FT Roundup - 2020
Call: AB1J
Operator(s): AB1J
Station: AB1J
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: Waltham MA
Operating Time (hrs): 14:41
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 55
40: 119
20: 41
15: 120
10: 0
------------
Total: 335 State/Prov = 46 Countries = 26 Total Score = 24,120
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Call me a Crash Test Dummy. V2.2.2 crashed at least 15 times, all on FT8. This
was the one time I had decided not to move up to the latest Release Candidate
because I didn't want to muck with new bugs and regressions. Bad move,
apparently. I saw afterward that someone said v2.3.0-rc2 solves this problem.
Perhaps, but too late now. The problem discussed concerned FT4 but I experienced
it on FT8. I've never had any problem during normal, non-contest use on either
mode.
I lost most of those 15 QSOs. In a few cases I managed to restart the program in
time to finish QSOs when the other station did a repeat transmission.
Last year I put in a last minute major effort and ended up in the top ten
world-wide. I didn't get a bottle of wine as promised, which I looked forward
to. I have a feeling the wine is mythical.
End of grumpy old man section.
=======================================================
This year I decided to do a smaller effort and concentrate more on the details
to bring down my log errors. I made sure I had a contest-only ALL.TXT, small
enough to examine easily with Notepad.
The general rule I followed was the running station (me or the other guy) had to
transmit something in the cycle immediately following the RR73. If the QSO went
smoothly it should be:
CQ
or a reply to a tail-ending station
If the QSO went badly (looping, etc) but eventually completed, then: 73
If the QSO didn't complete and was given up, then: SRI NIL QSO
What I didn't want to hear was SILENCE.
In CW, SSB and RTTY contests, the runner always sends something immediately. If
you don't hear anything, something is wrong. In FT contests, there is often an
empty cycle after an S&P QSO with a running station. I don't know what that
means or what people are doing while rigged for silent running.
If there was an empty cycle, I had to make a judgment call about logging. When
signals were good and the QSO went smoothly, I logged it. Otherwise, not.
I have a macro SRI NIL QSO for when I'm running and can't complete a QSO, but I
didn't use in this contest.
I'm hoping for a smaller NIL rate. Mine has always been high in FT contests,
like 6%. Toss in some gratuitous penalties and I'm screwed.
It would be nice if WSJT-X knew whether it was running or S&P. This should
be easy to implement. Then the contest interface could be more user friendly.
For example, after the first CQ QSO, the next CQ could be something like: 73;
CQ RU AB1J FN42
That would make folks happier.
It seemed to me there was much more FT8 activity than FT4. I thought the trend
was in the other direction. In all previous FT4/FT8 contests my split was about
50-50. This time it was 25-75 in favor of FT8.
There was lots of activity on 15m. I checked 10m once in a while, but missed any
activity there.
Overall, the contest was fun and challenging. Thanks for the QSOs.
73,
Ken, AB1J
Flex 6500
WSJT-X v2.2.2 N1MM Logger+
20m, 15m & 10m attic dipoles
80m, 40m, 20m and 15m: outdoor 66' stealth wire and indoor counterpoise
LoTW eQSL ClubLog
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|