CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2019
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1408 State/Prov = 58 Countries = 62 Total Score = 588,720
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
All season I have been working on the next generation phased array
receiving system instead of investing in my station. The new beam
steering mechanism is to the point of merely requiring completed
software and a nice box. Also the new receiving system needs to be
integrated with my station. Maybe I can finish by the Spring Stew.
So as the CQ WW 160 CW Contest got closer, I considered when to switch
from long term development to short term maintenance. In the end, I
took a day off from work Friday to make sure my station was reasonably
functional. It turned out that nothing outside needed to be fixed.
I had already put the old Astron power supply back on-line instead of
the Samlex switcher, since the K3S and the switcher do not like each
other. The brand new K3S still has broken RX signal routing but that
issue is not apparent when using external receive antennas. But I
need to fix that problem before the ARRL DX contest.
Since I didn't have to repair short verticals, I fixed a software
problem instead. I operate in SO2V mode during 160 contests but the
frequency to be applied to the 2nd VFO comes from another receiver so
I can spot while transmitting. A couple of years ago I wrote a
program to extract the receive frequency from the second K3 and send
that data to the 2nd VFO of the primary K3S. However, the program
would cease to operate after a few minutes. I finally fixed that
problem.
I must say I am really impressed that I can tune within 3 KHz of my
kilowatt transmitter and receive signals without hearing any trace of
my transmitter. If I ignore the phase noise and the signal is strong
enough, I can copy someone 500 Hz of my own frequency while I am
transmitting. Those new synthesizers for the Elecraft radios seem to
help.
I attempted to improve another bit of 160 operation. My operating
position has 2 keyboards and computers. The right keyboard feeds
Writelog and also the controls for the rotor and antenna switching.
Writelog consumes most of the keys. The left keyboard feeds the
steerable receiving system. The receiver program consumes a lot of
keys but the keypad is unused. So I have extended the SDR receiver
program to interpret keypad presses and send commands to my beam
steering program. The keypad has 16 useful keys which cannot be
extended by combining them with the Shift, Control, or Alternate keys.
Currently all 16 keys are programmed to select a direction with 10
directions assigned to the 8-element phased array and 6 more assigned
to the 6-element phased array. It would be nice to have finer control
of directions without resorting to mousing around. So far, a solution
eludes me.
I considered driving to Columbus on my day off to purchase dry ice for
my kid's school science assignment but I deferred that chore until
Sunday since Saturday afternoon was already committed to driving her
to a meeting. I have given her several lectures now about the
hazards of procrastination with regard to parental support and
contests.
The contest started somewhat slowly. I CQed for almost 2 minutes
before someone called me, and even after that the rate was slow enough
that I had time to make my 3rd QSO with the second radio. Despite the
slow start, the first hour was my best.
Everyone noticed that Friday propagation was poor. When I noticed the
lack of Europeans, I wondered if a relatively boring weekend might be
good for my overall score. Often when DX is scare, I place well in
the rankings. Since there was little DX to distract everyone, my
rates the first night were fairly decent. Operating SO2V was much
nicer without having to twiddle the 2nd VFO knob to match the other
radio. I finished the first night more than 100 QSOs ahead of last
year although multipliers were much lower.
I was very tired at the conclusion of European sunrise, so I took a 3
hour nap. In the local sunrise I made the assumption that I would not
hear any JA so I elected not to fight for a slot between 1810 and
1825. I operated another couple of hours and then took another nap.
The second night had much more normal propagation. Also, the
Europeans were hungry for Ohio QSOs, so there was a steady stream of
callers all evening. The Eu sunrise period was very productive until
it suddenly ended at 0800Z. Up to that point I worked a number of
western Eu stations after their sunrise.
One surprise multiplier was 4X2M because he was the only Asian station
I worked besides P33W. Another surprise multiplier was ZS9Z. That
one was sufficiently startling that the QSO was over before I could
really make sure of the call and zone. We'll see if that QSO survives
log checking.
Missed AK, VY0, VY1, VY2, VE4, and VE8. South Dakota was the last
state worked. KH6 was the furthest west and UA7 was the furthest
east. TZ4AM called HA8LNN right after I worked him with a very strong
signal but apparently he was not hearing me or not working NA. Thanks
to HA8LNN for letting me borrow the frequency for a moment.
I worked stations on the mainland of every continent except Australia
so I can't claim Worked All Continents. Since I missed Alaska, Worked
All States is no good either. I might claim "Worked All KH6s" since
I
worked 6 of them, although 3 weer stateside. Also I never heard KH7XS
and his score is bigger than mine!
DX worked: 3V, 4X, 5B, 9A (5), C6, CM (2), CN, CT, CT3, D4, DL (37),
E7 (2), EA (5), EA8 (3), EI (3), EU (3), F (6), FM, G (18), GI, GM
(3), HA (6), HB (3), HB0, HI, HK (2), I (8), *IG9, KH6 (3), KP2 (3),
KP4, LA, LX, LY (6), LZ (2), OA, OE (2), OH (6), OH0, OK (13), OM (6),
ON (3), OZ, P4 (2), PA (8), PJ2, PJ4, PY, S5 (12), SM (2), SP (10),
SV, TK, UA (6), UA2, UR (8), V3, XE (2), YL (4), YU (3), Z6, and ZS
for a total of 62 DX multipliers. There were 223 10-point QSOs and 12
5-point QSOs not counting the 90 VEs.
Running yearly comparison:
Year QSOs States DX Hour Raw score Ops
2019 1408 58 62 30 588,720 1
2018 1275 60 62 30 498,004 1
2017 1308 59 52 29 460,095 1
2016 1210 58 54 28 456,848 1
2015 1274 59 42 30 374,609 1
2014 1199 58 48 30 367,820 1
2013 1329 58 58 32 536,140 2
2012 1297 59 47 30 396,016 1
2011 1471 59 67 30 670,320 1
2010 1559 58 75 39 776,587 2
2009 1416 59 71 30 757,510 1
2008 1350 58 64 38 553,758 2
2007 1063 58 68 32 422,100 1
2006 764 58 47 26 260,505 1
The running comparison above is useful to gauge conditions. I think
everyone agrees that absorption was high Friday night which limited DX
to just the strongest stations. Saturday night was much better but by
the table above, 2019 is still nowhere near the magical year 2009. I
rate this year as "a little better than average".
An observation: Friday night, the band was noisy. Even though there
was essentially zero static, and my local noise sources seemed to
behave, the bottom on the spectrum display was about 4 db higher (that
is, noisier) than Saturday night. During that very nice run leading
up to European sunrise, I could copy most stations on the first or
second call. Most years, the weaker stations require a half-dozen or
more calls before I can complete a callsign. Was this year special
with regard to noise or did I change something about my station to
make receiving better?
Another observation about "letter mining": despite being completely
unintelligible, often a sequence of one or two letters will stand out.
For example I'll hear "noise noise ZZ noise noise ZZ noise noise".
If
I can coax the caller to keep calling, then the letter adjacent to
"ZZ" might come through, probably because the "ZZ"
synchronizes my
brain. Getting letters before the ZZ is harder because one has to
carry the synchronization across the word gap from the previous
iteration. Anyone else notice this effect?
Equipment: K3S/100, P3, K3/100, P3, Alpha 8410, 2x3 BS-EF phased
array, 2x4 BS-EF phased array, 65 foot "Tee" over about 75 radials.
Several Beverages of which only 1 was used occasionally.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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