[3830] WPX SSB VO1AU SO(TS)AB HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: VO1AU
Operator(s): VO1AU
Station: VO1AU

Class: SO(TS)AB HP
QTH: Newfoundland
Operating Time (hrs): 35.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  351
   40:   85
   20: 1350
   15:  553
   10:   33
------------
Total: 2372  Prefixes = 863  Total Score = 6,554,485

Club: 

Comments:

Conditions?  Well, that was everyone's problem.  That 10m was so poor was no
great surprise, but 15m was really disappointing.  Worse still, while 40m is
always so overcrowded with Europeans that it's impossible to get a CQ in
edgeways, 80m is becoming evermore like 40.  It seems the only way to run
Europeans is to transmit above 3800 and listen below, because the levels of QRM
in Europe make it very hard to be heard.  

My amp stopped T/R switching at one point.  I did a little bit of in-contest
surgery and it appeared to fix the problem.  I say 'appeared' because the T/R
problem recurred a few hours later.  The real problem was a temperature sensor
that opened the T/R line when the transformer got too hot.  My repair job simply
allows the amp to cool off enough that it returned to full functionality more or
less on its own.  More fool me.

The cause of the heat was one of the 3-500Zs.  It ran a little too hot, and died
about 20 hours into the contest.  I ran the rest of the contest at half power,
as I had no spare tube available.  

As well, the balun feeding my tribander malfunctioned, giving me strange
problems on both transmit and receive.  Again, as I had no spare and no
particular desire to climb my tower in the night, I just carried on and added
"build a better balun" to my post-contest "to do" list.

For all that hassle, I'm still quite pleased with how it all went, and the 12
hours of off-time meant I never felt deprived of sleep at any time.

ZS4TX's 'Super Combo Keyer 2" worked a real treat.  Get one.

Rig: TS-950SD + TL-922 amp
Antennas: 10/15/20 - KLM KT-34 up 17m
          40 - vertical dipole
          80 - vertical
          160 - who was it who said "if you're on 160 in the WPX contest, you're
losing"?

Dave VO1AU


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