old SWR meter and turning up the volume on
the rig to find that the contest was well under way! I was happily fixing my
little SWR meter thinking that the contest started at 0000 UT. Strike one for
Dave!
So I started operating and tried to find a clear spot. Not much luck, but I did
shoe horn myself in up the band aways and started calling CQ. My plan was to
occupy space and hope that DX would find me. Friday night was very noisy (for
December) and I was not very impressed with conditions to Europe. The contacts
were coming in slowly. I was hoping that my new beverage would allow me to work
all those QRP EU stations running their Pixie radios. Unfortunately, that was
not the case. The Europeans came slowly but surely on Friday. The band was OK
and signals were for the most part, pretty OK copy.
Last Spring I had rigged up a nifty little switch for my SO setup. It consists
of two identical rotary switches that are wired in parallel. The one common
contact of each switch goes to the main and the 2nd receiver jack on my K3. All
the beverages are connected to the other switch contacts. This allows me to
select any bev wire to each antenna input. In the past, I had to flip the
switches to listen East or West. Now I can select the EU beverage in my left
ear, and another wire aimed west in my right ear. It isn't really diversity but
it allows me to hear both areas at the same time with minimal fuss. This
function worked great. The only problem was that there was no S/N advantage. I
actually had a penalty as a caller in one antenna was paired up with noise
coming from the opposite direction.
Saturday night was a problem contest wise as we had tickets for a bluegrass
concert, so I missed quite a few good hours on Saturday. When we got home, I
ambled out to the shack and started up again with the contest. The noise was
even worse Saturday evening. Lots of storms down south and even some in the
midwest too! So the contest was a real learning experience for me. I have
recovered my health from a year ago, but have Tinnitis in both ears that makes
CW difficult, but a more sinister affliction is a pretty severe tremor in my
hands. As I was punching keys to enter callsigns, my wobbly fingers were hitting
adjacent keys quite often. So for example, when M0DLS called me I would
mistakenly type. NM09DLS. Naturally M0DLS would take a pause and wonder what the
drunken Yank was thinking. So then I had to stop and find what I had done and
correct it. Of course, with 2 seconds of dead air, then a station would send
QRL? on top of me and start CQing 63 milliseconds later. I would stop my
corrections to N1MM, and send AS or something like QGL ( Get Lost) to drive the
interloper away. Then it is back to the M0! It is tough getting old, but the
alternative is much worse.
I was happy with my results. My best rate for an hour was 130. The best 10
minute rate was 150. I did pretty well with ARRL sections, getting 80 along
with 51 countries. I missed North Dakota, NT and AK. I really looked for Alaska,
but came up short. I missed sunrise on Sunday morning. I slept in as I figured
that the K index was up there, and the northerly paths were probably not there.
The Europe opening on Saturday night was not so great as there was bad QSB that
caused signals to drop out entirely and several repeats were needed to get most
calls. Friday was much easier for me. There were clusters of EU contacts at
both EU sunrises. Some highlights for me were working UA0 near my sunrise the
first nite, and getting called by some good DX: LU and PY both called me and
spared me from busting their pileups later on. I found that I could troll up the
band from the bottom on Saturday evening and still find new stations to answer,
but at 3 AM on Sunday, the ranks had thinned out and the only signals heard were
those die hards who had been on all weekend and were already in my log. That is
when I decided to get some sleep. I was happy to find old buddy Kurt W6PH late
on Saturday while he was CQing. I had KH6AT call me but missed the other two
KH6s that were apparently on. No VKs or ZLs heard.
Total Qs were 1023 with 126 (80 sections & 51 countries) for a score of
328,860 in the HP un-assisted category. I need advice on how to stay in the
chair more often though! Now I can go back to overhauling my old MC Jones
Micromatch SWR meter! Life is good!
Dave K1WHS
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