North American QSO Party, CW
Call: N4VI
Operator(s): N4VI
Station: N4VI
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CO
Operating Time (hrs): 8
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 3 3
80: 184 45
40: 148 36
20: 70 29
15: 1 1
10: 1 1
-------------------
Total: 407 115 Total Score = 46,805
Club:
Team:
Comments:
Well the contest got better as it progressed. I got a very late start as high
winds over the last month had caused much more damage to various wire antennas
than I expected.
Also experienced a number of issues in getting the 746 running smoothly with TR
(this is the first time I've used it in contest operation). In retrospect none
of the issues were TR's fault, but I wasn't a happy camper for the first couple
of hours. TR was jumping from Run mode to S&P and various other issues. These
were all fixed when the computer crashed and I booted directly into DOS. I
apologize to all for some of the LID operating that took place, there's one VE3
in particular that must have wondered what the heck was going on!
For awhile I had both the 746 and TR manual open at the operating position, not
to mention attempting to operate. Not a pretty picture or one of operating
success. ;-)
With the late start I did the best I could with 20m.
40m was pretty good with a few high rate runs, but there seemed to be more
noise than expected.
80m was even noiser but there was lots of activity and mults. I don't believe
80m has ever been the band with the most mults before. I didn't feel that
strong on 80m, and didn't expect to with a 36' tall inverted L with 12 44'
radials. Still eventually I resorted to calling CW on 80m just to see what
would happen. A fairly steady stream of responses was quite a shock.
When the contest was over, I tuned up to 3830 to hear what others reported.
The QRN was so bad, if there was any activity I couldn't hear it. This lead
to a 30 minute post contest search for the source. In the past I have always
believed the culprit was the light dimmers. Not this time. We have some low
voltage lights that are positioned below the cabinets in the kitchen. They are
the source of the problem (actually I assume the transformer/power source is the
culprit).
So while not being pleased with my score, I learned a lot from this contest.
I'd say the 80m results were the highlight, especially considering the QRN,
followed by some good high rate runs on 40m.
Thanks for the QSO's and hopefully I'll have the station working more smoothly
for the SSB version.
Rig: Icom 746
Antennas:
160m: 80m inverted-L
80m: 36' high inverted-L
40m: 35' high wire dipole
20/15/10: Cushcraft D-3 dipole fixed E/W
73
n4vi
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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