[3830] CQWW CW WX0B(AD5Q) SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: WX0B
Operator(s): AD5Q
Station: WX0B

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NTX
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   36    10       17
   80:  171    18       63
   40:  658    34       90
   20:  733    31       96
   15:   97    18       49
   10:   14     6       11
------------------------------
Total: 1709   117      326  Total Score = 1,908,887

Club: North Texas Contest Club

Comments:

Sorry about the late post, I’ve been busy lately.

For this contest, we tried out two major new toys.

The station is configured with an Icom 781 on the left and FT-1000MP on the
right. Even with the new roofing filters in the MP, everybody (Me, Jay, Billy)
likes the 781 better. But for several months now, a brand new Orion has been
sitting on the top shelf above the 781 – almost out of reach, but for the handy
external tuning knob. I wanted to try the Orion, which had never been hooked up
in a contest.

Also, I wanted to try N1MM software. There are a few features I would like to
see in NA, but it’s been a long time since a revision was released and I am
tired of waiting for changes I would quickly make myself if it were open source.
I planned to use the sound card switching in N1MM to control the headphones in
SO2R, but couldn’t get it to work with the on-board card on the PC. The manual
says to use a 2nd sound card for that, and I will bring one next time. 

There was another SO2R issue. The radio A/B switching didn’t work in Windows at
all – even the manual A/B switch was ignored (?). So I had to rip everything
apart, re-install and wire the SO2R Master. In the process, nearly all the
ongoing RFI issues went away. So I am back to a manual switch to select
stereo/mono until I get N1MM working with a sound card. I had everything wired
up before the contest except the Orion’s antenna selection connection to the
6-Pack. The other radios used band decoders, and I left it to Jay to bypass one
on Friday while I slept. Though I had read the manual cover to cover, at the
start of the contest I still had zero experience with the Orion because it
hadn’t been connected to an antenna.

So things were kind of rough the first night. Both radios were on my left, one
above the other – and I only have one left ear. Passbands and filters need to be
adjusted on the Orion, and the radio kept switching from LCW to UCW – requiring
readjustment. I decided to leave it on UCW. The problem wasn’t the radio, but
turns out to be a setting in N1MM somewhere. Now we know.

2nd radio contacts with N1MM are very different from what I’m used to. It takes
about 3 times as many keystrokes, and everything is either a CTRL key or an ALT
key. There is one key you must NEVER touch: ENTER. It’s a “feature” they adapted
from TR that sends unpredictable messages you can’t hear because your headphones
are on the opposite radio – yuk!

So after all the fiddling around, at about 0900z I noticed a 3rd major problem:
I hadn’t been hearing very well on 40 all night (the Orion band), and it wasn’t
just the passband adjustments. The problem was in the spare amp I brought with.
Its TR relay was sticking again. We swapped amps and I immediately starting
running JA’s nicely. The EU run was, however, a bust. I had substantially more
mults on 80 than on 40, and didn’t catch up until the 2nd night. I know I also
missed at least 100 EU Q’s. But things were now under control.

160 was really hot on Wednesday night before the contest. On Thursday night I
didn’t operate, because I was busy making jumpers to wire the Orion and SO2R.
160 didn’t sound nearly as good during the contest, but 80 was great. The EU
runs on 20 were excellent both mornings, with many rate spikes (rate per 10 Q’s)
above 200. This made 2nd radio Q’s on 15 especially difficult with the new
software, and I discovered our only remaining RFI issue: I couldn’t copy
anything on 10 while running on 20.

I was looking forward to the 2nd night on 40 to catch up on EU’s. I have had
some spectacular EU runs from WX0B, but it takes a quiet band. For the most
part, the EU’s weren’t runnable but the JA’s were fine. They never seem to fail
here. Maybe I should concentrate more on 40M JA’s, and start working them early
when EU won’t run. Yes, I still have a few things to learn about low band
contesting.

During the 20M run on Sunday morning, something magical happened. After running
some really good rates for some time (and struggling with 2nd radio on 15), the
noise on 20 came up to its usual daytime level as signals faded into the noise.
I have always dreaded the daytime runs on 20 because we don’t hear very well
down south. I was about to quit the run and concentrate on 15 & 10, but decided
to try the noise reduction button (not the noise blanker) on the Orion. WOW! Two
 s-units of band noise disappeared completely, revealing an abundant layer of
weak EU’s calling. My rate then went through the roof, with spikes over 250. It
was the fastest run of my life, working stations that would normally be under
the radar screen. The “Magic Button” extended my 20M run by an hour or two, but
unfortunately this was during the band peaks on 10 and 15 – where my mult totals
ended up really poor. 

The last hour of the contest wasn’t too good. There was a power failure at about
2305z, and I walked outside to find the wind roaring through the antennas. The
power didn’t come back on. Contest over. The wind storm effected several states,
and was on the news.

Summary: I love the Orion, and hope to figure out how to get that “Magic Button”
to work on the low bands. It will replace the 1000MP on the right (which is
probably for sale). Runs using N1MM were really smooth, and I was also impressed
with dueling CQ’s (one of the features I’d been hoping for in NA). However,
after 40+ hours of experience, I never did find a way to make routine 2nd radio
contacts less awkward. I have several suggestions to document for N1MM that will
smooth all that out for everybody if they implement them. I will continue to use
the program.

Congratulations to N2IC for an impressive score. The assisted K5YA totals also
look very interesting. I havn’t tried that with interfaced radios and integrated
software, as the PC interfaces on both my radios at home got zapped by lightning
several years ago. Assisted looks like fun, as long as the major
packeteer-infested pileups are avoided. So I may try it, since my mults have
been sucking lately. It’s going to be hard to tune both 15 & 10 if my morning
rates on 20 are rarely going to dip under 150 through the sunspot bottom.

I thank Jay & family for the hospitality and use of the station, which we
continue to tweak.

Roy – AD5Q


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