CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1199 State/Prov = 58 Countries = 48 Total Score = 367,820
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
Radio noise of all types except ordinary lightning static dominated my
weekend.
My goal was to beat last year's multi-op (WB8JUI and myself) score and
try out my automatic "signal finder" SDR feature. The signal finder
feature is some additional software hacks to my beam steering phased
array receiving system. The idea is for the software to construct any
number of beams and look for signals in any number of channels (FFT
bins) around the operating frequency for energy which would presumably
be a signal replying to my CQ. The software would choose the channel
and heading with the greatest amount of energy and automatically "turn
the antenna" and change the frequency relieving the operator of the
drudgery of twiddling the tuning knob and pushing heading buttons.
As a proof of concept, the scheme works. However, I need to do
considerably more work to make this method practical. The first
improvement is to use a better algorithm so that I can analyze more
directions than 3 simultaneously without running out of computing
horsepower.
The second improvement is for the software to automatically ignore my
own transmit signal. I could implement a tie-in with the logging
software or the transmit radio but it would be nice if the receiver
software could recognize my own transmitted signal without being told.
The simple test for a signal that is "too strong" is not sufficient,
because the transmitted signal transitions from not "too strong" to
"too strong" slowly enough for the software to see the intermediate
state which briefly looks like a normal signal.
A third improvement is to differentiate between valid signals and
noise and key clicks. Fortunately, valid signals are sort of
"vertical" while noise tends to be "horizontal" (imagine
looking at a
typical waterfall display; note that the popular "Rocky" SDR program
displays a waterfall sideways).
So, 10 minutes into the contest, I had completed my proof-of-concept
demonstration to myself, and I had to discard the notion of running
stations without having to touch any buttons or knobs other than to
log callsigns. At least there was no lightning QRN.
Before the contest I tried to track down every local noise source and
fix it. The best fix was discovering my neighbor's noisy track
lighting and his willingness to simply not use them. However, shortly
after the end of the Stew Perry test, a new noise source to the east
appeared. This source seemed to be power line noise and I located a
line of poles about a mile to my east that seem to be the source of
the noise. However, I haven't been able to determine which pole is
causing the noise. The lightning arrestors that my power utility use
seem to easily break down and cause 2 MHz hash without making much
noise above 2 MHz. Identifying the pole requires some footwork to
visit each candidate pole in turn with the little MFJ aircraft band
receiver.
This new noise seemed to be fairly harmless because it raised the
noise floor by only a few dB. Also, by beaming 58 degrees (not quite
optimum for Europe from here) I could put the source into a null so
that the noise floor rises only about 1-2 dB in a 240 Hz bandwidth.
The first evening of the contest is a mad rush to log as many QSOs as
possible before seriously looking for DX. Normally, a few DX stations
find there way into the log on their own. Not this year.
The first three hours net more than 100 QSOs each. Suddenly, the
amplifier kicked off because of too much reflected power. Did the
antenna fail? As I started to gather my thoughts about how to
troubleshoot the failure, the waterfall display on the phased array
receiver starts to turn completely white. The base line on the P3
display rose about 20 db or more (the K3 receivers are connected to
Beverages). I've never seen any of this before. Low power shows a
bad SWR, then suddenly the SWR is good again. Since the waterfall is
still white with noise, I decide I can't run and I'll have to hunt.
So at about 0115Z I S&P'd for about 10 kHz starting at 1830 and worked
just a few of the loudest (only available) European stations. During
the next 20 minutes the amplifier tripped 3 more times and the noise
came and went as well. Then everything settled down and played
normally. Was this snow static? Was static build-up on the transmit
antenna causing an arc when I transmitted? Could the arc happen with
only 20 watts?
So at 0135Z I go back to running. No more amplifier trips. By 0500Z
I had gotten about 200 QSOs ahead of last year but multipliers were
very low. At 0500Z the rate went way down but the usual compensation
by way of DX points did not materialize. There was little additional
DX at Europe sunrise.
Overnight, the west coast seemed weak. During the Stew Perry, I found
the second phased array to be very helpful. During this contest, the
effect was almost absent. Saturday afternoon I found a software bug
that corrected that problem. Apparently, during the Stew Perry test,
I inadvertently avoided the bug. Kind of a cabling problem but in
shell scripts instead of patch cables. So the west coast wasn't
really weak, just my receiving was impaired.
At my sunrise I think I worked just 1 ESP JA and no other DX.
The second evening seemed to bring better conditions to Europe,
although few were calling during my runs. Around 2300Z my waterfall
display filled with a white crosshatch pattern (different than the
pattern from the day before). At first I thought my neighbor had
turned on his noisy track lights. I called him and left a message.
Since the noise continued, I got a portable receiver and started to
walk towards his house to prove whether or not the noise was coming
from there. But the portable receiver was clean and the snow drifts
were deep! When I got back to the shack, the noise was fading in and
out; that is, the screen was changing from almost pure white to shades
of light blue (the background color). I tuned to 1750 to listen to
the noise in AM mode expecting to hear a buzz. But the sound was a
"pure" hiss with an edge of crackle, like a thousand sheets of paper
crumpled continuously. More snow static? This was not the same noise
as yesterday. Also, there was little wind when I was walking towards
the neighbor's house.
After about 20 minutes the noise faded enough to go hunting. After a
somewhat longer while, the noise faded enough to resume running (or
attempt to run on a 2nd night). The noise came back several times,
although each time was less intense. By about 0500Z the noise was gone
for good.
About 0630Z I enjoyed a modest European run. I'm sure there were
stations calling that I just didn't detect at all and a few more that
I just couldn't pull out of the east noise.
Meanwhile, some new power line style noise showed up coming from the
west. This noise made receiving W6s somewhat difficult, but by early
Sunday morning I had worked most of them. Also, the new noise seemed
to cycle on and off although I didn't measure the cycle time. So I
was able to work a few 6s and 7s through the holes in the noise. It
was gone after Sunday morning (when it didn't hinder operating any
more).
After 0830Z I took a 2 hour "nap". When got up I was so groggy that
I
couldn't figure out get started for about 30 minutes. Yet I made 2
contacts during that time. That episode was very trippy. I didn't
bother to queue up for JAs Sunday morning because my motivation was
extremely low, even after I completely woke up.
I got on again at 2000Z for a final push for 20 more contacts to get
across the 1200 QSO line, but I discovered that I had forgotten about
the 30 hour time limit. So I went over a few minutes, which will
probably cost 4-5 QSOs. I'm sure log checking will delete several
more.
I listened hard for NH0Z but didn't hear a peep. The JAs need to
petition their government to expand their band so that we all don't
have to squash ourselves into 15 kHz every morning.
Missed the score goal by 130 QSOs, an untold number of points, and 6
multipliers. Conditions were worse than last year, more-so on Friday
than Saturday (with regard to Europe), but the noise adventures took a
toll as well.
Since the contest has ended and I've ready some 3830 posts, I think
both noise episodes were snow static. The first night the snow was
actively blowing and I am guessing that there was corona that would
light an arc when I transmitted. The second night I just can't
explain. Also, I did hear some "relaxation oscillator" type noise
mixed with one of the noise episodes, but now I forget which one. I
capture about 60 seconds of the "hiss with crackling" noise the
second
night which I can play back and extract audio if anyone want to hear
it. The RF was centered around 1780 KHz, and the passband overlaps
the 160 band slightly.
DX worked: 6Y, 9A, C6, CE, CM, CT, DL (23), E7, EA, EA8, F (3), FM, G
(11), GW (2), HA (3), HB, HC, HK, I (6), JA, KH6 (4), KP2 (2), KP4
(2), LX, LY (2), LZ, OE, OK (5), OM (3), ON (2), OZ, PA (4), PJ2, PY,
PZ, S5 (8), SM, SP (2), SV, UA2, UR, V3 (2), VP2V, VP9, XE (5), YU,
YV, and ZF. No Russians unless you count Kaliningrad.
The surprise multiplier was PZ1AA because getting a contact in that
strange pileup seemed surprising, despite wasting 20 minutes.
Equipment: K3, P3, Alpha 8410 with extra fans to suppress the internal
blower; 2x4 short vertical phased array, 2x3 short vertical phased
array, 8 Softrock style "receivers", 2x Delta 1010LT and 100
tantalum
capacitors replacing dried up electrolytic capacitors, computer for
SDR and audio routing, computer for logging, WriteLog (which crashed
for the first time ever), and 1 lid. Lots of Beverages but I didn't
use them except to confirm that they can hear noise too.
Running yearly comparison:
Year QSOs States DX Hour Raw score Ops
2014 1199 58 48 30 367,820 1
2013 1329 58 58 32 536,140 2
2012 1297 59 47 30 396,016 1
2011 1471 59 67 30 670,320 1
2010 1559 58 75 39 776,587 2
2009 1416 59 71 30 757,510 1
2008 1350 58 64 38 553,758 2
2007 1063 58 68 32 422,100 1
2006 764 58 47 26 260,505 1
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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