ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: K5NA
Operator(s): K5NA
Station: K5NA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 33
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1158 Sections = 77 Countries = 17 Total Score = 230,112
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
Working this contest as a single-op has become a tradition for me. My goal is
always to try and finish in the top ten, though I don't always make it. Last
year, I didn't make it but the year before I did. It isn't easy to do that from
the noisy Southwest. But still, I love this contest.
The bands were quite noisy this weekend and the QSB was some of the most
dramatic that I have ever heard. One moment a station might be S7-8 and the next
he would be back in the mud. I sometimes would keep sending QRZ or a question
mark hoping that the station wouldn't give up and QSY before the QSB brought him
back up to copyable levels. Most stuck around and kept trying. Thanks.
Before the contest I dug out the old R4C with the Sherwood filters to use as a
second radio. I really didn't want to use the second FT1000MP MkV as a second
radio and take a chance on blowing the front end. So I wired in the R4C to the
second beverage switch.
As a side note, I should tell you that the receiving antennas here are four
beverages that are SE, NE, NW, and SW. These are the same configuration
beverages that performed superbly for me when I lived in New York over rocky,
mountainous soil. More about that in a minute.
The transmitting antenna is a full-sized elevated wire vertical with four
elevated radials.
I started the contest with high hopes. There were a lot of QSOs at the beginning
even though we started 1.5 hours before sunset. About ten minutes before sunset
I was surprised by a call from K6SE whose time is 2 hours earlier in the day
than mine. Wow, Earl is doing something right out there. That was quite a long
daylight-to-daylight QSO.
Soon I realized that the R4C wasn't hearing as well as the FT1000MP MkV. The R4C
used to be my standard of how good a 160M receiver should be but I think
technology has finally caught up with it. I quit listening to the R4C for the
rest of the contest mainly because it was too distracting when I would transmit.
The sub-receiver on the FT1000MP MkV would have to do since it actually would
hear stuff beter. I guess it is finally the end of the R4C era.
My next disappointment was discovering that the beverage system here was rarely
an improvement over listening on the transmit antenna. My beverages are the same
design and hardware that what I used before in New York. But there I had a poor
ground conductivity and they worked so well I would almost NEVER listen on the
transmit antenna. At this Texas location I have outstanding soil conductivity
and the beverages just don't work very well. I had previously noticed this when
DXing on 160M and many of my more exciting QSOs have been using the transmit
antenna for receive. Some say that soil conductivity shouldn't make a difference
but my experience says otherwise.
As a result of poor beverage performance, I spent 99% of the contest listening
on the transmitting antenna. I know that many people called me that I just
couldn't dig out of the noise. I tried real hard to copy, but just couldn't hear
a lot of you. Next year I gotta come up with a better receiving system. Any
ideas? I have lots of room for antennas.
My biggest thrill of the contest was 15 minutes after it was over. I received an
email from VU2DVP saying that he has heard me CQing about 30 minutes before my
sunrise. But he didn't have a 160M transmitting antenna to try and call me. He
was receiving me on a beverage that he uses for 75M long path to the USA. Wow,
to be heard in VU-land on 160M LP is really something for me.
During the contest I remember that 9L1BTB and NL7Z called me a long time before
I was able to get their full call out of the noise. Thanks to them for sticking
with it. And thanks to all the others who stuck with me and made a QSO.
73, Richard - K5NA
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