ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: K4TD
Operator(s): K4TD
Station: K4TD
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: AL
Operating Time (hrs): 18.25
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1327 Sections = 77 Countries = 30 Total Score = 302,917
Club: Alabama Contest Group
Comments:
First, a big "THANK YOU" to everyone for all the Q's! This is one of my
favorite contests, unfortunately I had to start a little over two hours late
due to a work commitment late Friday afternoon. Missing the beginning of this
one is disappointing because the high rates always come very early.
Fortunately even arriving late there was plenty of activity to make it
challenging. (Per hour data provided below). I missed the following sections:
PR, AK and NT. In the moment, I didn't think I was doing well working EU's but
after-action analysis indicates that there were more EU's in the log than I
originally thought. (See table below). A special "THANK YOU" to all the DX
that turned out to make this one more interesting, especially with conditions
as "puny" as they seemed to be at times.
Worked the following from Alabama: AA4U, K4AB, K4HAL, K4IQJ, K8AJX, K9MUG,
KA4U, KA9EKJ, KC4HW, KG4CUY, KR4F, N4AX, N4HPL, N4JH, N4NM, N4NO, N4SAM, N4UC,
N4VN, NE4M, NV4B, W4JSI, W4RYW, WA1FCN, WB5NMZ and WX4TM. Other ACG/SECC'ers I
worked included: K1ZZI, K2SX, K4BAI, N4GG, N4LR, N4OGW, N4OX, N4PN, W4DD, W4SVO
and W8JI (VE7ZO). I apologize if I worked someone from the ACG/SECC whom I
didn't list.
We had a good deal of rain in the time leading up to this contest. That must
have significantly (and positively) impacted the ground system under my DXE
160M RX four square. I noticed that I had incredibly good front-to-side and
front-to-back rejection from the 160M array this weekend. That forced me to
have to be very aggressive in steering it onto a caller and was responsible for
me asking for many more call sign repeats than I would have otherwise liked.
I had planned to write at length regarding my experiences with and/or
observations of bad manners this weekend, but I'm just too tired to do that.
It probably wouldn't do any good anyway. I will say that it was extremely
depressing to get into endless frequency fights caused by someone trying to
steal one's run frequency while being in the middle of trying to pull a weak
station (probably a QRP'er) out of the mud. Most of the time the interloper
moved on after a moment or two, but there were a couple of notable exceptions,
which really spiked my blood pressure. The trend seems to be up for QRP class
entries, which I inherently respect; however some consideration should be given
to those of us who have to dig these "nightlight" power level signals out of a
crowded, noisey band. With available spectrum at a premimum any open "hole" is
quickly attacked making an exchange with a QRP station sometimes very painful
indeed. That brings me to my final point for this write-up. If you have
substandard receiver hardware, you should think about replacing it if you plan
to continue playing on this band. The amount of spectrum is pitifully low for
the number of stations who want to try and run. In one notable case, a guy
came from over 700 Hz away to zero-beat me and call CQ on top of me in an
attempt to run me off. My sincere advice to that person is to get rid of his
"stone-aged" equipment and get a modern receiver with good roofing filters...
By the way, what was it with the "dupes" this year? I had 68 stations work me
more than once with some guys being "multiple" dupes. With all the logging
programs out there (some of which are "FREE!!") I really find it disappointing
to see the number of dupes as large as it was. The really disappointing times
came when I would dig a "weak" guy out of the mud hoping it might be a mult
only to find it was a dupe. Risking a frequency battle over a weak dupe is not
my idea of a fun time. I take my responsibility very seriously and try as hard
as I can to work a weak station if at all possible (I like to think that maybe
I'm a new mult for them). All I ask in return is for them not to put me
through that more than once... :-)
The tables mentioned above follow below.
73,
Rick
K4TD
------------------------------------------------
K4TD By band - CW
QSOs (with dupes) - By time
! Hr ! 160 ! Total !
! ! CW ! !
----------------------------
! 22 ! ! !
! 23 ! ! !
! 00 ! 118 ! 118 !
! 01 ! 150 ! 150 !
! 02 ! 138 ! 138 !
! 03 ! 128 ! 128 !
! 04 ! 65 ! 65 !
! 05 ! 97 ! 97 !
! 06 ! 58 ! 58 !
! 07 ! 52 ! 52 !
! 08 ! 51 ! 51 !
! 09 ! 10 ! 10 !
! 10 ! 31 ! 31 !
! 11 ! 42 ! 42 !
! 12 ! 52 ! 52 !
! 13 ! ! !
! 14 ! ! !
! 15 ! ! !
! 16 ! ! !
! 17 ! ! !
! 18 ! ! !
! 19 ! ! !
! 20 ! ! !
! 21 ! ! !
! 22 ! 33 ! 33 !
! 23 ! 61 ! 61 !
! 00 ! 68 ! 68 !
! 01 ! 20 ! 20 !
! 02 ! 16 ! 16 !
! 03 ! 58 ! 58 !
! 04 ! 49 ! 49 !
! 05 ! 8 ! 8 !
! 06 ! 22 ! 22 !
! 07 ! 39 ! 39 !
! 08 ! 12 ! 12 !
! 09 ! 17 ! 17 !
! 10 ! ! !
! 11 ! ! !
! 12 ! ! !
! 13 ! ! !
! 14 ! ! !
! 15 ! ! !
! 16 ! ! !
----------------------------
! ! 1395 ! 1395 !
K4TD Worked DXCC
DXCC | CT | 160 | TOTAL
==========================
9A | EU | 1 | 1
CT | EU | 1 | 1
CX | SA | 1 | 1
DL | EU | 7 | 7
E7 | EU | 1 | 1
EA | EU | 1 | 1
EI | EU | 1 | 1
F | EU | 5 | 5
FM | NA | 2 | 2
G | EU | 10 | 10
GM | EU | 1 | 1
GW | EU | 1 | 1
HI | NA | 2 | 2
HK0/a | NA | 1 | 1
I | EU | 2 | 2
J3 | NA | 1 | 1
JA | AS | 1 | 1
OK | EU | 2 | 2
OM | EU | 2 | 2
ON | EU | 2 | 2
P4 | SA | 2 | 2
PA | EU | 3 | 3
PJ2 | SA | 1 | 1
SM | EU | 2 | 2
SV | EU | 1 | 1
UA | EU | 2 | 2
UR | EU | 1 | 1
XE | NA | 1 | 1
YU | EU | 1 | 1
ZF | NA | 1 | 1
==========================
| | 60 | 60
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