[3830] ARRLDX SSB WO1N SOAB(A) LP

[wo1n at aqrrl.net]

                     ARRL DX Contest, SSB
                    
Call: WO1N
Operator(s): WO1N
Station: WO1N

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 28
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs  Mults
----------------------
  160:      4      4
   80:     51     36
   40:     59     48
   20:    215     72
   15:    165     65
   10:    343     81
----------------------
Total:    837    306  =  764,694

Club: YCCC

Comments:


 Equipment Description: FT1KD+DVK, TA33 at 38',DX-LB at 45', 80M wire vertical

 This was a planned partial effort. I set a goal of 500Qs and
 would keep going if family/time/attitude permitted. The better half
 offered to take my son to his monthly Friday night Boy Scout meeting, but
 knowing I was not going to put in even close to 48 hours, and wanting
 to stash away some brownie points, I took him. Of course, this
 meeting was the longest ever and our den had clean-up duty to boot.
 In the shack with a cup of coffee in hand about 2 1/2 hrs after the
 open.

 I made a few contacts, but the amp relay in the FT1000 was enabled
 from when we used the radio at K1TTTs last November and it was driving
 me crazy every time the radio transmitted. I shut down, pulled the
 covers off to disable the relay. I swapped positions of the radio and
 video terminal in the process. This was one of the better moves I
 made all weekend.

 Search and pounce was the name of the game for most of the weekend.
 The packet cluster was problematic but a lot better than the CQWW
 weekend. On Sunday I was getting only spots issued by folks on the
 local node for most of the afternoon. I pointed this out via an
 announce message and sure enough there was something amiss which
 the node manager was able to fix, at which point the spots flooded
 in. I can only assume the several dozens of spots I issued never
 made it past the local node also.

 Highlights, before the minor cluster meltdown Sunday morning I was S&Ping
 (read Point and Clicking) at over 160/hr (last 10) for a good 30-40
 minutes. That was fun. I couldn't match that rate running the two or
 three times I tried. Looking at the log, I see several attempts at runs
 that I would abandon after 20-30 minutes mainly because I was not
 happy with the rate.

 I did find a spot at 14.314 on Sunday at 1812Z and camped out
 for 2.5hrs. The rates were not great, about 60/hr. At one point I had
 a fellow YCCC'er open up less than 1KHz above me, but was able to tough
 it out and he finally left. Another local gave the QRZ?/20 ms wait and
 then CQ'ed, but left when I got his attention, thank you.

 It was shortly after that the frequency totally openned up around me.
 It startled me, my first thought was the contest was over (literally, ok
 I was tired), then I thought there might have been a SID or something.
 No, it was Nirvana. My rate shot up to over 100. This was good. But
 tiring. I don't know how the Carribean guys can do this for hours on end!
 
 In the end I put some where around 28 hours resulting in a new Q high
 in this contest for me and, despite the torture of SSB, I had fun.

 Ken
 WO1N




Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/3830
Submissions:              3830 at contesting.com
Administrative requests:  3830-REQUEST at contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-3830 at contesting.com