CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
Call: K3FIV
Operator(s): K3FIV
Station: K3FIV
Class: SOAB(TS) LP
QTH: CA CM88eu
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 147
40: 168
20: 78
15: 114
10: 6
------------
Total: 513 Prefixes = 244 Total Score = 325,740
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
This was a great experience learning RTTY contesting. Main goal was simply to
see what I could do with just 100 watts and a wire antenna, and try to get more
comfortable with the equipment in RTTY usage. Band conditions were great, at
least compared to what we've been experiencing.
I found I could almost always find a reasonably clear frequency to run, even
when 20 and 40 were busy. 40 and 80 are my best bands, where the wire antenna
isn't as much of a handicap as on higher bands. Running on 20 wasn't very
successful - my weak signal is probably just lost in the crowd. Had fun
running Asia (mostly JA, but also others) on both 40 and 15.
Rig is a Flex-3000 software radio - with N1MM/MMTTY running in the same PC as
the radio. Getting all of the interconnects right (software settings) is a bit
of a challenge, and there's so many different controls and settings that it's
not obvious which way is best. But I guess I got it to put out a reasonable
RTTY signal, since nobody complained and not very many AGN AGN replies.
I found that spots on the bandmap were only marginally useful. With the
panadaptor display, it was easier to just walk up the band from signal to
signal, using a very narrow filter. I found that I could usually work a
station who hadn't been spotted with just one call, and got quite a few mults
that way.
OTOH, it was interesting to see what happened when I was spotted several times
on 80/40! I think people are relying way too much on spots, and should
consider spending a little more time turning the dial - or get a panadaptor so
you can see the stations when you're S&Ping.
Good contest, lots of activity, unlike many contests where by Sunday the bands
are full of only the CQing big guns that you've already worked. With my wire
antenna, 40 and 80 were great - but somewhere around 4AM local time I knew it
was time to sleep when I hit the wrong key, then hit another wrong key, and
inflicted a stream of gibberish on someone, who just sent ??? Sorry about
that!
Thanks to everyone who pulled out my signal!
73,
/Jack de K3FIV
Rig: Flex-3000, N1MM/MMTTY
Ant: 80M Carolina Windom up 12M
QTH: California coast, 125 Km north of San Francisco
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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