[3830] 1997 IARU-a long summary

[Jim George, N3BB]

Having spent a lot of time recently on airplanes, plus looking over the
IARU logs and "notes,", here is a rather lengthy summary-"the real story"
of the recent N3BB M/S entry in the IARU contest.

Last year, N5KA (now N5LT) and I did a wanna-be serious IARU, which I
messed up by working the WRTC stations rather that my job as the mult guy.
So we had our usual high QSO totals (thanks to Russ) but with a terrible
mult score (thanks to me).  We committed to a better score in 1997.

The 1997 IARU would be the first true serious M/S test of the new station
location at N3BB since the shack was moved into the operating position-a
nice 25x15 room with windows-in a separate guest house.  This is a super
improvement from the 10x10 room off the garage.  The operating position has
been set up for S/O and M/S, with two permanent stations controlled by two
PCs, automatic antenna selection with Top Ten Devices equipment and
Dunestar six-band band-pass filters-all controlled by the band selection on
the two identical TS-940S tranceivers and Alpha amps.  There are identical
KC keyers and Bencher paddles as well.  The Alphas are the only
non-identical equipment, with an 87A and a 76PA.  The 76PA will load up
almost anything and gives us the flexibility to use CW antennas in the SSB
part of the band, etc.  A nice recent upgrade was the installation of 7/8
inch hardline coax (thanks to W5KFT for helping me get it back from the
Dallas Hamcom a couple of years ago).  The 7/8 hardline is used for 40-10
meters, and some older 1/2 hardline is used on 160-80 meters.  I'm
convinced the excellent sheilding on the hardline reduces the "RF leakage"
in addition to lowering the signal loss.

All the coax and rotator cables enter the shack via thru-connectors in a
1/8 inch thick aluminum bulkhead panel (2 ft x 2.5 ft) mounted in the lower
wall at the corner of the shack.  All internal connections are attachable
and/or removable easily (under one minute) when the station is not in use.
That's important here in storm-prone Texas.  There is a solid ground
connection of only three feet long to the ground system.  Thanks to K7LXC
for the suggestion of a "crows foot" arrangement of three nine-foot copper
clad ground rods laid horizontally about one foot deet in the tough Texas
clay and dirt.  The relatively good ground, hardline shield, and the
Dunestar band-pass filters produce a setup where we have little or no
interference to one another on different bands.  Even though the set up is
pretty clean, I plan to add some quarter wave coaxial stubs from W2VJN in
the future for addition attenuation.

In the IARU M/S category, we were going to have to operate two stations on
the same band for long periods of time.  So we tried to set up additional
antennas that were located so that the mult station could *hear* through
the run station's CQs.  We were able to accomplish this with a triband
antenna on 20-10 (10? what's that...) but we have a lot of room for
improvement on 160-40.

The station needed some final work to get it ready for the serious M/S with
a group of heavy hitters.  So I took the prior week off on "vacation" to
get the final things in shape.  Unfortunately, the outside work on the yard
and the ham radio things in the 95 degree summer heat did me in and I
apparantly got a pretty bad case of heat stroke.  There were about three
hours of outside work remaining on the day of the contest, and working
outside while the contest was started, I managed somehow to scratch my left
eye dragging some cables through the dense underbrush.  The net result of
the heat stroke and the scratched eye was a totally tired, wiped out
operator with a bad eye problem, who managed to operate only five of six
hours-and struggled to do even that!  So thanks to the team for picking up
my shortfall.  From an operating standpoint, we did pretty well in spite of
me.

We had a solid team-not including N3BB-including Russ, N5LT (resident SSB
gun), George, K5TR (SS SSB Champ who was available only due to a family
activity at the W5KFT ranch station), Richard, K5NA (CW guru and recently
retired from IBM NY), and Michael, AB5EB, (young CW gun-in-the making and
student at SW Texas Univ).  K5TR and K5NA are the sys-ops of the two local
Austin DX packet clusters, so we figured we would stay connected, and we
did.  Also, K5TR is the American distributor of the TR software, so George
would ensure TR smoothness.  He did.  We needed both CW and SSB strength
because the IARU is a mixed mode contest and CW usually runs more QSOs than
SSB due to the summer overnight conditions on 20 and 40 meters.

With a 7 AM start, everyone was excited and here by 6 AM, except AB5EB, who
was arriving at 9AM.  K5NA started out on 40 to Asia, but we had a startup
glitch on a TR database that George had loaded that morning.  The problem
was corrected, and thereafter things ran smoothly.  We all ended up fairly
comfortable with TR-even "ole CT person" me.  The TR bandmap feature was
especially popular.

We switched to the 20 meter station, and Russ, N5LT, started mining the
bottomless pit of 20 meters.  From W5, one always can work 20, but a lot of
QSOs are domestic.  The first few hours were steady and productive, with
NA, JA, DU, Central Asia, HL, etc all coming through.  As a sign of the
changing times, Russ had a small "BY run," with  BA4ASL, BA4TB, and BY4BB
all calling us on SSB in a space of 15 minutes.  Guess we were spotted on
the Zone 44 BY cluster!

We tried 15 meters at 1412 with a few Europeans workable.  But the band
didn't really open, so back to 20.  Then we tried again at 1608.  Worse
this time!  NT5C spotted two Europeans on 10 meters, and we went to 10 at
1636.  We worked a loud DA0HQ right away, but HA0MM had disappeared.
Thanks to DA0HQ for our only European on 10.  They were loud and clear, and
the only one!

Back to 20 after ten minutes, and more 20 meter grinding until 1748, when
we tried 15 again.  No go, but we did work NU1AW, W1AW/7, and VE7RAC for HQ
mults.  Back abain to 20, the only band open to DX, and N5LT and K5NA
continued to grind 'em out, switching run and mult back and forth.  The HQ
mults were coming through, but there were lots of 1 and 3 point domestic
QSOs.  Back to 15 at 2139 for some South Americans, plus a few early JAs.
But 15 didn't have it, so hello to 20 again by 2157.  20 was improving to
Europe by then, and the 5 pointers were more prevalent, with some LP to VK
(thanks VK2AYD).  Europe got to running pretty well, with the 22, 23, and
00 hours totaling 87, 118, and 117 QSOs an hour with lots of deep
Europe/Asia plus the endless well of USA stations that are the staple of
the SS, NAQP, WPX, and IARU contests from Texas.  It was good to see UA1OMS
in the log during that run.

At 0207, we left old reliable 20 for 40 meters, and started the run into
Europe with the big trusty 3 element 46 foot boom Telrex yagi at 120 feet
on top of a hill.  This antenna is the "gold standard" at N3BB.  Nice
multwork on 40 SSB by K5TR complemented the CW runs for a 100 hour.

At 1308, we went to 75/80 for mults and found Europe comimg in pretty well.
But the NE beverage didn't work very well, so we were semi-deaf dealing
with the high summer QRN.  Since part of the hot outside work was working
on the two beverages, especially the flood-damaged NE beverage where the
resistor terminmation point was buried in a three foot high area of flood
debris, it was disappointing to find out that the NE beverage still is
sick.  Oh well, another project on the endless list. We logged LU1IV in
zone 14, plus HQ station YV30T, then went back to 20 at 0331.

20 was hot, with the summertime daylight conditions into Northern Europe
and Central Asia.  We tracked the sun across Europe and worked a lot of
Russians, Ukranians, and other Europeans.In addition, the Pacific was
coming through now, with FK8GM, AH8A, and ZL6A (HQ) logged.

Back to 80 at 0404 for the contest's toughie call sign winner, EA8/OH4NL/P,
plus CT1DVV-both zone mults.  We kept hearing N1BB, and wondered how we
would hold up against their superb east coast location.  They were CW only,
however the early postings indicate we may have edged out our NE friends on
overall M/S-quite tough from here.  Back to 40 at 0419 for an 80 QSO hour
altogether, along with several HQ mults.

At 0510, back to 20.  This was the one time I operated a fairly long shift.
My left eye was so bad at that time that K5NA urged me to go to the
emergency room.  Fortunately, using eye wash liberally, the eye began to
stabalize.  That was the low point for me.  20 was 20 then, and was open to
almost everywhere, with everyone there but only S3-S4 with the 20 stack
pointed north over the pole.  Lots of weak 5 pointers.  It reminded me of
what N3RS said once at a FRC meeting long ago-"there are always stations
calling you-just listen and keep at it."  They did and we did.  One nice
contact was a very weak KL7 that rose above the floor, which turned out to
be N6NT/KL7 who was probably mobile and returning from his VY1, VE8, KL7
sojurn of late.  It took turning the lower antenna over that way to hear
Bruce's flawless CW.

QSYs to 160 (1606-1618) and 80 (1632-1643) netted some mults.   Back to 20
for XE2TH, whom N5LT scheduled for later QSOs on 80 and 160, where he was
concerned that his antenna was not good enough to make it up to Texas.  But
it was, and he did, for an appreciated QSO/mult.  XE2TH was our only "move"
and we need to improve that capability in the future.  Back on 20, the JAs
and VKs were coming in now.  Side trips were made to 80 from 0706-0716
(NU1AW and VE7RAC) and 160 from 0734-0744 (XE2TH, NU1AW, and the 160
beacon, VE6JY).

Old friend 9V1YC called in on 20 CW.  We missed James on 40 this year.
Then back to 40 at 0811 and on to 80 at 0836 where a welcome EM1HO in zone
73 and a KL7 were worked.  Then back to 40 at 0850 where the trusty 40 yagi
pounded out a clear frequency tune to JA/Asia/Pacific along with mults
KH7R, P29PL, VK4EMM, 4F3CV, NU1AW, ZL1BVB, VE1ZJ, VK1WI (HQ), RA0JX (zone
33), VE7RAC, HL1CG, 8J3XHQ (HQ), and VK6VZ, who called in with zone 58 at
1153!

The JA run on 40 was good-for summer-and we were able to average 76
QSOs/hour over the last three hours, with almost all 5 pointers, to end the
contest.  A super wrap up breakfast courtesy of my XYL, Diana, topped off
the contest for the happy but weary team.

We have a lot of improvements needed for next year-beverages that hear,
better 80 and 160 antennas, and improved scheduling/moving techniques.  We
continue to make a high QSO total from our southside black hole location,
but have a long way to go on world class mult totals.  We were hurt by very
poor 15 meter conditions, and had hoped to catch a 15 opening to Europe due
to the 30 degree latitude here, but no-go.

Thanks to AB5EB, N5LT, K5NA, and K5TR for the hard work and support.

See you all next year!

73, Jim

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