[3830] ARRL DX (SSB): ZF2NT (Mult-Single)

[Bruce Sawyer]

ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1999


      Call: ZF2NT                    Country:  Cayman Islands  
      Mode: SSB                      Category: Multi Single

      BAND     QSO    QSO PTS    STATES/PROV


      160      253      759          47
       80      428     1284          54
       40      432     1296          56
       20     1661     4983          58
       15     1820     5460          59
       10     1732     5196          53
     -----------------------------------

     Totals   6326    18978         327  =   6,205,806



All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.

Operator List:  ZF2NT/N6NT, ZF2YB/KI6Y

Equipment Description: FT-990 running barefoot all but the first 3
hours (!), Hy-Gain Explorer 14 tribander at 50', vertical on 40,
inverted V for 80/160 at about 45'.

The short story:

Another weekend of equipment struggles!  I smoked my little 30L-1
during a contest the first weekend of February after only 12 hours of
operating, and had to do the remaining 36 hours of that one as LP.
Parts to repair the amp didn't arrive on Little Cayman until the day
after the ARRL CW contest, so I did that one LP almost by design.  I
got the amp running reliably after the parts arrived, and then beat on
it pretty hard.  Charlie, KI6Y flew down from California on Wednesday
to help me in the SSB contest with a M/S entry, and he operated for a
couple of days using the amp with no problems at all.  So we thought
we were ready when 0000Z rolled around Friday night.  Wrong!

We took advice from W6NL and set up an operating schedule of 6/6/4/4/4
hours each for each day of the contest.  This is a beautiful system,
because it gives each operator in the team a chance to work every
opening at some point during the contest.  The ARRL M/S rules do
permit operating this contest in a true multi-single manner (i.e.,
bunch of guys taking turns on single station), unlike the CQ rules
that make M/S just M/M with one hand tied behind your back.  I must
say I like this way a whole lot better.  Also, the new band change
rules let you make a few critical band moves to improve your mult
total without opening the door to octopus operations.  I think the
rule thing is absolutely great.

I led off the contest on the 0Z-6Z shift and had one of the most
exciting starts ever.  I am NOT a high rate SSB contester, but by the
time 20m began to shut down shortly after 0300Z I had 822 contacts in
the log.  Things were working flawlessly.  Then I went to 40, and that
all changed.  Within seconds I had smoke pouring out of the amplifier,
and when I peered down into it I saw flames coming out of the
parasitic suppressors.  The power output was still there, though, so
for a while I would alternately transmit to make a contact and then
reach over to blow out the little fires burning in my amp.  That was
not a good long-term operating practice, though, and it wasn't long
before somebody came on to tell me my signal was grossly distorted.
We tried all kinds of things to try to continue using the amp, but it
was useless.  The amp was out of commission.  For the rest of the
weekend I tried one thing after another trying to bring the amp back
on line, following suggestions being sent to me via email from friends
back in CA.  Each idea just resulted in more smoke, though, so we
ended up doing the last 45 hours of this contest barefoot.

We continued giving out the report of "KW", even though we were
running only 100w, and it did feel a little ironic each time somebody
came back and said something like "Wow, big signal here in Backwater,
Iowa!"  Equally ironic were the ones who would answer "You're 59 in
Flubberdale with only 100w here."  Hey, it's just an exchange!  Even
at our peak we were only putting out 800w, but that's plenty when
you're sitting right by salt water.

I'm not convinced the amp would have done much more for us on 10 or
15, though it might have made it easier to hold a run frequency.
Being little guys, we kept getting chased around by the bigger guns
running real power.  Whatever...  if you can find a new spot quickly
enough, even that doesn't hurt you much.  On the low bands, though,
the lack of power on SSB really does make a difference.  It was a
struggle all night, both nights, as we fought to get respectable
totals on 40/80/160.

The contest was a real blast, even with all the equipment hassles.
(Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that !#$%*& Heil foot pedal that kept
breaking on us, over and over again.)  It was especially nice being
able to pass fast banter with the guys I know so well on CW but for
whom I had never had a voice to associate with the fist.  This time,
thankfully, we had no noise problems, and electrical service stayed up
all weekend.  Those have been problems in every other contest this
year, so I think we were lucky there.  Propagation got spotty on 10
the second day and never did go short for us.  Consequently, we missed
the close-in mults (MS/SC/NC/AL) despite repeated attempts to move
people and use backscatter.  Still, I'm happy with the results.
There's no such category as LP M/S, so we'll just have to live with
being stacked up against the big guns.  It was a fun weekend, even if
we did have to work a little harder to make ourselves heard.

Bruce, ZF2NT

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