[3830] CQWW SSB N4KG SOAB(A) HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: N4KG
Operator(s): N4KG
Station: N4KG

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: ALA
Operating Time (hrs): 33

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   34    10       21
   80:   90    18       57
   40:  150    27       79
   20:  300    30      110
   15:  327    27      111
   10:   85    10       32
------------------------------
Total:  986   122      410  Total Score = 1,416,716

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

WOW, What a Weekend !

The first 24 hours were incredible with Packet Info Overload.  It was quite a
balancing act going between S&P and *manually* spinning the VFO to spot
frequencies (yep, I'm still living in the 80's).

Every time I left a band, I knew I was leaving points on the table, only to be
rewarded by incredibly good conditions on the next band.  I played HARD on 20M
for 1 hour, 40M for 3 hours, and bounced between 80 and 160 for the next 4
hours.  Most of my Low Band Contacts for the weekend were made in that 8 hour
stretch.  

Saturday morning, (after 3 hours of sleep) I took a quick spin across 80, 40,
and 20M during the 1200Z hour, then off to 15 and 10 Meters for the rest of the
morning.  A couple of hoours on 20M around noon, then 3 hours on 15 and 10 and
back to 20M at 22Z.

By 0100Z Saturday night, this operator and the bands seemed 'tired'.  As usual,
the Low Bands were dominated by Big Signals from familiar callsigns with little
'fresh meat' calling CQ.  I spent too much time fiddling around and not
sleeping well (only another 4 hours).  When I awoke WAY too early, I discovered
the Amp was dead (ANOTHER Grid to Filament short this week!)  I gambled that the
other original tube had died, put in the second 3-500Z from an old SB220, and
was back in business (with only ONE more spare fuse!)

Sunday was spent filling in the missing Q's and mults on 20M with excursions to
15M every hour.  NOTHING new was worked on 10M, hearing only familiar callsigns
when scanning the band quickly.  It was an unusual allocation of time, BUT it
seemed to fit the way propagation played with a fortuitous outcome.  Only a
very few QSO's were made on CQ's (1%).

ONE HOUR after the end of the contest, a Cloud of foul smelling SMOKE engulfed
the amplifier.  Everything points to the Blower Moter.  Maybe that's why the
tubes failed :-(  It took a day of ventilating the room to eliminate the
stench.

The situation in the back yard wasn't any better.  The Director of the 3L20
broke off in a storm (last spring) due to a close by tree that is now 5 ft
taller than the antenna.  The now 2L20 was parked on EU.  The reflector of the
5L20 is bent and gets often prevents rotation of it and the 4L15 so they were
pareked on EU also.  My trusty TH7 at 40 ft carried the ball for everything
outside EU and much of EU during midday.  Tuners (and amp) often had to be
retuned when QSYing between the Low, Middle, and High Ends of 40 and 80 Meters.
 Talk about competing with High Powered Automatic Transmissions with an
underpowered Stick Shift!  It works a LOT better / smoother on CW...

Tom N4KG in North Alabama


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