ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: W8FN
Operator(s): W8FN
Station: W8FN
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: 30
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 96
40: 297
20: 362
15: 34
10:
------------
Total: 789 Sections = 78 Total Score = 123,084
Club: DFW Contest Group
Comments:
Mother Nature is proving to be a ... mother... to those of us who are
antenna-challenged on the low bands. Horrible conditions made this running of
SS a brutal exercise in frustration. As we descend into the bottom of the
sunspot cycle it seems that every year my QSO total drops by another 100 or so.
I just hope conditions turn around before I can't make any Qs at all! Things
started good enough, but in the third and fourth hours the rate dropped
catastrophically and I ended up about 100 QSOs behind, never able to recover.
Other adverse conditions made this session particularly challenging. Just a few
weeks ago a new electronic noise maker showed up somewhere in the local
environment. It's probably just another cheap nasty switching power supply.
This one is rectifying RF from my signal and producing crap that essentially
covers the bands. It raises the noise floor on the second radio regardless of
which band it's on by around 20 dB, thereby negating all the work and expense
I've put into filters to make clean SO2R possible. Yet another feature of
"civilization", I suppose. Retiring way the hell and gone out in the
country is looking better and better all the time.
Just three hours before the contest started something made my microHAM MK2R+
SO2R controller puke. I swapped in a backup, reinstalled the control software
and configured the new box with about two hours to spare. Fortunately, I didn't
have any other hardware problems. This was the first full-up effort I've put in
since I converted over to the Green Heron Everyware wireless system for
controlling the antenna and sundry other RF switching hardware. The GHE
hardware never missed a beat, but I did discover that the inability to select
only one antenna per band under automatic software control was a major
shortcoming of the current control software. I understand W2FU is working on an
improved version. I sure hope it's ready sometime soon.
Not all was bad news. The time and effort I put into building up the new
receive antenna management system proved well worthwhile. I was able to run
diversity on both radios at the same time with the shared Pixel loop. This was
a very good thing, as a lot of the stations I worked on 80 and 40 meters
wouldn't have been audible on just the transmit antenna. Another substantial
improvement was the new operating chair I installed in September. For the first
time in many years I was able to operate a full 24 hours without aches and
pains.
Thanks to everybody who put me in their log. Next time I hope to be back, and
I'll definitely see y'all in a few more contests in the future.
73...
Randy, W8FN
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|