ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2021
Call: N5FO
Operator(s): N5FO
Station: N5FO
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 25
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 3 2
80: 58 26
40: 511 63
20: 685 65
15: 164 46
10: 12 8
-------------------
Total: 1433 210 Total Score = 892,710
Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
Comments:
After not contesting for the past year due to training and hunting with my new
partner (Teeka, a black pointing lab) I really wasn't up to a serious contest.
Last week, I had decided to do a SOSB 80. With that in mind I ran some tests on
the 80M array last Thursday, everything looked good. I started to walk down the
three beverages, but almost immediately broke my big lopers, cutting some
brush.
I didn't get to the hardware store til mid morning Friday, spent the afternoon
on the beverages, finding both the EU and the JA needing repair, and all
requiring new growth brush removal. Tired and frustrated, I finished about a
half hour before contest start.
At 00:00 80 wasn't open yet, so I started 20&15 to have some fun. Good
decision as 20 was open to JA, nice run, lots of fun! Trying to op SO2R with the
2nd radio on 15, I had what I thought was issues with the StackMatch, high SWR
on 15. After an hour or so bypassing things out side, I found it was an issue
with the Elecraft W2 power/swr meter. It had defaulted to 20W scale on 15M which
read the reflected power at 1.5K through it show high red SWR- crazy!
I was plagued Friday night by some atmospheric noise on the lower bands?? Also,
found that 40M CQing was interfering with 80M (that's something new???). So not
much of a performance on 80 that night. Got in a good couple hour nap, taking
things easy.
Nice 20M EU opening Saturday morning, but the "flood" didn't last
long. All the EUs now using spotting, as many stations answer dead-on zero beat,
tiring to pick out the single call.
Things were going fine until, after eating some frozen soup Sat early evening, I
started feeling sick in the chair. To compound the issue, the Expert 1.3K (my
S&P radio amp) started faulting and was basically useless. So, I decided to
"throw in the towel" and went to bed early Sat evening.
I awoke at 4:40am Sunday, rethought my decision, got back to the radio, and
basically had a leisurely on & off day Sunday. With only 100W out of the
S&P radio, busting the pileups on new Mults was very tough (I now remember
those LP days!).
I also lost full attention to things, while trying to get the linear back, which
never happened.
So, for a half-hearted effort, with virtually nothing Saturday night, and poor
propagation, I can say that I had some fun yesterday taking my time, and breaks
of a couple hours here & there to play with Teeka. (BTW, she obviously
showed displeasure with me sitting at the radio for hours without attention to
her! After all, She DOES consider herself PRINCESS of the household.)
As of this morning (Monday) further testing of the 1.3K resulted in confirming a
definite problem with the amp. An email is in to Bob at Expert USA, hopefully
will hear back this week, but I'm pretty sure it'll have to go in for repair.
Thanks for all the contacts, and for your patience in the pileups!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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