[3830] ARRL 10 W4LT M/S HP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: W4LT
Operator(s): W4LT
Station: W4LT

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Tampa FL
Operating Time (hrs): 20.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  386    70
  SSB:  590    70
-------------------
Total:  976   140  Total Score = 381,360

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

Rig : Elecraft K3/100-KRX3 - Ameritron ALS600

Antennas : CushCraft A3S at 38 ft

Soapbox : 

My last contest was RF hardware issues.  The start of this one was software
issues.  N1MM was missbehaving, not letting me log certain things, would not
stay in run mode unless coerced by the mouse, wouldnt play my DVK, forgot the
SSB DVK settings... Add to this an issue with the K3 Auto-notch and the first
couple of hours had a "high difficulty factor".  Used the MicroKeyer Built-In
DVK with a single VFO.  Ths worked, unfortunately, you had to click on PLAY in
the MicroKeyer GUI, and when Router has focus, the logger doesnt... <sigh>  I
finally got some fixes to the issues Saturday afternoon, and things smoothed
out from there.

My CW has improved markedly, I feel quite comfortable at 29-31 WPM with this
simple exchange, which is up to my speeds when I was younger.  

Several really fun high rate runs on SSB!   And I actually worked someone in
DC!!!  First time!  

Highlights were being called by three-four station deep piles of Californians. 


I know that Texas is a really big state, as I must have worked every Ham there.
 There was a bottomless pit of Texans! 

Yanking NQ4I's chain asking "Who is the Quebec Four?" when Rick is like S9 + 5
here :)  Sounded like Dennis on the mic, tho. 

One memorable run late Saturday ended with a call from an FO8RZ, then two
VK4's, then E51CG back to back on a phone run!  I felt like a real big gun!  

Another funny highlight was, when, on a run,  a contact asked me to "wait a
minute... Give me 30 seconds!".  I said, "OK, Should I play the Jeopardy
theme?".  At this point, another guy on the frequency started singing the Final
Jeopardy theme!  It took me several Qso's to stop laughing!  Just too funny!

Where were all the "promised" Mexicans?  Did not hear many, worked most I
heard, even XE1KK who couldnt hear me until I called him in English!

My usual fun game of search and pouncing South America in Spanish worked very
well, snagged a whole bunch of South Americans early Sunday afternoon.

The snow storm must have played havoc with the antennas in Minnesota, I only
worked ONE guy from MN, usually I get scads of them!

And now the low lites... 

I found a crack between two very strong CW stations, one, a well known Big Gun
Northeast contester, the other a midwest guy.  I could not hear either of them
AT ALL in the 700 cycles between them! The band was quite busy, the gap was
really quiet and it was a choice frequency, so I set up for 400Hz bandwidth and
popped into the gap.  I QRL'd four (4) times!  Nobody answered so I began a run.
 Im three Q's into my run when both come up/down and ask me to move.  Told them
I couldnt hear them and there was no place for me to move.  The Midwest guy
accepted this, but the East Coast guy above me did something to his transmitter
to create hard key clicks, which I promptly reduced to a workable level by
adjusting my digital noise blanker and going into CW Reverse. Then, a couple of
QSO's later, he *again* asked me to move.  

Folks, My transmitter is clean... If I cant hear you and you can hear me (Im
running a maximum of 500w out and a low tribander, too!), its not *my*
responsibility to move to account for *your* receiver inadequacies.  'nuff
said.

I guess this is my revenge for having these same guys blow me out of
frequencies a couple of years ago when I was running low power and a TS570.

A very enjoyable time, even with the software issues.  This is always a fun
contest!  

Hope the score helps FCG win the gavel!  GO FCG!!!

W4LT


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