ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N3BB
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 57 41
80: 118 66
40: 697 100
20: 228 92
15: 931 76
10: 135 76
-------------------
Total: 2167 485 Total Score = 3,152,985
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
N3BB ARRL CW DX (Very long)
N3BB packet assisted? True. Read on my fellow propagation warriors:
Well, this was quite a weekend. I was nervous as K5NA has beaten me for three
straight years, and so I was trying to even the score a little. The contest
started well with a nice 15 meter JA run on Friday night, but I know that NA has
better 15 antennas, so he probably was going better. I settled in, and the JA
run lasted until 0118Z, which was OK, but not as good as the one Saturday night,
which lasted until 03Z, and started at 23Z.
The 40 meter run Friday night to EU was fantastic. The guys the NE probably say
"what's he talking about" but it's hard to run EU from central Texas. The rate
was over 60 an hour, and the mults were good. It was very crowded, and the
first time I ever *had* to use the 250 Hz Inrad CW filter, and it worked great!
HG1S moved on top of me once, and I was able to fend him off. It was a really
lid move. The 40 meter antenna here is the old Telrex 3 element on a 46 foot
boom, and it's at 120 feet on a tower that stands on the top of a steep 100 foot
hillside. That makes the antenna over 220 feet high to EU and JA and that thing
is a band opener and a band closer, and a band in-betweener too! It's the only
really good antenna I have. It breaks pileups in a way that still surprises me,
and I am fearless with it.
I was SO2R SOAB Friday night and SOAB-Packet Assisted the rest of the contest
(more on that later), so I missed the spots on 160 meters Friday night. But
even w/out packet, 160 was wide open to EU and it was a ball. My NE beverage
needs reworking, but I was able to hear fairly well, and the new 160 meter
sloper (top at 120 feet and lower end at "minus" 50 feet down the hillside)
which is 170 feet high gets out well. I still can't compete with K5NA and his
magic vertical and great ground conductivity but I have improved from a 90 pound
weakling to an average bear on top band. I even went out and got the W8JI mod
installed on both my MPs to be a better citizen on top band and the other
bands!
At 0525Z I noticed that the left radio had lost its RF sensitivity. I could
hear very weak signals, but everyone was 60 db down. Apparently, I had blown it
while transmitting on 160 extensively while listening to 80 meters while SO2Ring
and the left radio was using the beverages which were not protected by any
strong signal protection. My regular antennas all pass through the Dunestar six
band band pass filters on both radios, and I never have had any trouble, but the
beverage antennas bypass the Dunestar, and the strong RF coupling between the
160 meter sloper and the beverages underneath it were too much for the radio's
front end.
That devastated me, and I slumped in the chair, and thought that I would QRT. I
continued half-heartedly until nearly 07Z, and went bed at 1 AM here. I set the
alarm for 10Z, or 4 AM thinking that I would go back to sleep and blow off the
rest of the contest. My mind set was pretty bleak right then. At 10Z, I
staggered out, and went back to the radio. The morning JA run was well
underway, and the rates were very good. At 1140Z, I came back to the house (the
radio station is in our guest house), and thought that was it for me. I slept
until about 8AM. I had a small bite to eat, but felt terrible all in all. I
went back to the shack and got on the air at 1440Z and found a hole in the wall
of east coast stations running EU on 15 meters. At that point, I was
disappointed, and was just gritting it out. I was just a smidgen away from
walking out of the shack. The EU run was strong for me. I have a small stack
(two 5 element yagis that are good but not great) and can do pretty well, but am
not dominant. It's fun to have the experience to understand propagation and
competitive contesting after many years. There is a cycle and one can see the
rates improving as we get what's left over for the sweet spot on the
propagation. The run got better and better, and there were times when there
must have been ten or more stations calling at all times. It was hard to get
more than one or two characters from the mass calling. It certainly is hard
work when the pile ups are that deep. The EU run on 15 meters lasted for me
until about 19Z, or 1 PM local time. I puttered around on 20 meters, where I
had worked almost no stations prior to that, and called it quits at about 20Z
after winning a pile up battle for A61AJ on 20 meters.
At that time, I was pretty sure the contest was over for me. So I came down to
the house, and had a nice late lunch, topped off by a dab of Ben and Jerry's ice
cream. I started reading the newspaper. The sugar punch put me into a little
"coma" and I fell sound asleep on the couch in the living room. Two hours later,
I awoke at 5 PM, and felt very refreshed. My wife and I talked about the
problem. She encouraged me to stay at it, but to relax and have fun. I called
Susan, K5DU, Richard's wife, and told her what had happened, and that I was
going to get back on and fool around and would be Assisted, so that Richard
could relax and get the spot on his wall ready for the 4th consecutive year of
beating N3BB. She was very pleasant, and told me the same thing that my wife
had said, to relax and have some fun on the radio.
So I went back to the shack, and reconfigured the TR config file to hook up the
packet. At that point, at 23Z, I has been on the air for 14 hours and had been
off for 9 hours. I got back on the air a refreshed man and at 2309Z I tuned 10
meters and found some JAs for my JA mult there. The run was not great, but 15
was dazzling to JA and so I found a frequency and started back up. The JA run
was excellent on 15 meters. I also found that packet was a lot of fun, and it
was the first time I have used packet in a contest since 1997, when we won the
IARU as M/S. I enjoyed seeing the spots, and soon learned that the pile ups on
a new spot get crazy! This is old stuff for experienced multi and assisted
operators, but it was an amazing experience for me. Bottom line, I felt pretty
good physically, and went the whole way the rest of the contest, which is very
unusual for me.
The experience of knowing when you have the skip and when you don't is
interesting in terms or calling mults. My mult antenna is a small KT34A, which
belongs to N5LT. It's at 60 feet and is an unremarkable little antenna. but it
is set on the Caribbean during the day and early evening so I can beam in that
direction when the stacks are on EU or JA. It's amazing how well that antenna
works. At times, the skip gods were right here as I got everyone I called on
one call, busting some humongous packet pile ups. Of course, those skip gods
are a flighty lot, and go perch on other antennas at times, and there were times
that the mults were weaker and I waited in line a lot. But I have learned when
to hold and when to fold them, and so I didn't spend too much time when others
had better cards. With packet, I would come back and get 'em later.
Living in Texas, we rarely ever get asked to QSY. I did get asked by ES5Q on 40
meters once to QSY to 1842 as they needed TX on 160, but propagation on Saturday
night was much less favorable than on Friday night. I listened and called them,
but heard nil. I'm sorry I missed the packet spots on Friday night!
The JA run on 40 meters was as good or better Sunday morning than on Saturday
morning. Or perhaps it was my improved emotional outlook. There was a huge
pile up calling HS0ZDJ on 40 but I never could get through. The east coast
seemed to have the advantage at their sunrise. I also was never able to get him
on 20 meters later in a similar spot frenzy. He never went split, and he was
able to hear only a few stations who were calling. He must have a bad noise
floor there.
The 15 meter run to EU was very good again Sunday afternoon.
It was difficult to call CQ and run stations and then to use the same radio to
leave the run and chase packet spots. It was a crap shoot, and when things were
hopping, I would lose my run frequence most of the time on 15 meters when things
got hot and heavy. The lack of the SO2R to pick off the mults easily was
missed! For reasons I still don't understand, TR lost its ability to put me
back on the CQ freq and so I had to write down the run frequency and manually
tune the radio back to the spot. During one of those capers, I screwed up and
plopped right down on N4RV. I apologize for being a lid.
One disappointing moment occurred when 4Z5FA called *me* on the 15 meter run and
then would not work me saying it was a dupe! Weird. I never could get him to
make a QSO. So no 4Z on 15 meters.
The afternoon propagation here is bad, as absorption has killed the bands.
There is a stretch from about non to 4 PM when we troll the bands working
stations one by one.
Sunday afternoon was terrible! I literally tuned every band and worked every
single station I had not worked before. It was a good hour to make 45 QSOs.
The packet made it more interesting. By that time there were not many new mults
available from the spots, so I used the band map to work stations that still had
not been worked. Some of the QSOs on 10 meters were S0 ESP types, and congrats
to the good ears both ways.
Near the end of the contest, I noticed a spot for a JA portable in 9M6.
Thinking that 10 meters would be pretty closed, I went to the frequency and was
astounded to hear 9M6/JA1CJP S9 plus! One call nailed him, and I quickly worked
all the big JA guys calling CQ and called CQ myself. A call from HL1/WX8C
concluded the memorable weekend for me with an HL mult on 10 meters.
I certainly learned the hard way that I need some better front end protection,
and will determine what to do. Hopefully the MP problem will be a simple pin
diode or similar. I missed the great SO2R set up here, but found that I enjoyed
the packet. At one point, K5AKU at K5GO sent me packet talk messages, but I was
not able to respond to him, as K5GO showed up as not connected to the AB5K/K5NA
cluster here. Red, how did you do that?
I haven't seen a single score yet on 3830, but feel that the guys did very well.
It was great to see the propagation forecast just before the contest started
when it mentioned low magnetic conditions and called for good propagation. They
got that right!
OH0R was spotted on 40 meters well into daylight here at 2212Z, and it was a
thrill to work him at that time on one call. The northern latidude probably
helped reduce the absorption. Good signal here. That was one and a half hours
before sunset in Texas!
In terms of CTDXCC stations, N2LA was very active, and his 160 meter signal
(plus 80 and 40) here is unreal. We have to alternate calling people in pile
ups. Larry hears very well, and gets out as well or better than I do on 160.
As usual, I did not hear K5NA almost at all, as we both CQ as much as we can.
Also, he lives nearly 40 miles from me. I did hear Richard in pile ups, and
want to go on record that I beat him out on 160 meters in a V31DJ pile up. It
has happened the first and probably last time! Heard KE5C (at N5TW) once or
twice on 40 in pile ups. Heard K5WA some, although Bob was not on much. He
does very well on the LF bands from his urban lot. K5NZ was every where. They
hear very well on 160 and 80, and are tough to beat on those bands. N5AW was
stalking the pileups on LF, and Marv hears as well as anyone. He does very very
well with 100 Watts. Probably is unbeatable. AF5Z was in there looking for new
countries on 80. Hope that Bob got some new ones.
Category SOAB HP-Assisted (N3BB and packet)
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