[3830] N3BB IARU SO-Mixed

[Jim George, N3BB]

Call: N3BB                     Country:  United States
                                     Category: Single Operator Mixed Mode


     BAND      QSO   QSO-PTS   PTS/Q    ZONES  HQ STNS


      160       23       45     1.96      6      2
       80       42       98     2.33      7      5
       40      219      727     3.32     22     13
       20      801     3485     4.35     36     22
       15      811     3277     4.04     31     27
       10       44      132     3.00      8      2
     ---------------------------------------------------

     Totals   1940     7764     4.00    110     71

                 Score: 1,405,284 points

They say every dog has his day.  This was not my day!  Although the CT test
files were perfect the day before, when creating the final CT files in the
morning before the contest, one of the two PCs displayed an error message
that the HDD had an error and wouldn't load the DVP files.  I was able to
use the "ignore" command in the error message, but it rattled me and all
the SSB on station 2 was done manually the whole contest.  Then at about
01Z, an RFI problem started right out of the blue and the automatic antenna
switching system on station #1 stopped working.  That took 20 minutes to
get band-aided, and I connected the coax to station #1 directly from the
feedlines in the wall, rather than going through the top-ten device
network.  That allowed me to use station #1, but all band changes were
manual, walking back to the wall and redoing the band manually.  Again,
that was a mind rattler.  My usual Alpha 76PA has developed a problem, and
the loaner amp for station #1 (a newish 87A from N5CQ) kept cutting off for
no reason (no fault lights-it simply would turn off) and after three hours
of that, I got up and moved it away, and got the good ole brick, the
venerable BTI 3-1000 and hooked it up again.  It worked OK the rest of the
way, and it was nice being able to monitor the CW with the transformer hum!
The net result was a poor start and a lot of frustration.  There probably
was a hundred QSO miss due to the off times in the first two hours.  I
probably would have bagged it then if it were not the last contest to use
as a WRTC 2000 qualifier. Later in the evening, bad storms were just north
of here.  Fortunately, we missed most of the lightning, but it rained three
and a half inches.  The QRN was bad, however the beverages worked well as I
could hear Europe on 40 and 80.  At one point, the QRN was over S9 on 15
meters!

15 meters to Europe was very good, and 20 meters over the pole at night was
great.  10 meters was a bust here.  Comparing the results with K5TR, I
missed a bunch of mults, so that was an operator problem and I have no
explanation as I was trying to watch for 10 meters on the second radio.  I
worked the 2R hard, but my (approx.) 170 QSOs were less than the leaders,
and that's an area of improvement needed.  80 was poor with no JAs at all.
There was some Europe on 80.

In general, the QSO totals are pretty good from here, but the mult totals
here are less than others seem to be able to get.  Another area to work on!
After the hard single op efforts in the CW WPX and this IARU, I'm ready
for a rest.  The control lines to the Top-Ten antenna switching system must
be redone with shielded wire and other needed changes (the problems are
mine, not theirs) and that will be the main summer chore along with new
antennas for 80 and 160.  On the way back from Dayton, I read K1ZM's
wonderful book on 160 meters and am going to get competitive on that band.

Congrats to all the terrific scores.  It's nice to have a contest where the
middle of the country has a chance.  All the HQ activity is fun, but it
tilts the field back to the Euro-centric locations in North America.

73,  Jim George N3BB/5

Austin, Texas-The Live Music Capital of the World

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