[3830] CQWW SSB K3NA SOAB HP

[eric at k3na.org]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: K3NA
Operator(s): K3NA
Station: K3NA

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Eastern Massachusett
Operating Time (hrs): 26
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   17    20        4
   80:  249    13       67
   40:  210    17       67
   20:  258    25       83
   15:  260    18       62
   10:  360    20       64
------------------------------
Total: 1354    97      353  Total Score = 1,689,300

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Gang --

   I'm not very happy with the results, but here's the dirty linen.  It was a
lot of fun while it lasted.  Greg W1KM was kind enough to loan me his site.

   This was my first serious single-op effort in many years, and my first with
the W5XD SO2R box, which performed flawlessly.  There were some other minor bugs
in the station that were occasional impediments, but not enough to justify the
lackadaisical rates during the first day, compared to other stations in the
area.  Clearly I have a lot to learn about single-op two-distractions class and
about operating in eastern New England (another first).  I'm sure my UBN broken
call level will be higher than in the past... and that poor rates on my run
frequency occurred because I wasn't concentrating.

   Unfortunately something toasted one radio at 0700z the first night.  I had a
spare and swapped it in, but lost an hour or two trying to figure out what was
wrong.

   At about the same time on the second night another radio got fried.  In the
course of trying to figure out what was happening I drew a big fat spark off the
station "ground wire" to the chassis of a radio.  I concluded this RFI/ground
loop/whatever problem was too difficult (and potentially dangerous) to debug on
no sleep.  I didn't want to sacrifice my last radio to whatever the gremlin was,
and stopped with 29 hours in the chair.

   This was also the first contest where I applied some of OH2MM's tips on
eating to stay alert for the long haul of a 48 hour contest.  (The short summary
is "don't eat".)  This advice I combined with the usual caffeine abstinence and
plenty of sleep during the preceding week.  Although the hardware didn't make it
through the second day, at the time of failure I felt better than I ever had on
the second day of a 48-hour single op.  I'll definitely be trying this program
again.

   Problems aside, the contest was thrilling!  One of the highlights was the
excellent run on 75m the second night.  4L0G called in at his local sunrise, a
real treat!  I had not really spent much time running on 75m the first night and
missed out on many opportunities.

   It was also quite interesting to see how quickly 10m became the hot band
after the 'sunrise wall' -- clearly we are still relatively high in the cycle. 
Even though conditions on the higher bands were somewhat impaired on the first
day, they were still pretty darn great.

   It's a start.  I know some things to work on to improve... and I can't wait
to do this again.

-- Eric K3NA


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