[3830] ARRLDX SSB M6T SOABHP

[g4piq at btinternet.com]

                     ARRL DX Contest - SSB
                    
Call: M6T
Operator(s): G4PIQ
Station: G4MRS

Class: SOAB  Power: HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 39

Summary:
 Band     QSOs  Mults
----------------------
  160:     16      7
   80:    148     32
   40:    465     44
   20:    973     60
   15:   1001     61
   10:   1388     61
----------------------
Total:   3993    265  =  3,173,640

Club: 

Comments:

Comments:

2 x FT1000MP + PAs. 

160m     : Inv V @ 23m
80m      : Delta Loop @ 23m
40m      : 402CD @ 24m
20/15/10 : KT34XA @ 25m + A3 @ 26m

Short Beverage (about 90m)

Had been away on holiday the week prior to the contest, so drove 600km back 
home and then started to sort the station out. No time to repair the KT34XA
(which I've now confirmed as not working right on 15 and 10, but only by 3dB 
or so). Found intermittent on TH5, so forced to use A3 as second high band
antenna. 

Had bought a used phasing type noise nuller while I'd been away to try and sort
the bad noise problem at the site on 160. Had a play with the box, but no joy,
so just did the best I could and put a short beverage out as far from the noise
source as possible and as long as I could fit in. 

Was more or less ready for the start and started on 20 which sounded excellent,
but big rates didn't appear, so went to 40 and then back to 20 which ran much
better after another hour. 20 really didn't close overnight from here - good to
see the sunspots back even for the nighttime stuff let alone the great daytime
highband conditions. 

Zipped around from 40 to 80 and back for a while and then around my dawn I
heard N2NT working someone on 160 quite easily copyable on the noisy beverage
so went
to 160 and ran off a few of the usual suspects on the East Coast. I know others
were calling, but my sincere apologies that I couldn't copy you through my
noise floor.

Back to 80 and nice to run off a few harder mults including WY (which I missed
in the end on 20) and CA, then back briefly to 40 and then for a final hour on
20 which sounded great again. 

Now a dumb move. Rather than take a break, the 160 dawn success had spurred me
to greater things and I thought that if I could just get that noise nuller to
work I could work another bunch of mults on 160 later in the event. Looked at
it for a while and found a dead FET which I replaced and then found that I
could indeed null the noise out - great, but it too late by then to put a
proper noise antenna out, so had to run lots of attenuation on the main antenna
to get a null and I wanted a little rest so took an hour. As it happened, I
didn't work of hear anyone new on 160 for the rest of the weekend, but at least
there is a solution to the problem. Having the box did distract me from what I
should have been doing for some of the event though.

Was too late getting on the high bands both days, but had to grab a little
rest. Need to learn that for a 48 hour event I need to set up more than
immediately before the contest so I can get on rested! Ho Ho. Took 1 hour on
day 1 and slept through my alarm clock for a 2.5 hour break on day 2. Another
4.5 hours lost in fixing various stuff and a bit of faffing about. That's a
really bad statistic.

High bands were excellent. Great to run across VO2NS calling someone else on 10
on the 2nd radio, shout 'up 5' at him, and then have him willing to move to 15
and 20. Also amazing to have VY1JA call me towards the end of my 10m operation
on the Sunday and also have Jay willing to go to 15 and 20. This just left VY0
and VE8 missing (like most everyone else I guess). Frustrating to miss WY on
20, but that's life. Short of mults in relation to QSOs on 40 - probably not
enough time spent on the band late in the opening, and a few odd sillies missed
on 80. Nothing like enough effort spent with the second radio on the first day
- maybe if I keep beating myself over the head about it I'll get there in the
end!

Thanks to everyone who called and especially those who moved for me. Great fun,
but probably not quite good enough. Congratulations to OH5LF for an outstanding
score from that far North and East. I'm sure we'll see some big scores out of
Europe.

73,

Andy, G4PIQ
g4piq at btinternet.com





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M6T         3993  265 3,173,640SOAB    HP 

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