[3830] ARRLDX CW K3ZO SOAB HP

[k3zo@verizon.net]

                     ARRL DX Contest, CW
                    
Call: K3ZO
Operator(s): 
Station: 

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 42
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs  Mults
----------------------
  160:     16     13
   80:    235     56
   40:    408     64
   20:   1030     73
   15:    955     89
   10:   1143     86
----------------------
Total:   3787    381  =  4,328,541

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Well, just when they said conditions couldn't possibly get any better...
Old age, I guess: All was in readiness at the start of the contest, I had
a beautiful run frequency into Europe on 20, the band was wide open... then
about 4 QSOs into the contest I suddenly became aware that I had set TR-LOG
up for the CQWW and this happened to be the ARRL DX!! So I had to make a fast
shuffle to reconfigure my logcfg.dat file and in the process lost my run freq
and couldn't find another, so I ended up on 10 running JAs for a while...
As I fired up on 10 Saturday morning to begin the European run the keyboard I
was using suddenly decided it didn't want me to be able to type the letter "S".
I discovered this while attempting to enter I3JSS into the computer.  Since the
next station in line was SM7BJW, the problem was not immediately apparent to me
and I thought the computer had crashed, so I took the computer down and brought
it back up, all the while making QSOs with my trusty MFJ Grandmaster keyer and
logging on paper by hand.  When the computer came back up and still had the
problem I correctly diagnosed what the problem was.  In my mad dash to the
other side of the room to get a spare keyboard and hook it up my pants came
down... Anyhow, the pile-up on the then-virgin band was boiling and I thank
my good fortune at times like this that all I do with the computer is log.
I may have had the MFJ keyer CQ in peoples' faces for a bit while I got
everything going again, but within a few minutes all was "go" and I even
managed to type the four QSOs I had logged on paper into the computer between
QSOs.  The substitute keyboard worked OK for the rest of the contest though
it demonstrated an occasional penchant for typing two J's when only one was
desired...

Everything was OK outside the shack except the control cable for my prop
pitch on the tower holding my 15, 20 and 80 meter Yagis has developed an
intermittent caused by water getting into it.  During daylight I could
rotate the antennas;  at night after the dew came down I would blow fuses
in the control unit when I tried.  So the secret was to get the 80 meter 
beam lined up on Europe shortly after dark and leave it there, and then
after the sun had been shining for a couple of hours in the morning to 
rotate the 15 and 20 meter Yagis onto Europe.  I managed.  Meanwhile my
4-el quad on 10-15-20 worked fine so the 15 and 20 meter Yagis were not
really all that necessary, though the big 15 Yagi came in handy early 
evenings for the Asian opening...

Outside of the above, no complaints!  The dry, at times windy weather had the
line noises singing away but signal levels were so high that I was really
only bothered on 10 when beaming East Asia.  Even then most signals made it
over the top.


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