[3830] JARTS VA7ST Single Op HP
webform at b41h.net
webform at b41h.net
Sun Oct 18 21:53:23 PDT 2009
JARTS WW RTTY Contest
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 21.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts Mults
-------------------------
80: 34 71 12
40: 173 394 47
20: 424 1095 76
15: 58 128 22
10:
-------------------------
Total: 689 1688 158 Total Score = 266,704
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
* FT-2000 and SB221
* N1MM Logger + MMTTY
* Steppir 3-ele. @ 45'
* 40M Steppir dipole at 45'
* 80M 2-el. AS/NA vertical array, elevated
2009 SFI = 70 | A=2 | K=0
2008 SFI = 70 | A=4 | K=1
Whew. 21:38 hours wiped me out. Mostly because 80M was such hard work with very
poor results -- much worse than last year for some reason. Spent several more
hours there than in previous years, so lost some sleep fooling myself thinking
80M would come to life at some point.
Must give credit to 80M on Sunday morning as a few JA signals were something to
behold -- down in the traditional 3.520-530 slot, but also up in the new Asian
regional RTTY assignment, from 3.599 to 3.612. Yes, that leaves 1 khz of
overlap between the JA and US/VE band plans for RTTY, and I heard two JAs
taking advantage of it. JA1OVD was S9 here, and JS3CTQ was almost that strong
(they were neatly tucked into the 3.599 - 3.600 slot). As Don AA5AU noted on
the DX cluster: "Cool!"
Still ended up working slightly fewer hours than last year, but with
substantial improvement in band totals on all but 80M and 15M, for a personal
best in JARTS.
Highlights of this year were calls from TR8CA, ZS2EZ, and FR5MV on 20M, all
very big sigs. These made my weekend. And then there was YB8EL and FO8RZ on
40M, and a total of 22 countries on 40M (which is up from 7 last year, and 8
the year before). Was a pleasure to work so many familiar calls, a surprising
number of YL ops. Just two VK call areas, both on 40M thanks to VK7AD and
VK3TDX, both with good signals.
Enjoyed a whole bunch of VE7 contacts. At one point on Saturday evening on 40M
VA7CPC, VE7UQ, VE7BSM, then VA7HZ called in a row, then VE7KS and VE7CC right
after that (6 of 16 Qs from B.C.)
15M was wide open across NA on Sunday, but just not a lot of RTTY stations to
work. I know a huge number of stations were on 15M because I had to work pretty
damn hard to get through the pileup for K4M on CW and SSB during a brief break
from the contest on Sunday.
Other than 80M, this was a Steppir-enabled contest. For RTTY (wedged between CW
and Phone), the 3-element plus 40M dipole simply works better than the previous
trapped tribander. And it got me onto 17M and 30M for K4M Qs.
A few year-over-year comparisons...
Band QSOs Pts Cty Sec
2009 80M 34 71 0 12
2008 96 195 2 14
2007 66 132 1 14
2009 40M 173 394 22 25
2008 139 296 7 21
2007 128 266 8 18
2009 20M 424 1095 51 26
2008 350 887 49 26
2007 316 811 50 23
2009 15M 58 128 4 18
2008 90 193 9 14
2007 3 6 0 3
2009 Total 689 1688 77 81 266,704
2008 675 1571 67 75 223,082
2007 513 1215 59 58 142,155
---- ----- --- --- --------
08 > 09 Change + 14 + 117 +10 + 6 + 43,622
07 > 08 Change +162 + 356 + 8 +17 + 80,927
Two-yr. Change +176 + 473 +18 +23 +125,549
Year QSOs Pts. Mults Score
-------------------------------------
2009 689 1688 158 266,704 (HP)
2008 675 1571 142 223,082 (HP)
2007 513 1215 117 142,155 (HP)
2006 412 920 103 94,760
2005 673 1578 154 243,012
2004 586 1428 156 222,768
2003 114 -- 46 12,926
2002 321 785 119 93,415
I suppose the Stew Perry warmup drew away plenty of low-banders Saturday night.
Still a mystery about what happened to 80M on Friday night, but I don't see many
posts showing great 80M outings from the West coast. Here's how I handled
things:
With 80M not well attended, I spent a couple hours Friday night trying to
figure out why I had just 5 Qs in the same couple of hours that netted nearly
50 last year. After a rain-soaked trek through the woods inspecting the
vertical array with a flashlight, I concluded the verticals were fine.
Unwilling to believe the band was honestly empty, I then blatantly accused the
Beverage of being shot. Surely, I said to myself, great heaps of stations were
out there, but the noise on the verticals was rather high to the east, and the
Beverage is the answer for that. It wasn't hearing much noise (which is normal)
or stations (less normal), so I started messing about with it.
As often happens with such messing about with antennas in the middle of the
night, the contraption got royally stuffed the moment I began fiddling with it.
Having suspected a PL259 was intermittently wonky, I chopped off the connector
and tried crimping on a new one and botched that due to sleepiness. Rather than
try that again, I surrendered and swapped in a whole different cable run from a
handy supply I keep nearby: some old RG-8 I should have thrown away but which
"oughta be fine for a Beverage feedline"(tm).
Ran inside to find precisely the same receive situation: nobody to be heard.
Darn original cable had not been the problem to begin with. Off to 40M I went
for the remainder of that session. Not wanting a repeat night of nothing worked
on 80M, on Saturday afternoon I moved to the next obviously guilty party. I
found a surplus ferrite core in the junk box and wound a new transformer and
installed it at the feedpoint. Fortunately, there were a few more stations on
that night. Alas, I think I spent several hours in the rain brilliantly fixing
a problem that wasn't there. Lesson: sometimes the band really is that bad.
Now to rest up for CQWW SSB. Fingers crossed for great conditions. Thanks for
the contacts and to JARTS for letting us all play.
-- Bud VA7ST
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
More information about the 3830
mailing list