[3830] CQ160 CW K1LT Single Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 30

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1416  State/Prov = 59  Countries = 71  Total Score = 757,510

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

As I gain more experience as a contester, I seem to be getting more
careless.

Since the exchange changed to zone from country prefix, I dutifully
populated my messages with zone 4.  The problem with that is the fact
that I'm not DX.  After the first couple of contacts, I became
painfully aware something was profoundly wrong.  Fortunately, my brain
seizure immediately relaxed, and I was able to fix my problem and stop
asking W2s for a zone.  We all know I'm a lid.

So, other than my initial confusion, there was no apparent effect of
the modified exchange.  Worked Europe the first day at 2204Z, the
second day at 2135Z, and the third day at 2135Z as well.  So, the
starting hour change didn't have much effect on opportunities to work
Europe.  Of course, conditions were very good and the chance to work
Europe while the sun is still shining will probably go away for a few
years.  Naturally one still has the same number of hours to work
Europe, but dividing the opportunity into three pieces feels better.
Obviously, this perception benefits the Eastern US and not many
others.

My 8-regular-octagon receiving array is still not ready for prime time
or any time.  I did get the software to synchronize properly with 2
sound cards after adding some code to handle a sampling delay of one
card relative to the other.  However, there are still unexplained
phase shifts in some of the individual array elements which prevent
proper phasing.  Once I fix the errant phasing then the array will
work.

In the mean time, the 8 element linear array still works quite well.
In fact, sometimes the beam is too narrow.  I usually leave the main
lobe parked on 45 degrees for Europe, but I have to move it to 60-75
degrees in order to hear the weaker New England stations.  In
fairness, one has to switch between Beverages to find all of the
signals, so I shouldn't complain.

Since the phased array works so well, I've been neglecting the
Beverage farm.  The ESE/WNW Beverage transformer box seems to have
failed, and the box in the basement that injects DC to the cable to
the in-the-field Beverage switch developed a connector problem that
inserted a lot of common-mode noise.

Since last year, an annoying new noise source has emerged.  The noise
sounds like continuous train of impulses with 60 Hz modulation.  This
noise appears to be due west of me, and is present nearly all of the
time.  During the day, a noise blanker removes it nicely, but at
night, atmospheric noise strength matches the impulse noise strength,
rendering the blanker ineffective.

My west Beverage also hears the noise, but not as much.  So I tried to
use the two receiver approach to handle directions west by using the
Beverages in the left ear and the phased array in the right.  But the
extra noise in the Beverage system because of the connector problem
confounded that approach.

Therefore, reception of Midwest and West Coast stations and Hawaii was
severely limited.  My apologies for being an extremely loud alligator
in that direction.  Saturday afternoon I fixed the connector problem
on the injector box, and the second night I had much better West
reception, although not as good as in the past.  Also my apologies to
South America for not listening in that direction often enough.

The first night I went to bed about an hour after European sunrise and
managed to get myself up and awake in time more my sunrise.  Worked 3
JAs and a couple of South America.  I was able to nap during the day
first time ever.  Maybe the caffeine management helped a little.  The
second night I went to sleep right after European sunrise and managed
to get up in time for sunrise.  I set up a run frequency and enjoyed
unexpected calls from HI3TEJ and RW0CWA.  However, no JAs.  When the
sun came up, I started thinking about the lack of JAs.  D'oh!  I was
on 1834 kHz!  A quick QSY to 1814 to start running netted 1 JA.  We
all know I'm a lid.

I took another short nap and came back to the radio about an hour and
a half before the end.  I CQed for about an hour for another 44 QSOs,
then went hunting for EUs and found two of those.

QSO points seem to be almost 30% better than last year, even though
the QSL total is only 5% better.  I read an explantion for that
somewhere ...

DX worked: 4O, 4X, 6W, 9A, C6, CE, CM, CN, CT, CT3, CU, CX, DL, E7,
EA, EA8, EI, ER, ES, EU, F, FM, G, GD, GI, GM, GM/s, GW, HA, HB, HC,
HI, HK, I, J3, JA, K, KH6, KL, KP2, LA, LY, LZ, OE, OH, OH0, OK, OM,
ON, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PY, S5, SM, SP, SV, TA, TF, TI, UA, UA2, UA9, UR,
V3, VE, VP9, XE, YL, YO, YU, and YV.

Equipment: Icom IC-765, ETO 91B (K8ND loaner), 8 element phased array
and SDR receiver, 12 Beverages (2 broken), 65 foot "T" vertical and 80
radials, 2 computers and keyboards, 3 screens.


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