CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 40.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 43 11 31
80: 162 17 63
40: 461 27 81
20: 726 32 96
15: 736 31 94
10: 719 32 106
------------------------------
Total: 2847 150 471 Total Score = 5,059,287
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
I built an SO2R switching box and rearranged my station to make
operating 2 radios easier. Then I operated the 2 radios during the CQ
WW CW contest and made about 300 more QSOs than last year, albeit with
fewer multipliers. But my score improved about 7%.
The switch box uses "digital potentiometers" to turn on and off
audio.
Originally, this box was going to be just an audio switch to allow
simultaneous monitoring of 6 160 meter receivers. I made a circuit
board compatible with an Arduino Uno R3 which conveniently supplies a
USB interface and a microcontroller. Then I found K1XM's
"SO2Rduino"
project in the NCJ archives and noticed that the keying switching
required only a few more components and connectors, so I added those
components. I reverse engineered his implementation of the "Open Two
Radio Switching Protocol" and merged that into my audio switch which
makes it into an SO2R box with an extra audio input.
Unfortunately, Writelog cannot use PC generated keying and an SO2R box
at the same time, although Writelog will send the keying signal on the
serial line to the SO2R box. I had to revert to "VOX" CW operation
which means that I cannot hear while waiting for the radio to drop out
of transmit at the conclusion of a message.
It really bugs me that one of the significant implementations of
contest automation software cannot arrange for only 1 of 2 radios to
transmit. All of the necessary hardware is present when you have a
sufficient number of serial (or USB) ports. Why not handle the SO2R
keying routing in Writelog, using only an outboard audio switching
box?
I built a full sized 80 meter vertical from an old HyTower and lots of
aluminum tubing laying around. Overall its 75 feet tall, but the top
"whip" is extremely thin. Right after I got it up and wondered how
long the whip would last before metal fatigue broke it. The answer
is: about 2 months, much longer than I expected. In fact, long enough
that I though it might make it to its first ice storm. But instead, a
wind gust 6 days before the contest got it. The top 7 feet or so
disappeared and resonance moved from 3650 to 3900 kHz. A small base
loading coil moved fixed that.
I built a temporary antenna relay box so that I could route either of
2 antennas to either of the 2 radios (via the existing multi-antenna
relay boxes). Ideally, the temporary box would support switching an
arbitrary number of antennas (like 6) to an arbitrary number of radios
(like 2 radios plus a sub-receiver in each for a total of 4) but that
requires more aluminum, SO239s, and 2 foot patch cables than I had
time to build.
I added the extra switching into the file that describes my antenna
wiring and the extra buttons appear on the screen where I do my
antenna switching (the magic of software). However, one of my relay
controllers died, so I had to "borrow" the controller from another
part of my system, negating VHF operation for the time being. Finally,
my technology was not sufficiently advanced, and I had to remove an
infinite recursion bug from my antenna routing software. I'll add a
schematic and some pictures to my web site in anyone is interested
(email your interest to prompt me to do that).
I built a wooden shelf to support the monitors over the radios instead
of everything being linear across the desktop. The wood dowel
drilling jig was very handy for this activity. Since the long range
plan is to acquire a second K3 as the second radio, I made the shelf
just tall enough to go over the K3. I also planned to use my KX3 and
Hardrock 50 amplifier to drive K8ND's ETO 91B, but at the last minute
I worried about the lack of a narrow roofing filter in the KX3. So I
grabbed the IC765 and elevated the shelf with a couple of blocks since
the IC765 is taller than the K3.
I studied several on-line postings about SO2R operation and used
WC1M's suggestions about Writelog keyboard shortcuts. Several people
espoused the "not CQing is not winning" mantra. However, my goal
was
to make a lot more contacts, not work fewer multipliers, and be less
bored when the contest gets slow. In other words, I'm only trying to
beat my own previous records.
I started the contest on 10 meters by CQing and got a JA for my first
contact. That was an auspicious beginning. However the second
contact was a K7, which was a very inauspicious continuation. The JA
run petered out almost instantly, so after working a few juicy South
Pacific multipliers, I moved to 15 meters and started CQing again.
The JA run picked up again at a reasonable rate with strong signals,
which was perfect for self sabotage, I mean, SO2R operation. Normally
my first couple of hours of 40 meter operation allows sweeping the
band working the lined up European big guns S&P at 60 QSOs per hour.
But this year I used the second radio to work a smaller sample
interleaved with JAs on 15 meters.
The IC765 reacts badly when there is strong RF on an antenna connected
to the RX input. So receiving on the Beverages did not work. But
signals on the 40 TX antenna were just fine, so I used that.
When 15 meters ran down, I moved to 20 meters and continued running.
There were several periods where the contacts came at 1 per minute on
40 while several minutes elapsed on 20. But the overall rate was
about 75 per hour. OK for a tribander and a vertical?
Around 0400Z I moved from 20 to 40 so I could CQ on 40 while hunting
on 80. However, the rate on 40 was excellent and hearing stuff on 80
with only one ear and half a brain (assuming that I am starting with 1
full brain) was very difficult. So I stopped SO2R and concentrated on
running. When 40 ran down, I moved to 80 but opted for S&P mode. I
retrospect, maybe i should have tried CQing first.
Around 0600Z I swept 160 meters. I also noted that the periodic SW
noise that I had observed in October was still present, which bodes
poorly for the ARRL 160 test next weekend. Also, the 160 meter
vertical SWR had a higher SWR low in the band because one of the top
hat wires is droopy.
Around 0800Z I decided that with about 100 more QSOs than last year
that I could afford a 3-hour nap.
I got back to the radio around 1130Z and found fewer juicy multipliers
on 80 and 40 than last year. The 160 meter noise was covering up the
waterfall so I didn't even listen to that band. I moved directly to
10 meters at 1200Z and immediately started CQing and was immediately
rewarded with a 400 QSO run over 3 hours. However, the peak rate did
not match last year's peak rate.
After 10 meters, I CQed on 15 at a somewhat slower rate and then CQed
on 20 at a yet slower rate. By about 2000Z I had 400 QSOs more than
last year. So I decided that my goal was to break 3000 QSOs for the
weekend, and to prefer than milestone over working as many multipliers
as possible. From last year's log, the second day seemed to produce
about 85% of the QSOs as the first day, so 3000 QSOs seemed like an
easy goal. Ha!
The second evening saw less SO2R operation as the event seemed more
like a successful experiment rather than an epic new era. By this
time, I was aware than the audio switch needs better muting and that
riding the RF gain control on the IC765 was tedious. Also, the
stations I was calling on 40 were harder to find and harder to work.
I took time off again at 0800Z for a 3-hour nap.
The second morning I went straight to 15 meters since that band had
the lowest QSO total. But the run lasted for about an hour. I moved
to 10 meters and had a fast run that ended after about 30 minutes. So
I started to rotate bands to see if I could find the crowds. Maybe
conditions were good enough everywhere so that everyone spread out
rather than concentrating on one band.
After the morning rate rush, the 3000 QSO goal seemed considerably
less likely. Also, the multiplier totals seemed very low. Last year
I had over 100 countries on each of 3 bands (40, 15, and 10). This
year, the highest band, 10, had only 92 mults, and 15, 20, and 40 all
had around 80. Since runs seemed to quickly dry up, i reverted to
the alternating run then pounce strategy.
Usually, the middle of the afternoon on 20 is a good time to CQ. The
band is usually good to Europe, often there is long path to the South
Pacific, and sometimes there are Asian over the pole contacts. The
first day this pattern generally held up, although I didn't hear any
Asians. The second day, this pattern worked great, although the
Europeans were weak, the broad band noise seemed very high (-125 dbm,
is it QTH or was that level wide spread?), and some obnoxious noise
was following me around the band.
The obnoxious noise sounded like feedback except that it seemed to be
limited to a 500 Hz bandwidth and was almost centered on my operating
frequency. At one point, the noise was such an effective jammer that
I changed bands. At another time, it was present but not particularly
strong. The noise sounded like a mixture of CW, RTTY, and some extra
warbly tones and buzzes. The noise did not seemed to hamper anyone
else or any of the stations I was trying to work. Very baffling.
The last evening had much lower rates, which maybe reflects the CQing
I did earlier in the contest. At 2200Z I had 2800 sequence numbers
and 200 more QSOs seemed exceedingly unlikely. I tried one more time
to run JAs on 10 or 15 while S&Ping on 40, but the rate wasn't there,
and new stations were hard to find on 40.
At 2300Z I almost quit for tiredness, but I chose to sweep 20 meters
instead. The score was 4.9 million, so maybe 5 million plus some
extra might be a good goal. Amazingly, I found a new zone (3B8MU
CQing with no callers) fairly quickly on 20 and well as 9 new
countries.
The surprise multiplier might be 3B9HB on 10 meters. Or it might be
9M2CNC on 20 meters. The surprise not a multiplier but surprisingly
not a multiplier was PJ2T on 15 meters. They have never called me
before and for the first time since I can remember, I worked a
different PJ2 first.
QSOs: 2875 sequence numbers, 2847 valid QSOs, 2788 QSOs that had
points. Many sequence numbers were ruthlessly murdered by Writelog
while chasing stations on the second radio.
DX: 3B8, 3B9, 3D2, 3V, 4J, 4L, 4O, 4X, 5B, 5W, 6W, 6Y, 7O, 8P, 9A, 9K,
9M2, 9M6, 9Y, A2, A4, BY, CE, CE0Y, CM, CN, CT, CT3, CU, CX, D2, DL,
E5/s, E7, EA, EA6, EA8, EA9, EI, ER, ES, EU, F, FG, FY, G, GD, GI, GJ,
GM, GU, GW, HA, HB, HC, HC8, HH, HI, HK, HK0/a, HL, HP, HR, HS, I, IS,
IT9, J3, J6, JA, JW, K, KG4, KH0, KH2, KH6, KH8, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU,
LX, LY, LZ, OA, OE, OH, OH0, OK, OM, ON, OX, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PJ4, PY,
PZ, S5, SM, SP, SU, SV, SV9, TA, TF, TI, TK, UA, UA2, UA9, UN, UR, V2,
V4, V5, VE, VK, VP2E, VP2M, VP5, VP9, VU, VU4, XE, YB, YL, YN, YO, YS,
YU, YV, Z3, ZA, ZB, ZD8, ZF, ZL, ZP, and ZS; 142 entities.
Equipment: Elecraft K3, P3, Alpha 8410; IC765, ETO 91B (thanks,
Jeff!); X7 up 60 feet, ground mounted verticals on 160, 80, and 40.
Homebrew SO2R box, Writelog v11.06A.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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