[3830] ARRL 160 W7DX(N9ADG) Single Op LP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: W7DX
Operator(s): N9ADG
Station: N9ADG

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Preston, WA 
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 547  Sections = 75  Countries = 5  Total Score = 88,960

Club: Western Washington DX Club

Comments:

Location: Preston, Washington, 22 miles east of Seattle. 

Antenna: Four modestly-elevated radials, between 8 and 30' off the ground
(gull-wings on NE and SE into trees), 1/4 wl blimp-hoisted antenna. 150 watts
from an FT1000 with 400Hz and roofing filters from Inrad. Long beverage to the
ESE, Shorter one to NNE. 

Narrative - PICTURES on http://www.dxmap.com/2005arrl160

Got started on Friday (local) evening at about 0017 -- In days previous,
pre-contest preparation included getting up the radials, re-affirming the ground
and static drain, finding the blimp tether, cinder block, filler hose, etc. from
the last time.   We had about 12" of snow (yes, a foot) on Thursday evening, and
it remained through the contest weekend.

Friday evening conditions -- Excellent! I ended with 435 contacts at 6am (1400Z)
local time, after partially pulling the blimp tether out of a tree when wind
came up. Just didn't stay up for the sunrise; a poor decision. Could have
switched to my permanent 160m antenna, a shunt fed fir tree, er, sort-of
inverted L, but just went to bed instead. Fixed the tether (in retrospect a good
choice to not fix it in the dark, definitely needed light) the next day. The
outlook on the day was much cheerier even with lack of sleep with that many q's
in the log. Aspirations of 600+ q's flitted through the synapses that were
awake. 

Saturday - got started in the afternoon; conditions seemed like they'd be
similar to Friday -- big plans for Saturday night.  Spent a leisurely (hey,
there's a contest on!) early dinner with the family, and returned to a band
filled with ultra-high QRN levels. Saturday 0200 to 0259, 8 q's. 0300-0359 5
q's. I was hearing stations in adjoining states on the East coast having trouble
hearing each other, despite  me being able to hear both sides... They certainly
weren't hearing my 150 watts. No Q's from 0400 to ~0500, despite trying. Alot.
Put the blimp away in the garage, and chatted with my wife, then called it a
night. Didn't bother to set the alarm... but thankfully was awakened by one of
the kids' bad dreams. Checked the 'L'-ish antenna at 0915 or so, and could hear
VK6QH(?)... tried on the L, got a '?', which was encouraging.  Ran to the
garage, topped off the blimp, escorted it outside (crunchy snow!), spooled it
into the night. 20q's in the next hour even with a head still full of sleep.
Didn't get the VK6, but did manage KH6, WCF, WMA mults into the log, as well as
2 JAs. Most exciting was prowling 1830 to 1835 at sunrise, where was able to bag
VR2MY while riding the 'ripple' of sunrise enhancement.  Didn't hear RI, NLI,
MB, NL, or NWT.  Final count: 23 hours, 547 q's, 75 US/VE sections, 5 DX.  

Operating notes

I encountered a station that said "qso b4" to me. There were others that I
inadvertently called before correctly hearing the call, and they worked me
anyway (my logging program dutifully displays "dupe" while I think "DOPE" in my
head). For those that did work me more than once, thank you for your
graciousness.  I came to appreciate a 2nd call from others during the slow times
-- lets me know that the fickle ether is working. If you hear me in the contest,
and it sounds like I'm not busy, go ahead, work me again. Just not
consecutively, ok? 

AC2K had a 60db signal even on my beverages. I'd like to know what kind of
front-end filter can withstand that -- when he was in the low part of the band,
I had to move high. Anything +/- 10KHz was obliterated due to AGC pumping.  Am
seriously thinking of the 250 Hz crystal filter, and maybe a Hi-Q tuned circuit
at the input to preselect some frequencies OUT.  Would appreciate any addition
suggestions. 

There were a lot of times that I could hear stations calling some of the really
loud stations that were CQing -- JAs calling K5s, VKs calling folks in WWA, etc.
I worked a couple of stations out from "underneath" using the IF width and
shift, but it was tedious and time consuming. Everyone's dx qso count could
likely improve were there less spurs from key clicks. 

Sorry for the folks that I took a bit of time to hear -- I have a couple of
switches to switch when hearing on different antennas, and sometimes miss a
caller when on the wrong antenna for him/her.  I had to copy signals from the
pacific off of the TX vertical; used grey-matter DSP to get the signals out of
the QRN. 

Also thanks to all of the topbanders that are thoughtful and sharing in their
soapbox and 3830 commentary - seemingly more so than for other contests. 

Hope to see you in future contests. 
Brian N9ADG (W7DX in the 2005 ARRL 160)


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