[3830] ARRLDX CW N4TZ/9 SOAB LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: N4TZ/9
Operator(s): N4TZ/9
Station: N4TZ/9

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: INDIANA
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   32    24
   80:  141    54
   40:  166    62
   20:  389    74
   15:  436    71
   10:   73    38
-------------------
Total: 1237   323  Total Score = 1,198,653

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Some of you may have seen the pictures in K1AR's March
CQ magazine Contesting column of the ice storm damage to
my tower - mistakenly labeled as N9RV's.  I almost
decided to skip the contest totally, but decided to
play with the bottom two antennas and see what developed.
The 80m 4 square was undamaged, but the full sized
160m vertical wire was gone.  The weekend before the
contest I erected a 40 foot high L for 160m.

I didn't expect to be fully competitive, so I caught
a few hours sleep here and there.  I had some problem,
still not fully diagnosed, three hours before the
end of the contest where the coax to one side of the
six pack at the tower lost all signals on all bands.
I spent most of the last three hours troubleshooting,
but failed to find the problem.  I notice from N5AW's
rate sheet that I was close on his heels in QSOs
up to that point.  But neither of us were anywhere
near the QSO totals of the W1s or W4PA.

The Sunday afternoon 10m "run" here brought a total of
15 responses to 65 minutes of CQing, with an additional
20 QSOs on 15 and 20 thrown in on the second radio.

TRLog shows I operated about 35 hours.  Now it's time
to strip the tower and rebuild for the fall season.
Given the addage, "if the antennas didn't come down
they weren't big enough," I think my 10 & 15 meter
antennas were big enough since their booms crumpled
under the ice.  The Cushcraft 40 meter elements were
obviously not big enough, because they didn't fold up
(reinforced to W6QHS++ specs).  So, the plan is to
remove the top 10/15 and put up a real, full-sized
40m yagi.  No more gettting the sand kicked in my
face by guys with dipoles and wires.

Radios: TenTec Orion, OMNI VI+

Antennas:
160m    40 ft high inverted L
80m     4 square
40m     Cushcraft 40-2CD elements on boom of 20m yagi, 62 ft high
20m     5 element, 62 ft high
15m     5 element, 45 ft high
10m     5 element, 45 ft high


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