ARRL 160-Meter Contest - 2021
Call: W2GD
Operator(s): K2TW KE2D KS3F N2NC W2GD W2NO W2RQ
Station: W2GD
Class: M/S HP
QTH: SNJ
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1713 Sections = 82 Countries = 55 Total Score = 596,498
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
STATION DESCRIPTION
Elecraft K3 x 3
OM2000HF 1250 watts
Win-Test Logging Software
2 element vertical Yagi @ 240' with NE, West and Omni direction options
Beverage antennas NE, E, S, SW, W, NW, plus HI-Z Four System for Diversity
COMMENTS
We felt this ARRL 160 was better than the past few years. From the start there
wasmore DX activity, particularly early both evenings. The first night we had
quiet conditions - the absence of QRN is always welcomed. But noise from
T-storms off the NC coast made running far more problematic on Saturday.
Fortunately the DX signals were a little louder. The number of countries worked
and the volume of five point contacts were substantially higher than experienced
last year.
As always we use the ARRL 160 weekend to iron out whatever station problems
might be lurking as you pass through the entry gate at the end of "Murphy
Drive". Our goal is to have everything functioning 100 percent for the
TBDC later this month and the CQ160 CW in January. We found those gotchas!
Pre-contest preparations were limited to a work party the weekend prior to CQWW
PH and what we had time to do on Friday before operating. We take down the TX
array mounted on the 300 foot tower for hurricane season and pull in all RX
antenna cabling. The delta loop reflector on the TX array was rebuilt/replaced
this year, and the tower owner repaired any missing tower guy grounds lost to
saltwater corrosion. In six hours a team of six deployed all of the RX antenna
cabling and re-installed the TX array. Walking beverages and making repairs had
to wait for the contest weekend. There was tree damage to virtually every RX
antenna element on the property.
The weather cooperated for setup and throughout the contest weekend - dry and
relatively warm. Tide levels in the salt marsh were very low, making getting
around at the tower base very easy. There was virtually no wind at all for two
days - a rare event.
The team enjoyed a very good start. But as mentioned earlier, we use this event
to find station flaws and out of the gate we had a big one - the NE/EU phased
beverage system was virtually deaf. For the first two hours the Hi-Z Four gave
us reasonably good EU coverage, but nothing close to what's provided by the two
930 foot long phased EU beverage elements. A repair team did an initial
diagnosis in the dark and we temporarily switched to a single element
configuration for the remainder of the first night. The next day they found
corrosion in the phasing line assemblies needing remediation. The after effects
of Hurricane Sandy seem to linger on years later.
A first hour of 223, second hour of 151 and then four subsequent hours over
100/hour gave us a good foundation for the hoped for 1700 contact weekend. But
the activity seemed noticeably down from prior years. EU signals were never
super loud, but there was more volume than last year and the overall conditions
to EU were better the second night. We logged 187 five pointers night one and
another 137 the second night. Of these, 284 were from Europe. RU1A was far and
above the loudest EU caller either night ... right at his sunrise on Saturday
morning.
A nice surprise at our Saturday morning sunrise - JA3YBK called in with a strong
signal. Unfortunately we didn't log any other OC or PAC stations ... the ZL
mentioned by others was never heard.
The first night we enjoyed a steady flow of EU callers (ten to twenty five per
hour) over the first ten hours. Conditions were quiet with almost no static
crashes. We started to hear the Western USA at their sunset, but felt conditions
were never outstanding either night toward the west, and where somewhat more
subdued the second night. There was an obvious EU sunrise enhancement both
nights.
ORG and VE4 were our last two Sections. We never heard or saw spotted a KL7 or
NT.
Besides the EU beverage phasing line surprise, the only other equipment failure
was a desktop computer used to interface with the scoreboards and as a logging
backup in the event one of the two logging machines fail. We manually posted our
score on the VA2WA scoreboard Sunday when some network connectivity issues
occurred.
As always we enjoyed the team camaraderie ... one of the reasons we've been
doing this together as a team for nearly three decades.
A big thank you to the owners of WYRS-FM for continuing to invite us to this
fabulous radio location. Saltwater is king.
Now on to the Stew Perry TBDC in two weeks. Merry Christmas to everyone.
73,
John, W2GD
For the 160 CW TEAM
Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat THANKS to K8IA for Providing This Report
CONTEST: ARRL-160
CALLSIGN: W2GD
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
2200 223 0 0 0 0 0 223 223 13.0
2300 151 0 0 0 0 0 151 374 21.8
0000 137 0 0 0 0 0 137 511 29.8
0100 132 0 0 0 0 0 132 643 37.5
0200 110 0 0 0 0 0 110 753 44.0
0300 120 0 0 0 0 0 120 873 51.0
0400 84 0 0 0 0 0 84 957 55.9
0500 64 0 0 0 0 0 64 1021 59.6
0600 42 0 0 0 0 0 42 1063 62.1
0700 31 0 0 0 0 0 31 1094 63.9
0800 24 0 0 0 0 0 24 1118 65.3
0900 26 0 0 0 0 0 26 1144 66.8
1000 32 0 0 0 0 0 32 1176 68.7
1100 31 0 0 0 0 0 31 1207 70.5
1200 25 0 0 0 0 0 25 1232 71.9
1300 11 0 0 0 0 0 11 1243 72.6
1400 14 0 0 0 0 0 14 1257 73.4
1500 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 1260 73.6
1600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1260 73.6
1700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1260 73.6
1800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1260 73.6
1900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1260 73.6
2000 37 0 0 0 0 0 37 1297 75.7
2100 44 0 0 0 0 0 44 1341 78.3
2200 39 0 0 0 0 0 39 1380 80.6
2300 52 0 0 0 0 0 52 1432 83.6
0000 53 0 0 0 0 0 53 1485 86.7
0100 41 0 0 0 0 0 41 1526 89.1
0200 33 0 0 0 0 0 33 1559 91.0
0300 28 0 0 0 0 0 28 1587 92.6
0400 28 0 0 0 0 0 28 1615 94.3
0500 15 0 0 0 0 0 15 1630 95.2
0600 25 0 0 0 0 0 25 1655 96.6
0700 21 0 0 0 0 0 21 1676 97.8
0800 12 0 0 0 0 0 12 1688 98.5
0900 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 1691 98.7
1000 11 0 0 0 0 0 11 1702 99.4
1100 7 0 0 0 0 0 7 1709 99.8
1200 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 1713 100.0
1300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1713 100.0
1400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1713 100.0
1500 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1713 100.0
1600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1713 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 1713 0 0 0 0 0 1713
Gross QSOs=1788 Dupes=75 Net QSOs=1713
Unique callsigns worked = 1713
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 1416 0 0 0 0 0 1416 82.7
South America 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 0.3
Europe 284 0 0 0 0 0 284 16.6
Asia 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.1
Africa 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 0.2
Oceania 4 0 0 0 0 0 4 0.2
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 1713 0 0 0 0 0 1713
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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