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[3830] ARRL 160 WW2Y Single Op HP

To: 3830@contesting.com
Subject: [3830] ARRL 160 WW2Y Single Op HP
From: webform@b4h.net
Reply-to: pdhutter@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2022 03:40:58 +0000
List-post: <mailto:3830@contesting.com>
                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest - 2022

Call: WW2Y
Operator(s): WW2Y
Station: WW2Y

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: NNY
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 894  Sections = 70  Countries = 20  Total Score = 170,910

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Equipment used:  FT-1000, Acom 1000, 75’ Inverted L , and a 2el 30’ center
loaded passive RX vertical array.

This was the strangest 160m contest I’ve experienced due to the fact that our
sun had decided to play mischievous and benignant games with the ionosphere.

From central NJ, I drove through torrent rain and gusty wind for six plus hours
on Wednesday afternoon’s trip to northern region of Franklin County, NY. Upon
arrival at the cabin, I discover water leaking from the sliding door frame onto
living room floor. Fired up generator plus two propane heaters and proceeded to
clean up the mess using a Shop Vac. 

Later that evening while I was setting up the station, a cold front sweeps into
our region providing lake effect snow that continued intermittently throughout
the following day.  Next morning’s goal was to do antenna work. Shooting ropes
over desired pine trees located on a ridge in windy conditions was a challenge,
but I was successful after multiple attempts. Finally raised TX antenna and
proceeded to install four 120’ ground radials. Yes you’ve read that
correctly. I was too tired and cold to continue and at this point I just wanted
to activate NNY for the ones who could actually hear me. RX array would have to
wait until Friday morning. 

After having a nice warm meal and a beer at a local establishment, I return back
to cabin to try out the station to see if it works. I hear Karel, OK1CF calling
CQ who was not strong, but Q5. I dumped in my call to see if he hears me. He
notices someone is calling him and after 5 minutes of trying, he sends back W2Y?
Feeling somewhat discouraged and I decided to shut down for the night. 

Friday morning was cold, but calm. I went to work installing the RX array, which
was quickly implemented. Adjusting a DXE NCC-1 phase controller during middle of
day void of signals is pointless. I forgot to bring my 160m portable oscillator
to be used as a signal reference at remote locations around the compass. Oh
well, I have wait until the diehards stake out their run frequencies an hour
before the bell rings to make phasing adjustments. Spent some down time to
investigate the origin of water leak and caulked a couple areas around the door
frame. After that, I changed the oil in the generator.

The contest starts and I tried to get a run going without much success on 1837.5
KHz. Decided to S/P sweeping the band for few minutes and KB1EFS/2 in NNY that
had multiple callers went into the log.  I didn’t have to worry about that
multiplier any longer. After all, I ended up working at least five NNY stations
during the weekend.
  
At 2215Z, I went back to 1837.5 to run and finally had multiple answers with an
average rate. LZ5R with a huge signal answers me at 2245Z for a first European
QSO. Then followed by IZ8EPX, and worked 27 more Europeans, including DR5X,
OK1CF, OH1XX, UT6UB, and US6EX just to name a few. Every one of them was loud
and SP6LUV gets the strongest signal award! Last European QSO of the night was
SV3RF at 0502Z. I’m scratching my head thinking why so few Europeans were
active while conditions seemed to be very good between 2200 and 0500Z? I kept
hoping that the flood gates would break loose at any moment, but it never
occurred. The enhanced conditions due to a solar disturbance between NA and EU
came to a crashing halt for the rest of the contest. Only three Europeans made
it into the log during 2nd night.

Storm part deux arrives before daybreak on Saturday morning. Temperature rose to
45 degrees F and heavy rain along with gusty winds from the south doused the
southern wall of cabin once again. I discovered another source of the leak, but
not as bad as the first one. This would have to be corrected on Sunday morning
after tearing down antennas and station before departure. At about 2100Z,
another wicked cold front from the northwest pushes out low pressure system
bringing stronger wind gusts compared to two days before. I had to slacken
antenna ropes to alleviate the possibility of losing the TX antenna. Trees were
being tossed around pretty well for about two hours and the temperature dropped
well below freezing before 0200Z.
Signals coming from west of Mississippi River were greatly suppressed all
weekend and I only worked two CA sections, EB and ORG! Also, I’ve manage to
not work WTX, WWA, AK, VE4, VE6, VE7, and VE8 sections. There were occasions
when certain stations being heard from a different azimuth heading, making the
RX array ineffective at times. TX antenna heard better most of the time due to
the quiet location and conditions.

 I had a good time despite of whacky conditions and every 160m contest will
always be a unique experience. I guess we would not be drawn in doing them if
they were predictable. Thank you for the contacts.

73, 
Peter WW2Y


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