IARU HF World Championship
Call: VO1TTT
Operator(s): VE9AA
Station: VO1BZM
Class: SOABMixed LP
QTH: NF
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 2 0 2 0
80: 97 1 9 17
40: 223 8 17 24
20: 288 117 17 31
15: 144 23 13 23
10: 34 11 7 14
-------------------------------------
Total: 788 139 65 109 Total Score = 556,452
Club: Maritime Contest Club
Comments:
Any WRTC Team Captains looking for a partner?
Seems every contest I do now, I go further and further behind :-/ What's a guy
to do? Keep on keepin' on, that's what ;-)
Started out real strong in this WRTC race as I was doing all contests LP with
small antennas and doing well or even very well, but I either don't have the $$
to build big enough antennas or the audacity to run HP and enter as LP. (I won't
cheat to win)--'nuff said 'bout that() I sleep soundly at night.
My family and I were on vacation in Newfoundland last week so I asked my friend
Ev VO1DK if I could use the VO1BZM station for IARU and got an instant yes.
Thanks Ev and the staff of Admiralty house. A great bunch. Newfoundlanders are
friendly and the landscapes are spectacular.
This operation was almost a carbon copy of last summers WPX for me
http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=oxahzefsifqih
Things did not go quite as planned in the contest itself however. Oh dear.
It was not my greatest showing unfortunately I am embarrassed to say.....the
trials and tribulations of this VE9/VO2 guy. (see last yrs report for details
on that reference)
Friday night I slept one hour total, and I was up most of the previous 2 days
driving from NB etc. Starting tired is no way to be, but it was what it was.
I could deal with being tired. It's not an excuse, but I am sure it didn't
help !
I lost the S key from my keyboard (*found it, but it wouldn't click back in, so
swiped the 8 key from the number pad and colored it partially in with a black
marker) Hey - ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Ironic, as last summer in WPX here
in VO1 I lost the H key and did a similar repair on the same KB. I gotta get a
better keyboard bag.
Knowing condx stunk, I was initially going to enter either as HP with the newly
repaired AMP @ 'BZM, or if condx Sat morning looked good, dial the rig/amp combo
back so I was at the 150w level.
Gave the amp a quick test into the dummy load Friday night and a couple
key-downs on 40m into the inverted vee and all was well.(or so I thought)
Testing everything vy early Sat morning found the SWR on 20m @ exactly 10:1 on
the little 2el mini beam, with occasional forays down to as low as 4.5:1 (due
to wind?) as seen on my antenna analyzer, so my revised planned was 100w on 20m
and HP on the other bands.
Errr-Ma-Gerd, as the kids say - I eventually found that the only band the amp
would work on was 40m, so I tried to just drive the amp very lightly and do
150w...no go. Tuning cap (or something) was arcing in the amp, especially on
SSB, so I unhooked the amp and just ran the K3 barefoot @ 100w once the gong
chimed @ 1200z. Thank goodness I got up very early Sat morning and to the
station a couple hours before the contest. I was swapping coaxes and whatnot
around 15mins before the contest started. whew
Lucky for me the tuner in the K3 seems to be pretty robust and handled the
super high SWR on 20m. Last year my Ic7410 actually got HOT to the touch when
usig this antenna on 20m. I warmed my hands on the rig. (for real)
On 15m the SWR was 4:1 and on 10m about 3:1....the mini beam seemed OK-ish on
10 & 15 and I worked nearly every single station I called on those bands.
On 40m, 3:1 and on 80m, 4:1 (dual inv vees @ 30'; one feedline)
No 160m antenna, but the 40/80m conjoined inverted VEES @ 30' presented a
4:1SWR so I worked PEI & Maine. Heard TM0HQ and a couple other EU's but not
so much as a QRZ, hi !
I estimate my power out of the back of the rig as 33w on 20m. (then it went
through a 100' run of RG8) Blimey! Is there a hybrid QRP/LP category?
Checking the RBN analysis and comparing graphs to other VO's/VE's here today,
my 20m signals in EU and even into W4 were barely registering on the charts
most of the time. SIGH.. It is what it is ! The pattern on 20m seemed to be
that of a butterfly. I could aim nearly anywhere and not much in the way of
directivity.
I was pseudo QRP with a crossed dples on 20m (or it nearly seemed so
anyways). The one redeeming factor about about low ERP on 20m was it seemed in
VO1 that I was a good distance from New England and W2, W3 so lotsa guys to work
w/o much ERP going their way! YAY! It's tougher from VE9 on 20m. (too close in
NB)
10 & 15m were open here and there to EU and also W1,2,3 on Es,though not
many checking those bands I don't think. This is where SO2R could've really
helped, but it's still just a tap on a VFO or on the N1MM screen to give a
quick VFO spin.
The K3 was a bit squirrelly in that I used it in mixed mode SO2V mode, running
on VFO A (CW) and listening/tuning on VFO B(2nd rx) on SSB. Filter widths
would tighten up as soon as I did a A/B VFO focus change, making S&P on the
"2nd RX on SSB) really really hard. I probably only made 50 2nd 'radio'
Q's as the SSB was being piped through a CW filter. That's life. It's not as
good as SO2R like at home, but as I drive a MINI COOPER, and was on vacation, I
was limited in what I could stuff in the car. Everything had to fit into 3 small
bags !
When I went to 20m, occasionally my little MFJ switching power supply would
kick out when the SWR spiked and the K3 apparently drew a lot of current.
I encountered this once at home when testing my 'travel setup' on the wrong
antenna (by accident) but the power supply came back after just a couple
minutes rest.
In NF, the first time the PS died it was off for maybe 5 minutes. The 2nd
time, 10min and the third time I gave up trying to breathe some life into it
after 30mins. I was without 12v power ! I made some phone calls and got a
linear type of supply hooked up (Thanks Ev!!) and was back in business with
perhaps about an hours downtime due to power supply issues.
When it got dark and I went to 80m, I found that anything more than about 8-10w
on 80m made my logging software (N1MM+) go nuts with random characters all over
the screen and gibberish being sent out over the air and weird calls being
logged. Of course it was not the softwares fault. I tried just S&P and
manual keying on 80m but only got 1 or 2 guys to hear me with 10w. That was no
good. I am sliding backwards......Mike, do something !
I tried some toroids I brought but nothing worked. Restarted the laptop a few
times, then ultimately started unplugging stuff. Of course it was the last
thing I unplugged that was the culprit. The keyboard ! Because of last yrs
incident I did have the presence of mind to actually bring a spare keyboard.
It's a teeny tiny CHERRY keyboard out of Germany which worked 100% however it
was pretty hard to type on as it's roughly 1/2 the size of my low profile full
size backlit one. Some keys are missing (ie: do not exist on that model) and
other are in weird locations.
I did fat finger some exchanges early on when I was trying to get used to
typing on it. Resorted to sending some corrections on the paddles (N3ZN mini
mites) when I couldn't keep pace with typing. Some of the keys were not in the
same locations so that's a mind bender at midnight with almost no sleep for
30-40 hours, hi hi .
When I couldn't find a key I would type with my left hand and correct the log
and send with my right hand on the n3zn mini-MITES. I love those paddles.
So far I was down about 1:40mins, so with nothing more to lose, around 2:45am I
laid down on the hardwood floor for around 20minutes just to reset my brain.
Accepting the fact that there was zero chance to win my category this time
around, I just wanted to get awake enough to finish out the last 6 hours with a
shred of dignity.
Hey, I got back on after a 20min power nap and felt pretty spry for being up
now nearly 2 days with a combined 1 hour + 20mins nap and soldiered on
(slowly)to the end.
About 1/2-way through the contest when I realized condx were super bad and I
was just about QRP on 20m I had hoped to save some face and make it to
1000-Q's. Fell just shy of that and given all the problems and about 2+ hours
of downtime, I think I can hold my head (somewhat) high and at least be
grateful I finished the race with some signals going out on the air.
Rig: K3 with 2 RX's(sorta).....100w
Paddles, N3ZN miniMITEs (from my Mini....they are my mobile paddles)
Software. Fantastic N1MM+
Gateway latop
Old MFJ switching supply. Dying or dead...gotta see about a new one now.
Cherry keyboard, last 1/2 of contest
Heil Headset
4 in-rig SSB recordings.
10-15-20...some kind of Hybrid 2el mini beam @ 45'?. Older VE3 model I think.
40-80-conjoined inverted vees at 25-30'
160-the vees.....
Who wants a WRTC partner with spirit?
Mike VE9AA......VO1TTT last w/e
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