ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: K1IR
Operator(s): K1IR K1NU K1OA K1VR KE1J W1VE
Station: K1IR
Class: M/S HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 79 55
80: 627 93
40: 1348 111
20: 1149 111
15: 1090 107
10: 292 85
-------------------
Total: 4585 562 Total Score = 7,728,624
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Great contest! Congratulations to W4PA, K3WW, W3LPL, K4JA, VY2ZM/VY2LZ [what a
story!] and the many, many others with top notch performances.
For several years we've been wondering just how well we could do here at K1IR
with our little one-tower station. Could we play in the same league as the big
boys? Our performance in this contest has given us some hope that we can. Here
are some of the things we did this past year to improve our performance:
- Tower upgraded to 45G to handle greater load
- Built a new shack in the basement with all amenities necessary for successful
multi-op contesting
- Tower permit renewed [only days prior to contest]
- Upgraded the only rotatable antenna - an old three element tribander - to a
set of 4 and 5 element yagis for 20/15/10 [thanks K1NQ]
- Install the 20/15/10m yagis at the best heights predicted by HFTA [thanks
Dean]
- Moved the 40-2CD to a Ring Rotor
- Added StackMatches to allow stacking and power splitting between the upper
[rotatable] and lower [fixed EU] yagis
- Nearly fully automatic antenna and bandpass filter switching
- Fix up the 160m inverted L
- Added an Orion to the transceiver arsenal
- Defined and stuck to a solid operating strategy
- Assigned ops to specific roles and time slots - and expect them to perform
- Prayed daily for favorable prop
When this contest ended, all the equipment was still functional, the team was
still getting along - and we had built up what looked like a pretty good score!
It feels like the investments are paying off. Here's a little bit of the
story.
Those Fateful Days Leading Up to the Contest...
One of the objectives we had settled on following WW was to get to the point of
having the station remain stable from one contest to the next. We were really
tired of ops arriving with critical gear just hours before start time. Lars,
KE1J, announced our new phonetics - Kilo One Independence Radio. We worked hard
to achieve that goal. A new Orion was purchased. I forced team member W1VE to
sell me the FT-1000MP he always brought down on Thursday or Friday before the
contest. Gerry also loaned us his Acom 2000A well in advance of the contest.
"The K1IR station has never before been so ready, so early, for any contest,"
Lars announced on Wednesday night - a full 48 hours before the contest was to
begin. Little did he know what these words would bring over the next 48 hours.
Some packages arrived on Thursday - a couple of new INRAD filters and a new
encoder from Yaesu to repair the FT-1000MP RIT/clarifier. Without hesitation, I
pulled the MPs out of their spots on the operating desk and got to work doing
the upgrades. Moving the filters around, of course, was easy, but the clarifier
was a bit challenging. After partially reassembling the MPs, they were ready for
testing. My original radio with its new 250Hz filter was fine - 10 quick QSOs on
40m. Next, I tested the second radio with the new RIT control installed. The
encoder worked great - smooth as silk. I called cq and had many callers right
away. Made 4 or 5 QSOs and suddenly after one exchange I had a quiet reciever.
It sounded like the antenna was no longer connected to the radio. After some
troubleshooting with help from KE1J, we determined that one of the T/R relays
was not opening up in receive mode. I was suffering from huge pangs of guilt.
Had I caused the damage while installing the upgrades? Was the failure just a
coincidence? It sure seemed like we had a bad relay. Tapping on the relay would
cause it to click in and out. We made a list of options. Find the part locally.
Find a friend with a dead 1000MP with that board still intact. Look for a spare
MP to borrow [the day before the contest?]. We'd been up late and we knew we
needed to get some sleep or we'd be useless for the contest. So, I sent out a
plea for help to our YCCC reflector hoping a miracle might be delivered
overnight and we went to sleep not knowing if we'd have our critical "dual-rate"
station fully equipped at the start of the contest.
Friday morning was just a bit on the hectic side. In response to my reflector
plea, I got a very early call from local contester NB1B who was able to offer
his MP since he was headed to MM K1XM and didn't need it for the weekend. But,
after we installed it, Dennis informed me that the main tuning knob had been
known to lock up solid, making the radio almost impossible to operate in a
contest. This made me nervous and I decided to continue down the repair path. I
drove 2 hours to the local Yaesu repair guy and he had the relay [thanks Groton
Electronics]! Drove back with it and installed it - but no luck. The problem was
still there. So much for the repair option. Finally, K1EP sent email reminding
me that one of our own ops - K1VR - has an MP. Fred was happy to make it
available. I ended up putting that MP into service with only 2 hours before the
contest was to begin. Exhausted from the stress of the situation, I was able to
delude myself into believing that by doing the radio upgrades I had coaxed out a
failure that would otherwise have occured in the middle of the contest - I was a
hero!
Back in November in CQ WW, when the clock turned to 0000z, W1VE began running on
40m, and upon entering the first QSO in WriteLog, the entire networked logging
system went nuts. An apparent network loop was causing that QSO to be propagated
around the network in a continuous loop - filling the log with zillions of
OH-somebody and locking the operators out at every operating position! It took
an hour to get that problem resolved, and it cost us dearly in the final
results. So, for this contest, we set the network up days in advance, and I had
been entering fake callsigns into the log from every station every few minutes
just to be sure everything was working properly - and it was.
0000z - The Contest Starts
With all these equipment problems behind us, the contest got off to a great
start and continued without any major technical or operating problems. We were
able to make good rates and we executed our mult strategy quite effectively.
There were a few WriteLog crashes, a minor problem with an MP fan and that's it
. . . except one minor issue. On Saturday, while running on an MP, K1OA was
rudely informed by an unidentified station that our signal was poor and
generating clicks up and down the band. The station appeared to be from Europe
according to beam headings, and the guy decided that we should move. So, he
jammed the frequency for a good five minutes, and finally Scott gave up his
frequency and moved. Early Sunday morning, I was lucky to be near my office
computer when our friend K1EP sent me an Instant Message. The following
conversation ensued...
Session Start (AIM - k1ir:ed7493): Sun Feb 22 05:18:56 2004
[05:18] ed7493: you have clicks on 20M
[05:22] ed7493: loud clicks!!!!!!!!!
[05:26] ed7493: WAKE UP
[05:28] K1IR: ??
[05:29] ed7493: you have loud clicks
[05:29] ed7493: maybe it is me
[05:29] K1IR: ok very wide?
[05:29] ed7493: but wiht 18 db att
[05:29] ed7493: yes
[05:29] ed7493: signal doesn
[05:29] ed7493: 't sound great either
[05:29] K1IR: other very loud guys dont have?
[05:29] ed7493: nope
[05:29] ed7493: have no preamp and 18 db att
[05:29] K1IR: maybe we switch radios
[05:30] ed7493: and not much of an antenna
[05:30] ed7493: using orion?
[05:30] ed7493: QSK?
[05:30] K1IR: thats MP
[05:30] ed7493: go to semi?
[05:30] ed7493: Oh
[05:30] ed7493: i c
[05:30] K1IR: not qsk
[05:30] ed7493: sounds like shit
[05:31] K1IR: ok will go down and tell them. can i call u and hear it on
phone?
[05:31] ed7493: sure
[05:31] K1IR: #
[05:31] ed7493: 978 xxx xxxx
[05:38] K1IR: how now? switched to diff MP?
[05:38] ed7493: hold on
[05:38] K1IR: same fq
[05:38] ed7493: good
[05:38] ed7493: no clicks
[05:38] ed7493: with preamp
[05:39] K1IR: ok. tnx. thats Freds MP. Mine hasn't been modified. nobody ever
complainred b4
[05:39] ed7493: well now they haved
[05:39] K1IR: Fred has a click mod in his
[05:39] ed7493: it works
[05:39] K1IR: ok. gotta go. ttyl
[05:40] ed7493: 73
[05:40] K1IR: we over 5 mill now i think
[05:40] *** ed7493 signed off at Sun Feb 22 05:40:10 2004.
Session Close (ed7493): Mon Feb 23 08:03:19 2004
We will definitely be doing the click mods to the MPs here sometime in the next
couple of months.
Notes on Operating Strategy...
The team met for dinner a couple of weeks before the contest. We assigned key
responsibilities for food and other important logistical items. Then we talked
strategy. We ended up with the team in full agreement on how we would approach
the contest. We selected W1VE and K1OA for the critical role of Rate Op [later
dubbed "Prima Dona Rate Guy" or PDRG] and the rest of the team were to act in
the Support role [aka "Lowly Mult Guy" or LMG]. PDRGs were assigned longer sleep
periods. Meals were to be tailored to their liking. LMGs were there to ensure
that every need of the PDRGs was met. Nothing would get in the way of
maintaining *Rate*.
But, the team also agreed that mults are important, too. We reviewed and
discussed the ARRL multi-single rules in great detail. It became clear that the
LMGs needed to take full advantage of the small amount of flexibility provided
by the six band-change per hour rule. We resolved that we would use every band
change available in the hour primarily to increase the mult count, but also to
make a few additional QSOs if no mults were available.
I developed an operating schedule. We assigned operating time and sleep time
generally in 3-4 hour slots. This worked out nicely for much of the contest, but
during the rough hours around 0900z, we needed to make the on-air shifts shorter
to keep fresh ops in the chairs. It was tough to keep to the schedule. Some of
the guys had a hard time going to sleep in the middle of the day - at the
expense of being tired during their late-night shift.
Passing mults was part of the plan, too. But, this was not very successful. In
multi-single, it's so easy to burn a valuable band-change. You don't have
somebody calling cq on another band like you do as a MM or M2. And you don't
have the "frequency agility" that you have as a SO. So, while we tried to move a
few guys, we were rarely successful.
Remarkable Events and Other Ramblings...
- OJ was on our minds for the whole weekend. Hearing J7OJ out there was very
comforting. We are lucky to be part of such a close and supportive community.
- Orion was an outstanding performer. We are quite certain that there were
stations we could not have worked without the excellent capabilities of this
radio's receiver.
- As others have noted, 160/80/40 were just wonderful. Could we have moved the
Rate station to 160m for a while?
- We think we might have squeezed some more QSOs and a few more mults out of 10m
on Saturday. It was tough to decide how important the 10m opening was going to
be.
- YCCC is a great group to be a part of. Our club members are always there for
each other. It was great to hear so many of our team mates of every skill level
on the bands.
About the Station...
Inside:
Rate: 2 x FT-1000MP dual rate station with Acom 2S1 and Acom 2000A
Mult: Orion/Alpha 87A and IC-781/Acom 2000A in SO2R style hookup with shared
bandpass filters switched with SixPacks
Software: WriteLog 10.45M
Outside - in the woods:
160: Inverted-L with 6 radials [we need more]
80: 3-el Yagi NE/SW, Sloper SE
Rx: Dual phased Bev NE, Single Bev NE, Single bidirectional Bev E/W
Outside - on the tower:
40: 40-2CD
20: 4 rotatable/4 fixed EU, shared tribander fixed S
15: 4 rotatable/5 fixed EU, shared tribander fixed S
10: 5 rotatable/5 fixed EU, shared tribander fixed S
About the Team...
The K1IR Team has evolved over the past six years. Specific composition of the
team changes for every contest due to operator availability. But, several of the
ops have been with the team for a long time, and they know the drill. They know
the station and understand the style of the operation. We have members who
complement each other nicely in operating skills, management skills and
technical skills. It's a great team, and we'd be nowhere without them. I feel
very good about where we are in this area. My thanks to all of them for their
various contributions to the effort.
Heard that YCCC rally cry - "KB" - on the bands? It's "Kick Butt!" In our case
we'd more appropriately like to say...
... Click Butt! [tnx K1EP]
73 to all and we look forward to many more seasons of great, competitive
contesting...
Jim K1IR
The Breakdown Sheet
QSO/DX by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
OffTime
D1-0000Z 7/7 --+-- 143/48 --+-- 2/2 --+-- 152/57 152/57
D1-0100Z 5/5 112/33 - 3/3 - - 120/41 272/98
D1-0200Z 4/4 51/9 26/2 - - - 81/15 353/113
D1-0300Z 2/2 81/16 4/2 - - - 87/20 440/133
D1-0400Z 1/1 11/0 62/19 - - - 74/20 514/153
D1-0500Z 6/6 15/3 48/5 - - - 69/14 583/167
D1-0600Z 9/6 34/6 24/4 - - - 67/16 650/183
D1-0700Z 3/3 4/4 119/6 - - - 126/13 776/196
D1-0800Z 2/2 4/4 72/3 --+-- --+-- --+-- 78/9 854/205
D1-0900Z - 2/1 41/1 - - - 43/2 897/207
D1-1000Z - 1/1 26/3 77/26 - - 104/30 1001/237
D1-1100Z - - - 170/28 4/4 - 174/32 1175/269
D1-1200Z - - - 54/4 105/35 3/3 162/42 1337/311
D1-1300Z - - - - 90/9 44/20 134/29 1471/340
D1-1400Z - - - - 108/12 24/12 132/24 1603/364
D1-1500Z - - - 7/2 10/3 98/17 115/22 1718/386
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 131/7 11/9 142/16 1860/402
D1-1700Z - - - 67/4 60/9 2/2 129/15 1989/417
D1-1800Z - - - 131/7 4/3 1/1 136/11 2125/428
D1-1900Z - - - 122/5 2/2 3/3 127/10 2252/438
D1-2000Z - - 78/1 7/0 4/4 2/2 91/7 2343/445
D1-2100Z - - 103/0 1/1 2/1 - 106/2 2449/447
D1-2200Z - - 88/2 8/8 - - 96/10 2545/457
D1-2300Z 2/2 22/1 54/2 1/1 - - 79/6 2624/463
D2-0000Z 3/3 30/1 10/0 9/7 --+-- --+-- 52/11 2676/474
D2-0100Z 2/2 36/2 19/2 - - - 57/6 2733/480
D2-0200Z 10/3 17/2 26/3 - - - 53/8 2786/488
D2-0300Z 4/1 49/4 1/1 - - - 54/6 2840/494
D2-0400Z 6/2 22/1 25/2 - - - 53/5 2893/499
D2-0500Z 4/3 21/0 44/2 - - - 69/5 2962/504
D2-0600Z 6/1 87/1 - - - - 93/2 3055/506
D2-0700Z 3/2 1/1 76/1 - - - 80/4 3135/510
D2-0800Z --+-- 1/0 58/0 --+-- --+-- --+-- 59/0 3194/510
D2-0900Z - - 33/0 6/0 - - 39/0 3233/510
D2-1000Z - 1/1 - 95/0 2/0 - 98/1 3331/511
D2-1100Z - - 1/1 114/3 2/1 - 117/5 3448/516
D2-1200Z - - - 26/0 119/0 1/0 146/0 3594/516
D2-1300Z - - - 2/2 152/4 - 154/6 3748/522
D2-1400Z - - - - 139/6 3/3 142/9 3890/531
D2-1500Z - - - - 87/1 12/2 99/3 3989/534
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 3/2 --+-- 79/8 82/10 4071/544
D2-1700Z - - - 41/1 23/0 2/1 66/2 4137/546
D2-1800Z - - - 89/2 3/0 5/0 97/2 4234/548
D2-1900Z - - - 66/2 1/1 2/2 69/5 4303/553
D2-2000Z - - 38/0 29/0 4/1 - 71/1 4374/554
D2-2100Z - - 82/1 2/1 1/1 - 85/3 4459/557
D2-2200Z - - 47/0 3/2 19/1 - 69/3 4528/560
D2-2300Z - 25/2 - 16/0 16/0 - 57/2 4585/562
Total: 79/55 627/93 1348/1111149/1111090/107 292/85
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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