[3830] ARRLDX CW K4TD M/S HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K4TD
Operator(s): KY4F, K4TD
Station: K4TD

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Alabama
Operating Time (hrs): 38

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   61    46
   80:  255    74
   40:  632    91
   20: 1120   108
   15:  278    71
   10:   29    11
-------------------
Total: 2375   401  Total Score = 2,843,892

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

First of all, thanks to all those who took the time to give us a QSO.  We
certainly appreciated each and every one of them.  Second, thanks to my old pal
Doug, KY4F, for making the trip down from Lexington, KY to operate this one with
me.  We always have a hoot when we do these things...  Being able to do this
particular contest from my QTH was a real 3-sigma event.  Doug and I normally
go to NQ4I for this contest, but, unfortunately this year Rick had to cancel
the M/M there due to work commitments.  With all the improvements Rick has made
at NQ4I, Doug and I were looking forward to seeing it in action.  So...  We
decided to give the contest a whirl at my place.  Due to issues I was having at
work, it was an "on again -- off again" thing as to whether Doug and I were
going to be able to put in a really serious effort or just do a more casual
effort.  Luck was against me as well, so we just decided to do a more relaxed
effort and have some fun...

Just prior to the contest I had replaced two of my Orions with K3's.  We were
really looking forward to watching the K3's in action.  It became obvious right
from the start that there wasn't really too much difference between what we
heard on an Orion "main" receiver and what we heard on the K3 "main" receiver. 
Both are outstanding pieces of equipment.  When you get to the "second" receiver
though, the difference is like night and day.  (Both of my K3's are outfitted
with every bell-and-whistle except the precision XTAL oscillator).  Having the
fully functional second RX in the K3 is a significant advantage in my opinion. 
As this was our first contest experience with a K3, it took some time to get
used to the ergonomic differences between the two rigs.  There were a few times
when we were pretty sure everyone listening to us could tell something had gone
wrong but perhaps not exactly what had happened.  You guessed it, we thought we
had told the K3 to do one thing, but we had actually told it to do another... 
:-)  A complete write-up of the differences between an Orion and a K3 would run
to a much greater length than anyone here would care to read when just scanning
for contest scores and SOAPBOX comments.  I am considering a write-up in the
near future, which we will probably post on my new web site once that goes
on-line (thanks entirely to the efforts of KY4F!).

We also experimented with an XKeys USB device to streamline the workflow when
operating in "partner mode."  I set it up around an hour prior to contest
start, and we thought we would test it out during the high rate time on 20M the
next morning.  We did use it, but as luck would have it, about 97% of the time
when Doug and I are sitting side-by-side listening to a pileup, we both pick
out the same call sign.  So there weren't many times where we had an
opportunity to put the partner mode workflow advantage to the test.  There were
a few occasions where it did work out okay, and in those instances, the Xkeys
device was worth its weight in gold.  During our post-contest debrief (over
Scotch and cigars, of course), we decided that we would work out a methodology
and training procedure to allow us to bring this capability to bear more
directly in the future.  That should be extremely interesting and fun to boot! 
The only down-side to the experiment was that there seemed to be an interaction
issue of some sort between my wireless USB keyboard/mouse and the USB Xkeys
device.  It made for some random (yet very interesting) combinations when
pressing certain function keys.  I imagine that was also totally apparent to
those who happened to be working us at the time...  :-)

I had my skimmers fully operational this weekend using version 1.4 of the
software.  Given that we operated M/S, the skimmer data was not hugely helpful
in allowing us to pick up new individual multiplier opportunities due to that
pesky 10 minute band change rule.  However, there was one particular incident
where the 160M skimmer played an important role in allowing us to quickly work
D4C.  I happened to already be on 160 at the time, and a 160M skimmer spot
popped in the window for D4C.  So, I clicked over and put D4C in the log with
about a grand total of 20 seconds of time invested in the entire transaction. 
As our plan was to switch back to another band, I had been CQing on 160 simply
waiting for the 10 minute timer to elapse.  As luck would have it, I was near
the end of my 10 minute time anyway, so after transitioning over to another
band (with KY4F at the control), I returned to the D4C 160M frequency to see if
anyone else had found him.  From the time I worked him till the next caller
arrived was just under a minute.  And about 30 seconds after that, the packet
pile-up materialized...  I was delighted to have that much of a jump on the
packet callers for all the obvious reasons...  Had I been a single-op without
band change limitations, this sort of capability would have been priceless.

>From an equipment/software perspective, the skimmer system seemed to perform a
great deal better especially in reporting the proper call sign of a "CQing"
station.  In the past, I had experienced tremendous A/D clipping problems when
I transmitted with high power.  Based on a recommendation I received from N4ZR,
I backed the RF gain controls down just a touch, and the A/D clipping problem
went down tremendously.  I had also made sure that the audio device drivers on
my skimmer server were absolutely up-to-date, and that eliminated a recording
instability problem I had previously experienced.  I use SDR-IQ receivers so
the instability problem wasn't really related to skimmer spot processing, but
rather, it manifested itself on the recording side, especially when I tried to
manage the skimmer server using Remote Desktop.  All six receivers were set to
record, and they stayed up for the entire contest without any incidents.  I
recorded about 650 GB of skimmer data this weekend (on 160-10 meters).  I am
rather looking forward to reviewing this data, which will be probably later
this week.  Before any controversy should start, no, I will *NOT* change my log
based on anything I may hear from the replay files.

73,

Rick
K4TD


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