ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2021
Call: K3KU
Operator(s): K3KU
Station: K3KU
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 3:15
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 8 6
80: 38 21
40:
20: 93 33
15: 26 12
10: 2 2
-------------------
Total: 167 74 Total Score = 37,074
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Saturday night chores delayed my usual 2300Z-ish start until 0415Z. My plan was
to do here-and-there operating, with my regular DX 'Test goal: have fun, don't
knock yourself out, make time for family and "real world", make at
least one DX QSO on each band, and hope for at least one European on each band.
Expect to do mainly S&P, with some modest "fresh call" running on
40/20/15M when/if open to Europe. Subsidiary goal is to give QSOs to a few
friends operating from the DX end. (Yeah, like they really need one more MD
QSO.)
I started with 10 minutes on 160M, grabbing the easy Caribbean/SA hot shots and
the desired one European (an Italian Big Gun).
I popped up to the low end of 80M, planning to scan up the band. I nabbed a
loud European, and then, as I tuned upwards, I immediately found a clear spot at
3507. It was so clear I was stunned for a moment. Now, in CQ WW this
"open" freq would have meant that there were hundreds of un-heard
Europeans working each other, and no one would hear me. But this is the ARRL
Contest, so I made the right move: I called CQ. There ensued my most amazing DX
run ever: 35 QSOs in 21 minutes (109/hr) on 80M, all but two being Europeans.
I could tell that a lot of the callers found me with Skimmer or RBN, with extra
complications from QSB -- the callers often could not tell who I was working,
and the QZB was terrible. I would get a letter or two, and ask for that caller
("U2" or "Y" or whatever), and two or three others would
keep calling. (Some of that could have been simple rudeness.) Rate killers, and
it made me appreciate the skill of ops who can keep the rate meter up in condx
like that. Most of the callers were Big Guns ("5NN KW", "ENN
5TT"), a lot of Multi-ops, but also a few 100 watters. I wonder how many
of those callers found me by tuning the big knob.
The run ended at 0447Z, and it was time for bed. I had been having so much fun
on 80M that I did not even look at 40M; I figured I could get some QSOs there
toward the end of the 'Test. Insomnia and Nature gave me a chance to check the
bands at 0920Z -- two Caribbeans on 80M, then back for a little more sleep and
non-contest activities.
My next QRV was on 20M at 1300Z. I happily S&P'ed 30 of the QSO-desperate
Big Guns, then found a clear-enough spot around 14050 and called CQ. Heavens to
Betsy! Another run -- 38 QSOs in 22 minutes (111/hr). Again, almost entirely
Big Guns and Multi-ops, but that is what Second Day Fresh Call is all about.
When the 20M run ended I went up to 15M for some S&P, then had a few short
S&P sessions on 20/15/10M until about 1900Z.
Later Sunday afternoon I got a huge break... in the WX. For a year or more the
K3KU Magic Dipole (200-ft long, suspended on each end from trees in the
neighbors' yards, with many feet vertical on each end) had one halyard stuck in
the tree. The end insulator seemed to be catching on something, and I could
lower that end only part way. I could not tell exactly what the problem was;
too much foliage to see clearly, and when the leaves had fallen it was too cold
or too busy to work on the antenna.
On this Sunday, temperature near 50-deg-F had melted most of the frozen slush in
the back yards, so I went out mucking in the mud to see if I could free up the
halyard. Hooray! I pulled hard enough to break off a twig or whatever, and the
end came smoothly down. I inspected the window-line connections to the
flex-weave antenna wire and checked the feed line continuity. (The
tree-supported dipole gets a lot of up/down flexing when the wind rises, and
sometimes the feedline breaks near the center insulator. It needs regular
inspection. BTW, even with the feedline shorted in the shack, the nearby 50KW
broadcast station on 1500 KHz AM induces enough RF in the antenna to make the
continuity check tricky.)
Everything looked sound enough. The entire feedline is getting old and should
be replaced, but that is NOT a one-person job on a Sunday afternoon in February,
even at 50-deg-F. So, let's haul the antenna back up and make a few more QSOs.
Oops. The end that had been stuck coming down is now stuck going up. I can see
where it is catching in a fork of a branch, but I can't get it clear. The best
I can do is haul up the other end high enough that the feedline will be clear
above peoples' heads.
A major part of the magic of the K3KU Magic Dipole is that my TS-850SAT's
antenna tuner could match it pretty well on all HF contest bands. In the
current safety-first configuration, It matches almost nowhere. Oh, well; no 40M
QSOs in this contest, after all.
I've got some ideas on how to clear the stuck halyard, but might have to just
borrow my archer friend's bow and launch a new line over that huge maple tree.
No telling if a new line will retain the dipole's magic.
Fortunately, the loss of the antenna affected only a DC contest. I sure hope I
can get it fixed before the next big one -- RAC Canada Day, July 1.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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