ARRL RTTY Roundup
Call: AA5AU
Operator(s): AA5AU
Station: AA5AU
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: LA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Points
-----------------------
80: 70 70
40: 225 225
20: 404 404
15: 471 471 <---Multipliers --->
10: 352 352 W-VE DX Total
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 1522 1522 57 59 116 = 176,552
Club:
Comments:
A mass of warm, moist air pushed northward out of the Gulf of Mexico this past
weekend and met with cold, dry air sitting over Louisiana at about 1800Z on
Saturday. As warm fronts would have it, this produced a very strong and slow
moving area of thunderstorms and high winds that wreaked havoc on the first 13
hours of the contest for me. I knew it was coming and had prepared myself for
the difficult task ahead.
When a bolt of lightning lit up the shack through it's only window, I made the
decision to keep operating. I closed the blinds to the window but I couldn't
do anything to not hear the static crashes and rain static in my headphones.
Even with the headphones on, I could still hear the towers popping in the wind.
But I kept going. I knew I risked the possibility of damage to equipment or
even something more worse - death. But I was the defending champion and I felt
I had to go on. Stupid? Maybe. If a bolt of lightning had come down and
taken my life, at least I would have gone out doing what I loved best - RTTY
contesting. It sounds surreal, but these are the things I had to say to myself
to keep going through the worst of the storms. Nothing happened thought. No
lightning strike, no wind damage and I thank God for that.
Back to the contest... When I took rest at 0645Z, I had 927 QSO's compared to
last year when I had 943. I was extremely pleased that I was able to keep pace
with last year's effort with all the distractions going on outside and all the
noise I had to contend with on the radio. I figured with the solar flux over
200, the A index at 3 and K at 0, that I had a legitimate shot of last year's
record if the weather cleared.
I restarted at 1247Z with the same propagation numbers and the weather had
cleared. However, things did not go as planned. The K index went to 3 by
1800Z and the path to EU closed early on 10 and 15 meters rendering me to
trying to make up the difference with stateside QSO's. Endless unanswered CQ's
after 1900Z and the lack of multipliers on the 2nd radio convinced me early
that there would be no new record for me this year.
Lowlights: Missing NV, YT, NWT & NU. Not working ZS6RVG. Lack of multipliers
and of course, the bad weather Saturday.
Highlights: Not getting struck by lightning. Finding JY9NX CQ'ing with no
takers on 15M Sunday. Working the RTTY gang in another fun contest.
Thanks to everyone for working. I apologize to all those I couldn't pull out
on 40 and 80 meters. The noise was just too bad.
73, Don AA5AU
Station Equipment:
Station A - Kenwood TS870
Hal DXP-38
NIR-10 audio filter
WriteLog beta version 10.30B & MMTTY-plug in a receive only 2nd Rtty window.
Station B - Kenwood TS870
NIR-12 DSP audio filter
WriteLog beta version 10.30B & MMTTY plug-in tx & rx in the main RTTY window.
PK232 for transmit & receive in a 2nd RTTY window.
Antennas - Cushcraft A3S with 40M add-on rotable at 62 ft. Cushcraft A3S
triband yagi fixed at 20 degrees North at 45 ft. 80M inverted vee w/apex at 60
ft.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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