ARRL 160-Meter Contest - 2021
Call: K1DG
Operator(s): K1DG
Station: N1LI
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Maine
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1526 Sections = 78 Countries = 48 Total Score = 503,244
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
QSO DUP DXC SECT POINTS AVG
---------------------------------------
1526 38 48 78 3994 2.62
(details at end)
Last year was a washout for me for the two big 160 contests. A snowstorm in
December forced me to shut down Saturday morning so I could get home safely. And
the transmit antenna failed Friday night during the CQ160 in January.
This fall I repaired the transmit antenna - this involved having 6 trees
removed.
The NE/SW Beverage had a tree across it that was too big for me to remove
myself, but since the antenna seemed to be hearing OK, I didn't worry about it
too much.
I arrived at the station at 11AM Friday. However, the clocks in the house were
still on Daylight Saving Time and read 12:00. I guessed the ferry had been
running late and just didn't pay attention.
When I set up and tested things, the transmit antenna had a high SWR and did not
appear to be switching directions. The NE/SW Beverage seemed OK, but the NW/SE
Beverage was dead in one direction and weak on the other.
I managed to fix everything within an hour or so, and took care of a few other
things around the house. Somehow, the calendar note in my phone said that the
contest started at 4PM, not 5. Maybe my phone automatically adjusted it for the
EDT/EST shift or I just entered it wrong during the EDT period.
It seemed odd that I had no time for a nap, then I investigated things and found
out it was only 1PM, not 2, and the contest started at 5. Plenty of time for a
nap.
The contest started out OK...a brisk rate in the first half-hour with a steady
stream of callers from Europe and the U.S. and a good rate. Then things slowed
down. I tuned around and found that I had one station in the Midwest about 100
Hz below me siphoning off some callers and another to the south about 70 Hz
above me QRMing me to the south. That kind of hurt the rate, but it happens in
this contest. I was on pace with my 2019 score but way behind the first hours of
my aborted 2020 effort.
QRN Friday night was pretty low, and European activity dwindled as it got late
there and people went to bed. I kept hoping for Middle East and Asiatic Russia
to show up but never heard them. In fact, I did not work or even hear single
Asian station all weekend. As the overall rate dropped, I began dialing the
second VFO and finding new stations and multipliers. Still the rate seemed low,
and multipliers as well.
l went to bed in the 12z hour with 1123 QSOs and 118 multipliers in the log,
slightly behind the 2019 pace. And I see a lot of people reporting a QSO with
ZL1AZ around sunrise, but I never heard him.
I checked my email before going to bed, and a station in the Netherlands had
sent me an email congratulating me on hearing his 50W and low-antenna signal, so
I guess the tree across the NE Beverage is not hurting its performance too
much.
Saturday was a tough night. European signals seemed stronger but big QRN crashes
caused many missed letters and a lot of repeats. That was very frustrating. On
one sweep of the band I heard a huge pileup which turned out to be W2RE in NNY,
which I needed. Thanks, Ray!
I kept going until about 0630 when 20 minutes with constant CQing and tuning
with the second VFO had netted only one QSO. I decided to take a short break,
which turned out to be 3 hours. During that nap I guess I missed the brief
operating periods of the sections I missed: VE4, VE7, LAX, ORG, KL7, and NT
(which I have never even heard in this contest). Actually I heard N6AA in LAX
with a huge pileup at my sunrise but he was not answering any of the big East
Coast stations calling him.
When I got back up, I worked a few more stations but it was frustrating to tune
the band on the second VFO and only hear stations I had already worked. After
the contest ended, I took another short nap then attended to shutting down the
house for the winter and headed home.
Congrats to K1KI, NO3M, and WB9Z for excellent scores as usual. And condolences
to K3ZM. I know the feeling.
IC7800, AL1200
2-element phased vertical array
2-wire reversible Beverage: 500 feet NE/SW, 200 feet NW/SE
See you all again in January.
73,
Doug K1DG
---
Details:
HR QSOs (without dupes)
22 156
23 120
00 106
01 114
02 112
03 105
04 84
05 96
06 69
07 40
08 21
09 24
10 39
11 28
12 9
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20 24
21 44
22 56
23 38
00 37
01 41
02 36
03 37
04 17
05 28
06 14
07
08
09 1
10 16
11 7
12 7
-----------------
1526
The best 60 minute rate was 159/hour from 2203 to 2302
The best 30 minute rate was 174/hour from 2216 to 2245
The best 10 minute rate was 192/hour from 2234 to 2243
The best 1 minute rates were:
5 QSOs/minute 6 times.
4 QSOs/minute 32 times.
3 QSOs/minute 95 times.
2 QSOs/minute 270 times.
1 QSOs/minute 543 times.
0 QSOs/minute way too many times
Continent Summary
160 Pct
------------------------------
North America 1217 79.8
South America 4 0.3
Europe 296 19.4
Asia 0 0.0
Africa 3 0.2
Oceania 6 0.4
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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