[3830] IARU N4OX SO SSB HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: N4OX
Operator(s): N4OX
Station: N4OX

Class: SO SSB HP
QTH: Florida
Operating Time (hrs): 21.7

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Mults
---------------------------
  160:                   
   80:           55    10
   40:          306    40
   20:         1010    71
   15:          392    33
   10:          144     7
---------------------------
Total:   0     1907   161  Total Score = 750,421

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

I was very motivated to operate this contest with the WRTC event going on, even
though I have been having bad problems with my back for the past two months.
The problems with my back make my left hand to go numb at times and Friday
evening, I was the one-armed man. I hoped that Saturday morning would be
better, but I woke up with my left hand even more numb than on Friday night. I
am not a true touch typist, but I started the contest as a one-armed hunt and
peck poker......first hour was 157 Q's........it was hoot trying to keep up the
rate with one hand. My hand never did get totally un-numbed the whole weekend,
but at times I was able to touch type.

I am still setting up for contests Field Day style. Due to my back problem, I
needed help setting up. I paid a friend of my sons to help me get antennas put
together and get them up on the rented portable lift. (My son is away serving
our country as a member of the USMC) I put up my old Telrex TB6EM tribander and
a Cushcraft XM240 on a single section of tower on the lift. I have previously
used both antennas, with each on its own section of tower, on its own lift. The
tribander required a bigger mast than would fit in the top section of tower, so
I went to the local hardware store and bought a coupler to couple the mast
coming out of the rotator to the mast the tribander would be mounted on. I
planned to have the coupler tack welded at a later date, but thought it would
be ok for the weekend. Those of you who are smarter than me have already
figured out why I only operated 21.7 hours and why my multiplier is lower than
it should be. At some point, the coupler started to unscrew as the antennas
began to free-wheel in the wind. I really don't know when this happened as the
rotator was still indicating that it was turning the antennas, but I finally
realized that something was wrong as I saw a W6 go from 20db over to S7 during
the course of our Q. I knew it wasn't QSB as the band was too good for that. I
looked outside and the antennas were pointing SSW, while the rotator was
indicating I was beaming EU. What to do......what to do......I put in an
emergency call for my sons friend and he said it would be about an hour before
he could head up my way. Remember, I am still the one-armed man with the bad
back problem and figured it would be difficult for me to try to fix the problem
by myself. I decided to leave the lift up and hope for the best. After about an
hour, my sons friend made it to my QTH and we lowered the lift and we tightened
the mast in the rotator, which didn't fix the problem. I was frantically looking
around trying to find something to "fix" the problem when I spotted a boom to
mast mount. We used the boom to mast mount to "tie" the two pieces of mast
together around the coupling. That did the trick and we raised the lift back up
to 60 feet with the antenna fixed on EU. The other lost operating time is from
the times I went outside to rotate the lift in order to turn the antenna. The
rotator, an old dependable HD-73 croaked under the stress and weight of the two
antennas. I just pushed my luck a little too much. Not being able to rotate the
anennas hurt my score as did the lost operating time, but I still had a blast.
Twenty meters was really in great shape. I managed to get the 10 minute rate
meter above 300 several times. Interestingly, my back pain actually got better
as the contest went on. I only had 4 hours of sleep the previous two nights due
to my back problem and was running off adrenaline. Somehow, I think adrenaline
trumps pain. Now, the day after the contest was a different story. I was a
hurtin' puppy.

The last hour of the contest was a blast as I went outside and turned the lift
south towards Brazil. Most of the WRTC boys showed up on 20 meter SSB and I
knocked 'em off like shooting ducks in a barrel. I probably could have worked
some EU or JA during the last hour, but I knew with the lost operating time
that my score was already impacted. It was more fun to work all the boys
anyway.

This will be the last contest for the TB6EM and XM240 combo. I bought a used
Force 12-C4XSL from W2GD two months ago. That way, I'll have 4 bands on one
boom that is much lighter and easier to handle. 

73, Jay N4OX


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