ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N1DS
Operator(s): N1DS
Station: N1DS
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 2 2
80: 27 20
40: 67 35
20: 46 32
15: 166 61
10: 56 31
-------------------
Total: 364 181 Total Score = 197,652
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Sun 3pm: Chose to do a "quickie" fix of a setup mistake; my 80 m sloper passed
thru the 40 m delta loop and was in principle disturbing configuration tho had
done well so far. ased on couple other minor achievement I had between 2:40 and
2:50 when above was noticed. I'd taken a breather and surveyed antenna farm aka
nominal 60 X 80 ft backyard incl. 15 ft ledge hill to further, narrower end of
yard. Qickly, I had relocatd my loop baseline anchor ropes, steering my delta
loop about 30 deg to east by s/e and raised its baseline and decoupling from
trees and bushes and probably doubling its efficiency still low compared to if
it were truly 'elevated' as its SWR was still too good to be true. As Geo.
Grammer used to say Low SWR is not necessarily a good thing. An antenna well
coupled to ground has a lower SWR. Antennas looking too good to be true on SWR
side are probably just that!
I figure I had raised its performance and brought pattern around to So Eu &
Afr and favoring Pacic for harmonic bands off the back and side lobes to arctic
as JA time was coming; etc.
Seeing how quickly I had made my recent loop achievenebts, I Broke my stride
Elevated feed end of 160 El from 15 to 25 feet and got the 80 m sloper out of
Deltaloop and endpoint raised some as well( but I proved today I could get
another 20 % higher el corner still low, continuing Sunday's approach).
Realizing I have put up a high 80 m dipole for another ham and pefected my line
casting by preconditioing the line to lower drag by taking out accumulated
twists. I know if wx holds I can get the end of the El up to 60 feet casting a
line up over an oak branch, and raise the corner of the el to 40 or 50 feet.
rather than settling for the configurtation of the last few hectic years.
If I manage such an overall height increase, maybe we can see first real 160 m
contest quality ops as a proof test, and much better service in the ARRL SB
weekend!
But I really messed up sleepily made a sloppy corroded rectifying joint that
upset the low bands. I was too pooped by then to do more than muddle thru.
Wasted much time as coffee and sugar wore off. Remaining time would have been
better spent glued to the chair. IM of scrambled foreign BC etc on 40 & down,
i.e., low bands were useless and 10 was near closed so milked what I could from
20 & 15 to the end.
Had I left well enough alone, (after all loop field lines run tangent to (more
so than cutting the 80 m sloper, and tweak to loop put its plane closer to 90
deg to the sloper, as I as tilted loop to get its baseline higher) Had settled
down and gotten back onto the operating track after 'My quickie fixes' I would
not have squandered 2/3 of remaining few hours and anihilated my low bands.
For even with my wires and low yagi, could have done quite a bit more for my
score as the points are really taking off at this point on the curve and there
are a lot of low band mults around that could not be worked earlier in the test
for the chaos and time spent making multiple calls into pileups without
success.
Well 40 m SB splits and quick precise B-VFO QSY I find make it a lot easier -
to live on 40 and with the changes that now see corrected & perfected maybe I
can double my score lowband scores for SSB weekend.
To wrap up the ARRL CW my low-wires small antenna farm could have carried on as
well as or better than earlier and I'd have made another 100 QSOs, regardless
of whether I had succeeded in my quickie fixes, rather than having made the
actualized abortion. I think I could have produced half again as many mults on
low band plus Qs, as things get easier at end of test, mopping up espcially
having done so little earlier.
Will try for this week to raise hi point of El from 30 ft to 60 feet & as before
hang 80 m sloper from it. Got out sandpaper and conducting grease, so with solid
connections and longer vertical current sections will do much better. It was
not proper to give in and let the imagination take one on tangent in the last
hours of a contest. I really shot myself in the foot!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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