[3830] ARRLDX SSB ED5T(@EA5ELT) M/S HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: ED5T
Operator(s): EA5DF, EA5GS, EA5KV, EA5ON, EC5KXA
Station: EA5ELT

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Torrent
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    6     6
   80:  158    37
   40:  844    54
   20: 1542    60
   15:  161    29
   10:           
-------------------
Total: 2711   186  Total Score = 1,512,180

Club: 

Comments:

No time to do any of the planned antenna work so we decided to work this with
what we had and just take it easy and enjoy ourselves. We decided on multi-one
instead of multi-2 mainly for this reason but also to make it easier on the
operating schedule. This meant all of us managed to get at least some sleep.

Since the radio club is at a remote(ish) location, we never leave any gear
there, so have to arrive a bit beforehand to set up. This time with three hours
we had plenty of time to get everything up and running, just needed to do a
quick fix on the earth connections. Unfortunately when we connected up the
rotator for the Mosley, it wasn’t working. We assume it got blocked in the
recent storms so… another trip up the tower on the cards. We also found that
our 160m bazooka was broken on one leg so needed fixed and tied back up to be
back in business. 

We started on 40m, what a joy to be able to run simplex but the QRM level was
really horrific. We ended up working split, nice being able to hear the strong
guys call us on our TX frequency and the weak guys on our RX frequency.
Jose’s FT2000 makes this a relatively painless way to go. And if we thought
that pulling the Qs out of the QRM on 40 was bad, we didn’t count on the QRN
on 80, some points hitting 9+60. We have a feeling that the restaurant next
door has installed some new fridges or something and should investigate if we
want to work 80 again…. Not much on 160 but we decided for this one that the
effort of installing the vertical wasn’t worth it. Saturday after the lull,
we hit 20m.. to be greeted by a snail pace activity. Toni eventually decided to
work the bandmap and all of a sudden the rate rose dramatically. We then hit 15
as soon as we heard VO1MP (you opened and closed the band both days, Gus). 15
on Saturday was short lived, not even 30qs in the log. Then back to 20, and it
wasn’t until the sun went down that the rate started to rise. And how! We had
a great run before the band died and then back to the low bands.

Sunday morning yielded better results on 80 and especially on 40, Jose found a
nice frequency combination, and another few Qs on top band. Then a repeat of
Saturday. We had marginally better propagation on 15, some really strong
signals out of FL and TX but the majority right on the noise level. 20 opened
much later but we were hampered by heavy QRM and unable to find a clear run
frequency. 

Murphy report: broken rotator on tower 2 as already mentioned. One dodgy relay
on the sixpak. RFI with the laptop caused a few crashes and reboots (why does
this always happen in a good run??). A few internet failures but this is
improving. Bad connection somewhere on the footswitch. Ongoing intermittent
trap failures on the Explorer 14. Nothing that made any real difference to the
score.

So, are we still having fun? You bet we are! Lots of fun anecdotes, like, why
does Toni always log AZ as MI? (Guys, let’s hope you know for the next test
that Missouri is MO, and Minnesota is NOT MS!). Fun Spanish jokes on the word
Arkansas had us in fits every time we worked you…. Also, we ended up
wondering if this test coincides with a western USA QSO party, we never hear
anyone in WY, ND, SD, UT… outside of ARRL! 

Next full blown contest will be IARU, hopefully by then we will have our new
optibeam up, the 40m dipole repaired, and a rotator that rotates on the
Mosley.

Thanks to all for the QSOs, and all the visitors who came to see us, especially
EA5VR and LW5DX.


Rig: FT2000
Amp: Acom 1000

160m: Bazooka at 70’
80m: Bazooka at 70’
40-10m: Explorer 14 at 75’

Software: N1MM

73 de Duncan EA5ON on behalf of the Torrent Contest Club


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