Ohio QSO Party - 2022
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 12
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 167 0
40: 294 0
20: 126 0
15: 15 0
10: 1 1
--------------------
Total: 603 1 CW Mults = 124 Ph Mults = 1 Total Score = 150,875
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
In advance of the 2022 Ohio QSO party I constructed a somewhat
permanent 40-meter slightly-droopy dipole. The middle is about 30
feet above the ground and the ends are about 20 feet high. I tested
the dipole by operating the 0300Z CWT and spent the first few minutes
unintentionally using my vertical and the last few minutes on the new
dipole. I can't tell any difference in performance but the dipole
hears much less noise.
For the Wednesday test I temporarily disconnected the tribander on the
100-foot tower and put the dipole in its place. There is a 600-foot
run of 1.25 inch Heliax to get out to the tower. This configuration
resulted in a perfect 1:1 SWR. Thursday evening I added remote relays
to the tower so I could use both the tribander and the dipole by
clicking buttons from the shack. However, the SWR went up to 2.2:1
which makes radios and amplifiers unhappy.
Saturday morning I spent some time troubleshooting but could not find
the problem. Bypassing the Transco relay did not help; replacing the
jumper coax did not help; and replacing the bulkhead connector in the
remote switch box did not help. All of the components appear to
individually work fine but the combination mismatches the dipole. I
ran out of time so I reluctantly accepted a 2:1 SWR.
At the start of the contest, I had the ETO-91B at 800 watts on 40 and
the Alpha 8410 at 500 watts on 20. For the first few hours, the
amplifiers were happy although the Alpha would roar at me with its
noisy blower if I dared to start a run on 20 meters. About half way
the ETO-91B started tripping off, even if I decreased power. Also 80
meters began to be productive and I bypassed the Alpha rather than
retuning when jumping to 80 to chase the mobiles. Eventually I turned
both amplifiers off which made the 40-meter K3 run about 60 watts
looking at that 2:1 SWR.
Despite all the power level issues, I could work the people I could
normally work. During the first few hours, no amount of power could
overcome the lack of short skip. About 5 hours into the test 40
meters woke up and nearly everyone became loud. About 2 hours before
the end, 40 meters went long.
Here is some noise about the mobiles. First, here is the impressive
list of planned operations, scraped from the OhQP planned operations
web page and reformatted with a Python script:
W8UE/M 11: ADAM, BROW, BUTL, CHAM, CLER, DARK, HAMI, HIGH, LOGA,
PREB, SHEL
K8O/M 27: ALLE, ASHL, AUGL, CRAW, DEFI, DELA, ERIE, FULT, HANC,
HARD, HENR, HURO, LUCA, MARI, MERC, MORR, OTTA, PAUL,
PUTN, RICH, SAND, SENE, UNIO, VANW, WILL, WOOD, WYAN
K8MR/M 27: ATHE, BELM, CARR, CLAR, CLIN, COLU, CUYA, FAIR, FAYE,
GREE, GUER, HARR, HIGH, MADI, MAHO, MONR, MORG, MUSK,
NOBL, PERR, PICK, PORT, ROSS, STAR, SUMM, TRUM, TUSC
K8RYU/R 8: ATHE, GALL, JACK, LAWR, MEIG, SCIO, VINT, WASH
K8RR 3: COSH, HOLM, KNOX
N8KR/R 5: DEFI, FULT, HENR, PAUL, VANW
W8RU/R 3: FULT, LUCA, WILL
The format is fairly obvious but the number is the count of planned
county operations for each station. Note that the actual set of
counties visited by each mobile might be different than planned
because of the usual hazaards.
Here is some more noise about the mobiles I worked:
Mobile Counties Counties QSOs Counties
Station Scheduled Worked Missed
K8RYU 8 7 11 JACK
K8RR 3 2 2 COSH
W8RU 3 3 5
K8O 27 16 19 ALLE, ASHL, DELA, HANC, HARD,
MERC, MORR, RICH, SENE, UNIO,
WYAN
K8MR 27 19 28 BELM, CARR, CUYA, HARR, MADI,
MAHO, NOBL, SUMM, TRUM, TUSC
W8UE 11 6 6 ADAM, BUTL, CLER, HAMI, HIGH
total: 71 12% of total QSOs
I had 14 160-meter QSOs. These QSOs are added to the 1 15-meter QSO
in the 3830 score summary.
This year I logged the county for each my Kansas and Hawaii QSOs which
means I have to post-process my log to convert 3 letter county codes
into KS or HI, depending on the callsign. Then I can submit my log to
the Kansas and Hawaii QSO party sponsors for their benefit.
I missed DC, ID, UT, ND, SD, and VT for WAS + DC and I missed 11 Ohio
counties. The only provinces I got were VE3 and VE6 so 12 Canadian
entities are missing.
(51 - 1 - 6) + (88 - 11) + (14 - 12) + 1 = 124
Since I have not purchased any ham radio software adaptations to the
few Ohio QSO Party rules changes of the past few years (DX is a
multiplier and 160 is a band), I'll have to calculate my own score
again:
(603 * 2 + 1) * (124 + 1) = 150875
where the '+ 1's account for my one phone QSO.
Again there were a lot of dupes which I attribute to confusion about
whether or not K1LT is a different call than K1LT/8 (as determined by
logging software). Maybe next year I will try operating without the
/8 and see if there is a good trade off between the QSOs lost because
someone thinks I am not in Ohio versus the time wasted working dupes.
Equipment: K3S, P3, Alpha 8410 loafing and growling anyway, 2nd K3,
P3, ETO-91B also loafing and tribanders, dipoles, and verticals.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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