[3830] ARRLDX SSB VY2SS(K6LA) SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: VY2SS
Operator(s): K6LA
Station: VY2SS

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: North Am
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   16    16
   80:   93    43
   40:  172    58
   20:  984    99
   15: 1062   100
   10: 1178    85
-------------------
Total: 3505   401  Total Score = 4,216,515

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

After doing ARRL DX CW from VY2SS, I had the gall to ask Robby if I could return
for ARRL DX Phone. Robby agreed, and I cleaned out my closet to make sure the
station was SO2R capable. I carried an old TS-950SD and a Dentron MLA-2500 amp
in two suitcases. I packed my old W0MLY SO2R antenna switch and a few Dunestar
bandpass filters in a carry-on bag. I bought the WX0B SO2R box, cables and two
TopTen band decoders to complete the setup. Fortunately, American Airlines
didn’t look at the scale when I checked the two big overweight bags. But at the
gate they didn’t like the look of the W0MLY switch with all the wires coming out
of it and made me check it. That was fine with me, as it weighted a lot and I
didn’t have to lug it on the plane, along with my computer backpack stuffed with
cables and my K1EA DVP. Air Canada paid more attention to the scale, and I had
to box up a few items to make weight. Fortunately, they bought the line about a
simulated emergency test and didn’t charge me anything. 

Robby had fixed the 15 meter yagi rotor since ARRL CW, but still needed to work
on the 160 meter vee. He was waiting for a balun I was bringing. After getting
it connected, it turned out the balun didn’t like frequencies under 3.5 mhz, so
more work was required. It also turned out the band decoders output didn’t match
the Dunestar filters or the W0MLY switch, although the ones I have at home work
fine. So I had to forget about the bandpass filters and set up manual antenna
switching, which by itself wasn’t such a big deal, but then the I/O card I
brought for extra serial and parallel ports couldn’t be seen by NA, so that
meant the 2nd radio would have to have band data entered manually, a big deal
when S&Ping late in the contest while tired. Late Friday afternoon, we were
still putting the station together, and, as happened in the CW test, I didn’t
get to take a nap. 

As the contest started, I found the 20 meter yagi rotor wouldn’t rotate.
Fortunately it was fixed on Europe. After getting going in the Canadian phone
portion of the band, a GREAT asset in this contest, I found that the radio would
key on 160 meters, but the audio wasn’t there, so there was no 160 operation the
first night. Robby later figured out that the problem was in the SO2R mic cables
and suggested I pull the mic and put it directly in the radio for 160 operation.
That worked, but it was tough to move mults or be moved as it took a while to
pull the mic off the SO2R cable and put it in the transceiver, switch the
antenna and amp settings and not screw up.

In the morning I found that any time I turned any rotor, it would key the mic
and wouldn’t release until the rotor break released. 

The biggest visit from Murphy was late Saturday night. With about 2300 Q’s in
the log, all of a sudden I saw an NA message that I had never seen before: “You
have run out of memory for QSOs.” This was after about 40 hours of no sleep and
after a brief panic attack, I put the QDF file on floppy and transferred it to
my laptop. The rest of the way I entered QSO data in the laptop, while using the
DVP and changing radios on the out of memory computer. 

So those were the hassles. On the bright side, this was truly a DX contest. I
couldn’t believe the DX. Had I been home, I would have had 4 all-time new ones.
9N, YI, YA, and ET all called in, along with SV5, SV9, OY, FR, 5Z, 7P, 9J, CN,
TU, JY, HZ, A9, 9K, etc. – amazing.

I also went 48 hours straight as I did in ARRL DX CW. This one was a little
tougher though. Phone takes more energy. Sunday late morning Robby stuck a note
in front of my face that read “VY 2 SS.” I had been giving the call as VY1SS, at
least a few times. Robby told me he heard me do that a few times on Saturday
also. I only gave my call as K6LA once that I recall. I started seeing a spider
web like smoke over the radio at one point. I knew it wasn’t there, but I still
reached my hand out over the radio a few times.

One high point was working RADIO OSAMA BIN LADEN on 10 meters. Not surprisingly,
he wouldn’t give his QTH. Another memorable moment was when a US station called
me for the umpteenth time (many of them in the Canadian phone band.) This was on
Sunday and I was tired and a little edgy and I asked him, “Are you in this
contest?” He said, “Yes.” I said, “Then why are you calling me?” At that point a
3rd station started cracking up on the frequency. As I recall, it turned out to
be a Thai station for a multiplier. 

On the way home I missed the airport turn and for the first time in my life
missed a flight due to my own fault. I had to overnight in Toronto again.
Fortunately, I left almost all of the equipment with Robby, so I only had one
suitcase and a backpack to deal with on the way home.

Overall this was a great contesting experience. I need to learn more about
getting multipliers from the east coast, as I was WAY down from the leaders in
that department. I also need to learn how to handle split operations on 40 & 80
phone in this one. Thanks again to Robby for his hospitality and great sense of
humor.

73, Ken, K6LA


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