[3830] ARRL 160 K9MMS Single Op LP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: K9MMS
Operator(s): K9MMS
Station: K9MMS

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 817  Sections = 77  Countries = 10  Total Score = 145,029

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Primary configuration:  K3 radio, Marconi antenna, Cushcraft MA160V vertical
antenna, and a few short receiving antennas.  My inverted-L antenna system
developed problems shortly before the contest.  It was not usable on Friday,
and I was not able to get it to cooperate while working outside on it during
part of the day on Saturday.  The inverted-L was not usable for the entire
contest.  I'm sure this hurt the DX totals.

I missed my goal of 1000 QSOs and 100 multipliers.  Things went extremely well
on Friday, and the goal seemed attainable; however, on Saturday, things went
very poorly.  At the end of the first day of operating, I had 655 QSOs and 81
multipliers (including 6 DX, AL9A, 4 KH6, VI, PR, and most of VE).  On
Saturday, I only made 162 QSOs with 6 more multipliers.  It was unbelievably
bad, and I quit early.  For the “standard” ARRL sections, I missed NNY, NL,
and NWT.  After the first day, I just needed NNY, WCF, LAX, NL, and NWT.  I
found WCF early Saturday night, but it took a very long time to work LAX.  Two
LAX stations later replied to my CQs within about 5 minutes of each other.  Why
is LAX seemingly rare now?  Where were K2NNY, VO1MP, and VE8 / VY1 that were on
for SS?

On Friday, for the first segment, I operated for 7.4 out of the first 9 hours
of the contest, and I was amazed to work all 50 states in those 7.4 hours. 
During that time, I had a 5-hour CQ run which resulted in 417 QSOs.  The rate
meter hit 180 for a while.  AL9A and KH6AT replied during that CQ run for
states 49 and 50.  Thank you!

On Friday, conditions were great.  I worked 4 different KH6 stations, and I
heard them all over the band, with good signal levels, for many hours --
unusual.  The Caribbean stations also stayed strong for hours.  For me, the EU
stations seemed rather sparse, had significant QSB, and just did not seem to
peak as much as I had expected.  I had some partial EU QSOs that just could not
be completed and logged with the EU stations giving up on my LP and the QSB.

On Saturday, the conditions seemed worse, and more antenna problems developed,
requiring frequent adjustments of the antenna tuner.  The Marconi antenna had
performed extremely well on Friday, but something mysteriously had changed with
it on Saturday.  Unfortunately, this was not discovered until after dark on
Saturday.  (P.M work had been done on the antennas in days prior to the
contest, but Murphy struck badly on Saturday.)  I just could not get any good
CQ runs going the second night.  S&P mostly found stations already worked and
very few new multipliers.

Why were so many US, and some VE, stations parking in the 1830 – 1835 kHz DX
window?  I know some sources say this is no longer official, but it was
specifically stated in the ARRL 160-Meter Contest rules to respect that area. 
Several domestic stations stubbornly remained there (even when prompted to move
by others), and some with seemingly very QRO signals.  They caused some major
QRM making it difficult to impossible to copy / try for several DX stations
that were in the window.

Hopefully Murphy will stay away and things will go better on both days here
next year.  Thanks for the Qs and Ms.  Any 160 meter contest is FUN, and this
was especially fun for me on Friday.

73,
      Gary


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