CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2020
Call: N4TZ/9
Operator(s): N4TZ
Station: N4TZ
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: IN
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 52 13 23
80: 166 22 63
40: 302 23 71
20: 366 29 77
15: 326 26 81
10: 79 17 30
------------------------------
Total: 1291 130 345 Total Score = 1,707,625
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
OPERATING TIME: 39:51:22
CQ COUNTER: 1380
RUN/SEARCH: 318/979 Qs
UNIQUE CALLSIGNS: 956
SOFTWARE: TR4W v.4.77.0 http://www.tr4w.net
BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Countries Zones
__________________________________________________________
160CW 52 52 114 23 13
80CW 167 166 449 63 22
40CW 303 302 865 71 23
20CW 367 366 1046 77 29
15CW 328 326 909 81 26
10CW 80 79 212 30 17
__________________________________________________________
Totals 1297 1291 3595 345 130
Final Score = 1707625 points.
2020 CQ-WW-CW N4TZ
Continent List
160 80 40 20 15 10 ALL
--- --- --- --- --- --- ---
USA calls = 2 3 2 1 9 3 20
Canada calls = 24 26 21 30 18 5 124
NA calls = 12 14 15 19 24 11 95
SA calls = 2 6 5 13 30 35 91
Euro calls = 11 108 225 253 216 15 828
African calls = 1 5 4 9 12 7 38
Asian calls = 0 2 5 2 2 0 11
Japan calls = 0 1 12 34 11 0 58
Ocean calls = 0 2 14 6 6 4 32
Total calls = 52 167 303 367 328 80 1297
One of the reasons I write these reports is so that I can
remember what happened in past years. I can report that past
years were better. Some of it was the conditions - 160
did not produce proportionate to the time I put in. Some
of it was probably COVID-related inactivity by big stations
who would normally guarantee big signals on all bands.
I was able to get my 80 meter 4 square up during the phone
SS weekend and erect my full sized wire for 160. So I was
expecting a bigger improvement over the CQWW SSB weekend
than I saw.
Last year saw a major problem with the antenna switching
develop during the contest. I finally finished replacing
all of the remote switching just before Thanksgiving,
and it all worked ok. Also, last year I started having
problems with the keying (both CW and SSB) whereby I
was unable to break the keying during a message. Much
time was spent trying to find and fix this intermittent
but major problem. I finally replaced the Winkey chip
the morning of the contest and that seemed to do it. No
hiccups on that score during the contest.
The biggest hardware problem continues to be the POS
known as the ICOM 7610. It cannot co-exist in the same
location with other radios. Even with external bandpass
filtering in line with the 7610, it burps when the other
radio transmits, and trashes the other radio when the
ICOM transmits. The new OM Power antenna switching
system required new band decoders so that I cannot
use my old Dunestars, instead having to go behind
the radios and screw in separate LBS bandpass
filters when I changed bands. Today, when I replaced
the ICOM 7610 with an ancient TenTec OMNI VI, the problems
both ways were gone, even without any external bandpass
filters, so it is definitely the Software Deficient Radio
made by ICOM. The ICOM does have a nice panadapter display
but....
The biggest problem this year, however, was the operator.
I have been having vision problems for quite a while,
and several times during the contest I thought about
packing it in. I had my four month checkup with the
ophthalmologist last month and she said nothing major
had happened since the last time.... But, my vision
goes in and out of focus, and it is very difficult to
read a lot of things. I use the external monitor on the
7610 and have a second monitor on the computer to display
N4PY and HDSDR spectrum display for the Yaesu radio. I
experimented with other logging programs this summer
while trying to nail down the Winkey problem and could
not find one that offered an easier to read logging
window than TR4W. In fact, I could not find any way
in the "leading" programs to even change the size
of the logging window. I can't fit a bigger main
monitor in the shack, and the focus issue is not made
easier by a larger monitor.
Congratulations to Ed, N1UR, on his big performance
from Vermont.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|