Here is my final summary and comments. Unfortunately I don't have a comm
program that allows me to upload the summary page/break down info, so
please bear with my spelling errors, ETC.
KE2PF Single Operator High Power
Hours Operated: 36
Band QSOs QSOPTS PTS per QSO PREFIXES
160 0 0 0.0 0
80 237 1106 4.7 62
40 838 3974 4.7 372
20 1420 3486 2.5 323
15 60 141 2.3 26
10 0 0 0.0 0
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TOTALS 2555 8707 3.4 783=6,817,581 pts
EQUIPMENT:
Main Station: Kenwood TS930s TenTec Titan
Second Station: (barely used) Kenwood TS940s Henry amp
Antennas:
N2RM Station
15: 4 over 4 over 4 over 4
on a 140 ft tower
20: 5 over 5 on a 100ft tower
40: 2 over 2 on the 140' tower, in phase with a 3 el wire beam to EU
on the 100' tower
80: 2el wire beam at 140 feet
BEVERAGES: 2 beverage phased array (phased SLUGGOS) Northeast,
Beverages East, South, West, and Northwest.
BEST RATE HOURS:
15m- only S&P
20m- 123 at 1100z-1200z saturday
40m- 128 at 0000z-0100z first hour
80m- 86 at 0100z-0200z (sunday)
TOTAL HOURS over 100/hr- 8
"good DX"- all answered my CQ's:
80: 4K8R, FR/DL1VJ, TA2DS
40: 9k2/YO9HP, 3DA0NX, UN5A, V63NN
20: FK8HC, C53HG, YB0ASI, HS9A, HS50A, KL7RA, GU3MBS, JU1T, TU2XZ, VU2FED,
HZ1HZ, HZ1AB, UN6P, UN4L, UN7LZ, JT5AA/1, OD5PL
15: N2WCQ/6W1, 3V8BB
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Play by Plat:
(Play by Play... told you I can't edit what I've typed!!)
I arrived at N2RM about 5PM in the evening. I am a member of the USCG
and 25 years old. There is no way in hell I can afford big antennas. At my
home QTH, Military housing, I am only allowed hidden wire antennas. When
you work me in a domestic contest that's where I am (a setup much like
KB8N). I am a "hired gun" at N2RM, and I help a bit with the antenna work,
so I grabbed at the offer to operate there.
When I arrived all the equipment had to be setup. The only thing there are
the antennas and assoc. rotators, switch boxes, and wildlife. The operators
bring their personal radios/amps/computers when setting up for M/M.
I decided to start on 40. My theory was that since DX qso's on 40 and 80
are worth twice as much as 20 and above, I had to run 1/2 as fast as on the
higher bands. For example, to equal a 60 hour on 40, one would have to
work a 120 hour on 20. So I spent as much time on 40 and 80 as i was an
advantage to me. I started out with T99W, and on QSO number 3 my new
"homebrew" 486DX66 computer locked up. Its the first contest for it,
and it didn't seem to like 40m RF. It locked up 3 times in the first 10
minutes, forcing me to restart it at the same time I was running stations and
writing down the info on paper. Finally I determined RF was getting into the
keyboard and I was able to re-route the cable to stop the problem. Later
on my first break I found some ferrite beads which took care of the problem
for good. Even with the computer problems, I finished up the first hour
with 128 QSO's in the log. 40 sounded fantastic both nights. I took my
first break at 0551z. at that time I has 592 QSO's in the log, 77 on 80,
515 on 40. While listening on the TX antennas the static was a solid S9,
and several of the weak stations were difficult to hear. However,
Kz@S and WM2H designed a 2 beverage phased array pointed to europe. by using
this antenna on both 40 and 80, the noise dropped several DB and I could copy
just about every one who called without difficult. It made 40 meters sound
like 20m, no kidding. W3LPL has documented a similar array on the internet
that he has in place at his QTH. I ended up using beverages 100% on the time
on both 40 and 80, I believe this have me a tremendous advantage.
I tried sleeping the first night by wrapping up in a blanket to try to
keep the mice from chewing on my toes. The N2RM shack is out in the
woods, and has been infested with rodents of many varieties. It definitely
fits the description of a "shack"!!! Bob himself left as the contest started
and only returned once for a couple min. during the duration on the contest,
so it was me -VS- the animals. I won. Later in the weekend I found a mouse
trying to eat one of my sandwiches. A heavy coax spool took care of it!!
I was back on at 0909z, and after scanning 40 for QSO's I settled down
to CQing on 20. Europe was loud as usual, as were JA's. I worked probably
about 100 JA's in the first 3 hours or so, "gathering" all the prefixes at
the same time. At 1342z I has 1000 QSO's in the log. Later in the morning,
as the absorbtion makes it difficult to run, I switched to 15 periodically.
The band was open to southern Europe, and the S5's, EA's, ETC were loud
but I could never run them. Guess most were staying on 20. So for me 15 was
limited to working the European CQers as well and the south americans and
their prefixes.
At 1631z, I was unable to run any longer due to the absorbtion, so I
took my second break with 1183 QSO's in the log. During this break I dug
my personal latrine back in the woods....there is no running water or
bathroom facilities at N2RM. My Eagle Scout training was usefull once again!
I was back on 20 at 1836z, and was able to run Europe for the next several
hours on 20 at about a 60-70 rate, and at 2232 I moved to 40. 40 was still
good but not as many callers as the night before, so I went to 80 at 0100z
because I had few QSO's on that band. Instant pileup, I worked 86 the first
hour on 80. Once 80 dried up I went back to 40, then took my 3rd break at
0440z. I was finally able to get some sleep this time, as the sounds of
shuffling and scratching lulled me off to sleep.
My alarm clock woke me at 0930z, and I was back on at 0935 doing the
same as the previous day, scanning 40 first before going to 20 to CQ.
20 wasn't very good to europe Sunday morning, it just didn't seem to
open up. To Japan was a different story. I worked well a 100 JA's again
to make up for the lost Europeans. I had worked several thousand JA's
a couple years back when I was stationed in Guam, and I think they remembered
my callsign and that helped. At 1636 I took my 4th and final break.
At 1831 I was back on to find 20 wide open to Europe. At 1900 I had broken
the old S/O record and continued running Europe at an 70-90/hr rate.
I went back to 2230z I went back to 40 to finish the contest, and had a
good rate till 0000z.
I have got to thank Bob, N2RM, for allowing me to use his antennas. Who
says you have to go the the carribean to work pileups?.... you can feel
the same experience from RM!!! I hope I didn't sound too derrogatory
describing the shack, its true, yet its a heck of a better setup than
I will ever dream to be able to imagine to have. A career in the Coast Guard
guarentees that! And besides, there are stacks of 70's era QST's and
Playboys to page through during the slow periods of constantly pushing "F1"
Sorry for all the spelling errors, I'm still a quite bit shell shocked
from the weekend. I hope you all found it interresting, I try to keep
my postings to a minimum.
See you all this summer in the sprints from home, and in the WAE CW possibly
again from N2RM.
Best 73,
Dave KE2PF
Frankford Radio Club,
US Coast Guard,
Certified "young gun"
KE2PF@MCIMAIL.COM
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