[3830] WPX CW KR7O(N6TV) SOAB HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: KR7O
Operator(s): N6TV
Station: N6TV

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  117
   40:  712
   20: 1109
   15:  266
   10:    0
------------
Total: 2204  Prefixes = 657  Total Score = 3,511,665

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

First, many thanks to NCCC member Robert for the loan of his callsign.  It's a
really nice CW callsign to use in a WPX contest.

My new Microtelecom "Perseus" Software Defined Radio (SDR) arrived from Italy
just a few hours before the start of the contest, but I did NOT have any time
to to make it work with CW Skimmer.  The Perseus is not yet one of the SDRs
that CW Skimmer officially supports.

So, though it would have been nice to finally try CW Skimmer in a contest,
without having a working SDR, there's really no good way to make use of it.  So
I used no automated CW decoding or spots of any kind during this contest.

However, the new Perseus SDR *did* give me a very nice band scope with a
beautiful waterfall display, something I have always wanted to have during a
contest.  I did not monitor the SDR audio, I just watched the SDR's waterfall
display.  Details follow.

I was configuring cables and switches until just a few minutes before the
start.  

Using the station bandpass filters and the transceiver's "RX IN/OUT" lines, I
was able to "share" the main transmit antenna of either radio with the SDR
receiver.  The Perseus was hooked into the RX ANT line just as you would
connect a separate outboard receiver:

RX ANT Out ----> Power Splitter or T-connector

To one side of the splitter connect the SDR.  To the other side connect a cable
that you loop back into the transceiver's "RX ANT In" line.  Press the "RX ANT"
button on the rig to activate the ports, and the two receivers are now sharing
the same antenna.  I added one more coax switch to select which radio would
share the SDR.

The T/R relay in the transceiver protects the SDR from the band it is sharing,
and the station's bandpass filters protect the SDR from the other transmitter,
on a different band.

The waterfall display was quite hypnotizing to watch.  Even the weakest signals
showed up as faint lines in the display.  The Perseus SDR is a serious receiver
that doesn't seem to have any major overload or sensitivity problems.  The
included software works remarkably well.  It was really fun to watch an entire
band at once.  The FlexRadio products are the only amateur transceivers I know
of that have this type of waterfall display "band scope" built right in,
thereby eliminating the need for a separate SDR.

As for the contest itself, I mismanaged my off time, finding I just had to go
to sleep when I really should have been operating.  Maybe it was the hypnotic
new display. :-)

Congrats to NY6N (N6MJ) for another superior result.

Activity levels in the US seemed remarkably good.  I do wish conditions to
Europe and Japan had been better from the West Coast USA in this one.

KR7O - Continents
All bands - All modes

|   EU   |   NA   |   SA   |   AF   |   AS   |   OC   |
-------------------------------------------------------
|   7.9% |  60.5% |   2.7% |   0.6% |  23.5% |   4.8% |
-------------------------------------------------------

| Band / Mode |   EU   |   NA   |   SA   |   AF   |   AS   |   OC   |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|  160     CW |        |        |        |        |        |        |
|   80     CW |        |  48.7% |   3.4% |        |  41.9% |   6.0% |
|   40     CW |   2.0% |  56.5% |   3.5% |   0.7% |  32.1% |   5.2% |
|   20     CW |  14.5% |  60.0% |   0.7% |   0.7% |  19.7% |   4.5% |
|   15     CW |        |  78.9% |   8.6% |        |   8.3% |   4.1% |
|   10     CW |        |        |        |        |        |        |
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Rig:  FT-1000MP (2), Alpha 86, Alpha 87A
SDR:  Microtelecom Perseus (new)
Ant:  5 el 10, 5 el 15, 5 el 20, 3 el 40, 1 el 80 (one tower, city lot)
SO2R box:  microHAM MK2R+
Software:  Win-Test (wt_dev version 3.21) 

73,
Bob, N6TV


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