ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: K1WHS
Operator(s): K1WHS
Station: K1WHS
Class: SO Mixed QRP
QTH: Maine
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 373 97
SSB: 206 79
-------------------
Total: 579 176 Total Score = 335,104
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This whole weekend ended up much differently than what I had thought would
happen. No big Multi/ Single effort here at all. My CW ability is not so hot,
and the two great ops here in past 10M events decided to sit this one out. Both
W1UE and K1BX did not make the trip to the remote shack in the woods this time.
I had rigged up a new multiplier vertical antenna and a new lockout circuit for
the upgraded 500 watt mult station. With just me, all that stuff was not needed!
Normally I fire up the 20 KW diesel and we run it continuously for about 48
hours to keep the shack warmed up all night. I can run electric baseboard heat,
a microwave, coffee pot etc. At about a gallon an hour in fuel consumption, that
adds up to almost $150 just in diesel fuel for the weekend. Yeah running QRO is
fun and all, but I just did not have the mental attitude to attack the weekend
all by myself. I decided to try operating low key QRP un assisted, and leave
the diesel turned off. With all the bad wx lately ( no sunshine) my solar
batteries were only about 85% charged when the contest began. It was snowing
Friday night and parts of Saturday. With no sunlight, running QRP would help
the batteries out. I missed Friday night, by going to an eggnog laced Christmas
party instead. I started the contest at about 1300UT on Saturday morning, and
took a break for lunch, then ran until about 21:45. My heart was not in it, but
by late afternoon, I was thinking that, even with 5 watts, I was doing pretty
well. I still missed lots of DX. Hard as I tried, I could not work a JA on
Saturday. I was in there calling them My puny 5 watts never made it. All
operation on Saturday was S&P, mostly on CW, but I cruised up the SSB part
of the band picking off low hanging fruit. (the guys who were S9 or better.) I
quit early on Saturday, as the battery capacity was down to 72%. Hardly any
power was used by the radio. I saw less than an amp increase in TX. Most of the
juice went to running all the 115 volt rotators, the logging computer a big
video screen panadaptor, and the 115 vac inverter. I try not to discharge the
lead acid batteries too much. They last longer that way. 50% discharge is as
low as it should get. I try to keep them higher than that. 72% was a good time
to quit.
On Sunday, I slept a bit late and was on an hour later at about 14:30 UT.
Looks like I missed a bunch of good EU operating time there! BIG MISTAKE. I
found a clear spot up in the cheap seats on CW and actually ran for quite
awhile having pretty fair success. I never got chased off, although someone was
crowding me out on the low side. He kept moving up a few Hz at a time.After many
CW QSOs, I figured I better cruise the SSB band before Europe died, but I guess
I was a bit late. The band tanked. Not much worked on SSB compared to CW. I
only S&Ped on SSB. A few CQs there were not productive. I quit again for
late lunch, and went down the woods road to the house. Back in an hour and a
half and spent most of my remaining time to 2300 UT on CW. (I had to QRT to get
home and feed the dog!) I was happy to work a few ZL, VK and even a few JA
stations on both modes. The JAs were all CW. I started to get the feeling that
things were playing really well at the 5 watt level. I was amazed at who would
come back to my calls. I started calling weaker stations. Sometimes they even
replied. The hard ones were the semi close in states. Places like Kentucky, TN,
Indiana, and WV were difficult at QRP levels. I called a station in DC seemingly
forever, and never got so much as a ?? or QRZ. Working Hawaii or Australia was
much easier. I think I spent about 15 hours in total, listening and calling
this weekend. I am really glad I installed big coax on the 10Meter station. I
had bought a long run of 1 5/8" Heliax and when I told the guy I was going
to use it on 28 MHz, he laughed and figured I was nuts. I use 7/8" Heliax
to feed the individual antennas. Almost all of my QRP signal is getting to the
antennas. It probably helped me a lot.
I wish I had been more motivated from the start. If I skipped the
Christmas party and devoted more time to the contest, I could have done much
better. I think I need a motivational speaker like Matt Foley before these
things to get me fired up.
Dave K1WHS
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