ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: KD4D
Operator(s): KD4D
Station: W3LPL
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: MDC
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1417 Sections = 82 Countries = 51 Total Score = 437,969
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
First, a big "Thank You" to Frank Donovan, W3LPL, for letting me take
his station for a spin for my FIRST ARRL 160 Contest (actually just the 160
Meter part of the station! :-). Frank has a great M/M setup with two
interlocked radios on each band - perfect for "in-band" SO2R.
Everything worked great during the contest and I had a blast playing the game!
:-)
No "Sweep" for me - I missed SJV.
My favorite moment started with one of the few frequency fights I ended up in.
I had to give up - a west coast station was running the central US and I
couldn't hear Europe or get enough US callers. I tuned down a bit, found a
nice clear spot, and called CQ. 3B9HA called me after the first or second CQ
for an "ATNO" on 160 and a multiplier. As a bonus, the frequency was
much better and I stayed there for quite a while.
Brief station description:
160M: FTdx5000 and K3 transceivers with lockouts to prevent simultaneous xmit
3-1000Z 1500 watt output monoband amplifier
4-square transmitting and receiving array, using 40 meter high verticals
8-circle W8JI/W5ZN/N4HY passive receiving array, 105 meters in diameter
Three 580 foot Beverage antennas: NE, South and West
Thanks also to Rich Di Donna, NN3W, for our "friendly" rivalry - he
operated at N3HBX. Not wanting to be embarrassed by his score provided some
extra motivation for me to stay in the chair and keep working the second
radio.
This was a contest where I broke some of my rules for successful contesting:
1) Make sure everything is set up and working well in advance. Especially if
you are a guest operator and visiting someone else's station.
2) Make sure that you know how to use your logging software.
3) Special rule for DX contests on the East Coast: RUN EUROPE!
This contest reminded me AGAIN that you can't be too careful getting everything
ready. One rule as a guest operator is to arrive early and leave plenty of time
to resolve issues. My logging computer started to "blue screen"
randomly for some reason during setup the week before at home. No problem -
I'll just use one of the computers at W3LPL to run N1MM+. (I help with the
computer work at W3LPL, so I'm familiar with the computer setup).
When I went to install N1MM+, it needed Microsoft .net. I had to scramble to
figure out how to download that and transfer it to the logging computer. I
allowed extra time, fortunately, and completed this an hour before the contest
started, but I should have visited a day or two earlier and hooked everything
up.
I've used N1MM+ several times, but never "Assisted" with SO2R. Rule
two, which I violated, is to make SURE you know how the logging software works
before the contest starts. It took some time (and several mistakes) to figure
out how to use N1MM+ clicking on packet spots. The focus often ended up in a
different window than I expected.
I seem to have MISSED the sunrise opening to Europe Saturday morning. I just
couldn't get any runs going to Europe and spent too much time during the
critical hours with the beams pointed West to keep the rate up. There weren't
many spots to chase either. I did somewhat better Sunday morning, but only
managed 13 QSOs on the European sunrise opening. See my hourly rate, broken
down by continent, with the statistics below.
I'll have to compare other scores with continent breakdowns, but my Europe QSO
total seems rather low - 131 QSOs.
Continent Breakdown, dupes removed:
Row Labels AF AS EU NA OC SA Grand Total
160 1 3 129 1272 3 9 1417
Grand Total 1 3 129 1272 3 9 1417
Hourly Rate by Continent (dupes included) - showing low QSO totals during the
European sunrise openings. This has daily summary totals also:
AF AS EU NA OC SA Grand Total
12/2/2016 14 189 2 205
22 10 102 112
23 4 87 2 93
12/3/2016 80 812 2 5 899
0 10 90 100
1 5 90 95
2 84 2 86
3 3 76 79
4 2 74 1 77
5 1 57 58
6 3 37 40
7 6 34 40
8 40 2 42
9 24 2 26
10 31 31
11 36 36
12 19 19
20 18 18
21 3 31 34
22 26 37 63
23 21 34 55
12/4/2016 1 3 37 328 3 2 374
0 1 24 27 52
1 48 1 49
2 39 39
3 28 28
4 38 1 39
5 34 1 35
6 25 25
7 6 20 26
8 7 13 20
9 16 16
10 1 14 2 17
11 2 16 18
12 10 10
Grand Tot 1 3 131 1329 5 9 1478
QSOs by Section:
Section QSOs
Total 1417
DX 153
VA 70
OH 67
MN 55
IL 53
EPA 51
MDC 43
EMA 42
MI 39
WNY 38
CT 34
WI 33
NC 31
NH 30
TN 30
IN 29
NNJ 29
ENY 28
MO 25
CO 21
WPA 21
ONS 19
AZ 18
GA 18
AL 16
NTX 16
SC 16
STX 15
WWA 15
NLI 14
OR 14
GTA 13
ONE 13
SV 13
WMA 13
ME 12
NFL 12
SFL 12
WV 12
IA 11
KS 11
VT 11
BC 10
KY 10
NM 10
SNJ 10
AR 9
MAR 9
DE 8
OK 8
QC 7
AB 6
LA 6
ONN 6
UT 6
VI 6
EWA 5
ID 5
MS 5
MT 5
NE 5
RI 5
SCV 5
SD 5
LAX 4
ND 4
NV 4
SDG 4
WCF 4
ORG 3
PAC 3
SF 3
SK 3
WTX 3
WY 3
EB 2
MB 2
NNY 2
PR 2
AK 1
NL 1
NT 1
SB 1
QSOs by DXCC Entity
Total 1417
K 1162
VE 90
DL 18
G 16
F 11
OK 11
SM 8
KP2 6
ON 6
UR 6
GM 5
UA 5
I 4
OH 4
PA 4
EA 3
JA 3
KH6 3
OM 3
SP 3
XE 3
EA6 2
GW 2
HA 2
HB 2
KP4 2
LY 2
PJ4 2
3B9 1
CM 1
CT 1
CX 1
EI 1
EU 1
FS 1
GI 1
HC 1
HI 1
HK 1
HP 1
KL 1
LA 1
OA 1
OE 1
OH0 1
OZ 1
PJ2 1
PZ 1
S5 1
TF 1
TI 1
V3 1
VP5 1
YL 1
YO 1
YV 1
ZF 1
Run VS S&P QSOs
S&P Run
400 1017
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