ARRL 160-Meter Contest - 2023
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 23.5
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1114 Sections = 80 Countries = 22 Total Score = 235,824
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
Worst score ever! Actually, no. First, I am only comparing scores
from my current QTH, since 2003. Second, that first year had a lower
score despite more QSOs and more DX only because fewer ARRL sections
existed 20 years ago.
Fixed Stuff:
At the conclusion of the CQ WW CW contest, all of my Alpha amplifiers
were disabled for various reasons:
K1LT Alpha 8410 - plate choke fried
K8ND ETO 91B - replacement tubes failed "gettering" process
K8CC ETO 91B - intermittent weirdness became permanent
Note that I bought the 91Bs from K8ND and the K8CC estate but they
each have a legacy by which I distinguish them.
The 8410 plate choke fried because of accumulated stress due to the
fact that the fault detection circuit faulted in a faultless state.
That is, arcs, bad SWR, too much drive, etc. would simply stress the
amp rather than causing a fault.
The 8410 frying happened Friday before the WW test so I swapped in the
K8CC estate 91B which played fine for 36 hours then abruptly failed by
constantly faulting if any power was applied.
The K8ND 91B was the amplifier on the second radio and has been
exhibiting weak tubes for the last couple of years. As a second radio
amp, that was not a problem. When the other 91B became inoperative, I
tried swapping out the weak GU-47B tubes with "new" tubes purchased
in
2003 and sitting on a shelf since then. With 24 hours of
"gettering",
these tubes still arced and caused hard faults (amp shuts off). So
scratch one set of tubes.
The K8CC 91B also has a spare set of tubes that are presumably newer
but 48 hours of "gettering" failed to make those tubes operable.
Scratch a second set of tubes.
I put the potentially intermittent K8CC tubes in the K8ND 91B and now
I have an amplifier that puts out almost full power with a unknown
degree of reliability.
The plate choke in the 8410 required an emergency purchase of a roll
of #28 magnet wire which arrived Wednesday. I rewound the burnt part
of the choke but miscounted turns while rewinding, so there are 15
turns too many. The extra turns are fine for 160 meters but will
likely cause series resonance issues on the high bands. So after the
ARRL 160 test, I'll correct the number of turns and test that the
series resonances are not in ham bands.
The faulty fault detector was much more perplexing. All of the
control functions of the amplifier are handled by a microcontroller
that reads the input and output SWR, plate current and voltage, and
grid current. Based on these inputs, the controller decides if there
is a fault or not and also displays some of the data on LED bar graph
displays. Since the SWR displays continue to work correctly, I have
to assume the microcontroller is operating correctly. Microchips
either work or not; they don't partially work. I spent a day trying
to understand this problem.
Turns out that there is one more input to the controller: a coarse
input power measurement. If the controller detects input power, then
the fault detection is enabled. My input power detector had a busted
diode which meant the fault detector would not detect a fault.
The 8410 uses 1N5711W diodes in a voltage doubler configuration for
the input power detector. I ordered some 1N5711W from Mouser with
overnight delivery and replaced the bad diode on Thursday which
restored fault detection. However previous weeks of operating
mistakes have led to a melted blob on a tuning capacitor plate which
still arcs, even though the fault detector trips. After the 160 test
I have some filing to perform.
Before the CQ WW CW test, something knocked down yet another short
receiving vertical. Since none of the wires were broken, I replaced
the PVC that broken with brand new PVC and used stronger mounting
brackets.
The autumn Stew Perry test showed that I have a heat dependent flaw in
the feedline to my transmitting antenna. I replaced the aluminum
hardline to N adapter at the antenna end but that did not help. Next
I applied a considerable torque to additionally tighten the splice
connector that joins the 2 long pieces of hardline about 600 feet from
the house. This twist seemed to eliminate the problem. If the
problem returns, I'll saw out the splice connector and install a new
one.
Operation:
I started CQing using the phased arrays and SDR receivers to locate a
caller. For some reason, one of the otherwise highly stable
oscillators in one of the receivers shifted by a couple of hertz
producing a terrible beat note. A 2 Hz amplitude variation interferes
with perceiving dots. So I switched to the Beverages with the
intention of fixing the oscillator problem at first opportunity.
One could tell all signals were weaker the first night because
waterfalls on the SDR receivers were mostly red - signals were not
strong enough to push the color coding up to white. It made that
display somewhat eerie. There was more white the second night
creating more of a pink cast to the screen.
Worked all the European DX the first night after 0400Z with TM6M and
DK2CF (not sure). There was a tiny pre-sunrise rush from 0546Z to
0602Z. Logged PA4VHF at 0647 and EI7BA at 0749. Then KH7A at 0758.
During the non-rush, the band mostly emptied-out and with the 6th and
7th district multipliers missing in action, I went to bed at 0820Z.
Back at the radio at 1130Z saw modest morning action and no DX except
KH6AQ at 1209Z.
Saturday afternoon I set about fixing the oscillator issue so I could
use the phased array and SDR receivers. While doing so I was
contemplating why receiving seemed to be better on the Beverages
despite many years success with the phased arrays. I then made an
interesting observation.
W2GD was CQing Saturday afternoon on 1812 KHz. Both the K3S and P3 on
a 60 degree Beverage and the SDR receiver and phased array pointed to
65 degrees show his signal as 25 db above the noise level at peaks on
the waterfall displays. When listening to an empty channel in the
same 250 Hz bandwidth, both receivers have about the same background
noise level. But the demodulated signal from the K3 is much, much
louder than the same signal with the same signal to noise ratio on the
waterfall on the SDR receiver. How does the K3 recover more audio
than the SDR?
For the moment it seems like the SDR receivers have a flaw which I
must investigate. Hunting for signals by pushing Beverage selection
buttons was very tedious. Nevertheless, hearing better is good so I
continued to use the Beverages.
The second night was devoid of European DX but after a slow early
evening, the rate became almost bearable. Perhaps a lot of people
skipped the first night because of the well-publicized CME impact.
Hearing further the second night also helps. Picked up at the missing
6th and 7th district multipliers except Idaho. VE5 also escaped
although I thought I heard VE5SF call at one point.
Went to bed at 0730Z in sort of a resigned state. Arose at 1200Z to
see if 4W8X might be workable. While watching the chatter on the
ON4KST site, I saw AA1K mention working JA3YBK on 1822. So tuned to
1822 and voila, last multiplier! Seems incredulous that one could
fail to work Europe but still work Japan. 160 always confounds.
The surprise multiplier was FY5KE.
Heard but not worked: G4AMT (second night), LY7M (first night). Final
missing sections: NL, TER, SK, ID, and AK.
Some history of K1LT raw scores:
Year DX K/VE Total K/VE DX Total First
QSOs QSOs QSOs Mult Mult Score Eu DX
2003 36 1155 1191 76 22 231168
2004 40 1362 1402 79 29 315792 (multi-op)
2005 55 1333 1388 79 32 326451 (multi-op)
2006 58 1380 1438 77 34 338550
2007 101 1452 1553 78 48 429534
2008 119 1350 1469 77 42 392105 2207Z
2009 238 1447 1685 78 51 526836 2201Z
2010 185 1419 1604 77 51 481664 2207Z
2011 65 1288 1353 77 30 310407 2323Z
2012 87 1388 1475 81 36 375687 2213Z
2013 117 1378 1495 82 32 380874 2221Z
2014 67 1359 1417 79 23 309570 2223Z
2015 94 1394 1488 80 33 368154 2214Z
2016 93 1435 1528 83 44 423545 2206Z
2017 141 1323 1464 81 41 408822 2210Z
2018 186 1254 1440 79 46 429750 2203Z
2019 110 1179 1289 81 39 348960 2222Z (quit early)
2020 94 1544 1638 83 34 416286 2205Z
2021 83 1258 1341 82 36 345858 2241Z
2022 55 1159 1215 81 29 285230 0049Z
2023 28 1086 1114 80 22 235824 0402Z
2023 score exceeds 2003 only because there are more ARRL sections
available in 2023.
Equipment: K3S, P3, Alpha 8410. K3 and P3 as the 2nd VFO. 61-foot
(formerly 66-foot) "Tee" top vertical over 75 radials. 2x4 BS-EF
phased array and receiver contraption, another 2x3 BS-EF contraption,
and a third 2x2 BS-EF contraption. 6 2-wire Beverages ranging from
500 to 900 feet. For spotting: 60 degree Beverage combined
out-of-phase with a sample of my transmit signal.
Note to self for the next 160 contest: both NUMLOCK buttons must be
enabled to make the numeric pad "5" work to rotate phased array
patterns.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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