[3830] ARRL 160 K4XD Single Op HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: K4XD
Operator(s): K4XD
Station: K4XD

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Raleigh, NC
Operating Time (hrs): 9.5

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 380  Sections = 65  Countries = 9  Total Score = 58,238

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Despite limited time available to participate, I had a great time!  Lots of good
contacts, finished WAS 160 thanks to NV and HI, added VP2-M and ZF as new ones
on 160, and beat my score from last year by a handy margin.  My intermittent
SWR issues stayed away Friday night so I was able to enjoy the fast tuning of
the THP / MFJ-998 combo and run 800W without the THP amp faulting. Was able to
start in earnest at 10:15PM Friday evening (local), and enjoyed two hours of
pretty high rate S&P - for me anyway - of around 50/hr.  Started a run on 1.846
at 0508 and got another 45 Q's in about 40 minutes, then back to S&P to stay
awake as the rate dropped and drowsiness set in.  Turned in at 2AM local with
185 Q's in the log, really wanted to get to 200 but at the rate it was going I
didn't think I could hold out that long.  

I slept until 6:20 local, made some coffee and got back to it.  I "cleaned up
the bandmap" with about 30 minutes of S&P and then settled in on 1.809 for a
short run of 20 Qs, about 1 a minute.  Even though that rate was better than
what I would have expected from S&P, I found myself having a hard time sitting
still and kept going back to S&P to clean up that bandmap.  I think I need to
turn the thing off, when you're CQ'ing every 3 seconds a minute seems like a
long time, and those light blue spots in WriteLog are too tempting.  "Why sit
here waiting for someone who might not come, when there's a station I need just
waiting for me!"  It's not logical, but I keep falling into that trap.

The other dilemma I wrestle with is how long to spend working the weak ones.  I
generally will give it four or five tries since with QSB and filter tweaking
many stations eventually come through... but sometimes things just go south and
it doesn't seem like a good use of either of our time to keep trying.   I feel
bad about giving up when I've gotten most of the call, but it also takes time
to get the run rate moving again after 3 or 4 minutes trying to pull one out. 
My apologies to those of you who kept trying but I gave up.  And thanks to
those of you who hung in there to copy me in places I'm sure my signal was a
whisper.

Things died out by around 1245Z so I quit with 238 Q's in the log.  This effort
was clearly not going to burn any barns but for some reason I really like top
band and found the contest very enjoyable.  Maybe it's "the gentleman's band"
thing.  

I spent a few hours early Saturday afternoon trying to track down my mysterious
SWR problems.  I can tune up fine but under power (usually 200W to 400W or
more), the THP amp faults on 80 and 160.  Thanks to Bill K3XA I tried using a
dummy load at various points in the system, working from the TX to the antenna.
 Sort of like signal tracing. With the dummy load in place, no problem.  But
it's happening with 3 different antennas, and only on 160 and 80.  Two of the
antennas are multiband by design, and they work fine up to 1KW on 40M - 10M;
but trip the amp on 80M.  I found a PL-259 connection that was really loose.  I
used one of those butane gas-powered soldering torches to solder it, and was
suspicious at the time I made the cable, but it seemed to work OK.  Now it just
pulled off, and the shield was blackened.  I figured this was the problem for
sure.  Put on a new PL-259, used my old fashioned heavy duty 100W soldering
iron (reminds me of the -only- soldering iron my Dad used), and confidently
plugged things back together.  Went back to the rig and keyed up.  (sound of
buzzer when you get the wrong answer on a quiz show).  No dice, still tripping
the amp.  At this point I have bypassed everything up to the antenna itself;
yet having the issue with three different antennas, and having it be
intermittent, makes me suspect one of the common components in the middle of
the RF chain, such as a switch or relay box.  Yet bypassing them, the problem
still happens.  Maddening!  Did I mention it's intermittent too?!

Oh well, back to the contest.  Was surprised when I tuned in around 2000Z to
find stations already on.  I guess I never try 160M when it's still light out. 
It obviously works for regional comnunication.  Duh, how would AM radio stations
work otherwise.  Found Bill K4CIA CQ'ing and dropped by.  Although I've been to
his QTH, realized this was actually our first QSO!  Thanks Bill, and sorry if I
fat fingered the WriteLog macro keys trying to say something more friendly than
"TU K4XD."  I still haven't mastered the quick transition between ad-hoc keying
and using the function keys to send the macros.  Alt-K brings up the keying
window, but my brain seems to stall out.  Excuse those pregnant pauses. 
Someday I'll learn to send fast enough with a paddle that I can use that,
although maybe that transition will be just as awkward.  I can get a good pace
going while running and using the "Enter sends exchange/QRZ" combo, although I
manage to hose that up too from time to time, hitting enter while I'm in the
wrong field and sending the QRZ message instead of the exchange, and dropping
the QSO info into the log.  That wakes me up!

Managed to get another 55 Q's done before going out to see my daughter's dance
recital.  Both my daughters are students at UNC Chapel Hill. Got back at 0400
and went back to the dials.  Only got in about 90 minutes but added two new
160M entities for me, ZF and VP2M, and my 49th state, NV. Hit the hay with 340
Q's done, and slept for a luxurious six hours.  Like I said, this was a casual
effort!  

Got back to it at 1120Z and once again, I had picked a good time to return to
the radio because six minutes later, KH6ZM joined 49 other states in my log for
my 160M WAS.  Thanks Massimo!  You will get a QSL! (and SASE)  After working
Massimo, I noticed my amp had faulted so I was actually running about 60 watts!
Wow, amazing ears.  I noticed the QTH is "Volcano, HI" which certainly sounds
remote and quiet... well, I guess either really quiet or really loud.

Wrapped up at 380 Q's as it was getting really, really slow.  Would have liked
to break 400 but at the rate I was going it wasn't going to happen, and I was
having a serious case of "can't sit still-itis."  

I never really focused on chasing mults like I do in SS, and it shows with 65
sections.  Probably should have worked that a little harder.  Only 9 DX
stations, a bit surprised at that, expected a bit more EU.  Never really heard
much DX on at any time.

All-in-all, a lot of fun for the time put in and thanks to everyone once again
for the Q's and patience!

PS: When I sent the Cabrillo file to ARRL, it was rejected because the DX QSO's
had blank section entries.  I manually changed them to DX and it was happy. 
Something must have changed, I don't remember doing that last year.

73,
Rowland K4XD


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