[3830] CQ160 CW NI5T(@N5BG) Multi-Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: NI5T
Operator(s): N5IA, N5BG, NI5L, N2IC
Station: N5BG

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 28

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1248  State/Prov = 58  Countries = 60  Total Score = 516,132

Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club

Comments:

Many 3830 commenter's have opined that this year was not as good as last year. 
The USA southwest was not one of the areas blessed with outstanding propagation
in 2009.  However, this year the prop from our area was much better than last
year.  Such is TOPBAND.

NI5L was the principle operator for night one.  Warren did an excellent job and
a good 2 hour opening to EU was the highlight.

Murphy paid us a visit that squashed a bit our overall enthusiasm.  A very
strong, large azimuth noise became apparent when switching to the western
Beverages.  The 2nd half of night one was essentially lost as it was a struggle
to put 4 JA's in log.  Operations ceased at 1200 Z.

When Steve, N2IC, arrived Saturday afternoon his countenance dropped when he
learned of the noise problem.  Milt, N5IA, spent a couple of hours driving
mobile with noise hunting devices trying to find the source of the noise but
was unable to find anything definitive.

The east through north Beverages were affected very little by the western noise
source.  However, you know the noise is BAD when signals from CA are better copy
on the east Bevs.  Signals from the east, including those from EU during a 2nd
night opening were very good.  The EU mults continued to mount and the best
ever total was achieved by the time EU sunrise occurred.

What to do with the 2nd half of the night was the question.  Steve commented
that by 0800 something had to change.  He recalled a learning moment from his
Novice day.  An accidental configuration with an antenna tuner had shown that
some noise canceling could be achieved.  He quickly sketched a block diagram
and asked me if I could do it.  I said yes.

So, Larry, N5BG, and I constructed a 1 WL terminated Beverage towards JA to use
as a sense antenna.  The feed line was fed through a small antenna tuner and
Tee'd with the feed line from the normal Beverage selector.  Voila!!!!!! 
Proper tuning of the antenna tuner produced approximately 6-8 dB of noise
cancellation.  Suddenly western signals were much more "hearable".

Steve did his magic and night two nearly equalled night one; 1=630 and 2=618.

Still, some western mults were missed as they never quite came above the noise
threshold.  We ran until sun up, and then called an end to the odyssey.

The following are some of the principle statistics.

49 of 50 states the first night.  SD held out 'til night two.

High state totals:  CA=104, TX=61, OH=61-great going Buckeyes, and AZ=43.  We
had 19 entries from our home state of New Mexico.

Zone totals for Zone 3=233, Zone 4=460, and Zone 5=331.  Balance of the
world=224.  Of those 90 were JA and 90 were EU.  So, 20 of the 40 CQ Zones were
worked, but Zones 3, 4, 5, 14, 15 & 25 provided 96.5% of the total Q's.

>From the Canadian side we logged 26 Ontario's and 11 BC.  We never heard LB and
NF.  Not getting YT and NWT are a given.  Heard, but never able to break the
pileups for CO and HI.  HB was VERY strong but not hearing well.  An hour after
his sunup he finally got our call correct; couldn't get the report; and said QRT
with a ..; what a let down!!  A couple of other EU mults were heard briefly but
did not respond to our calls.

The make shift noise canceller allowed a total of 90 JA's to be heard and
logged.  Surprises were calls from YB and 9M6.  Found and worked the FK8 on a
very wide split.  No VK or ZL heard, which is unusual from here.  JT1CO was
heard but never came above the noise level enough to warrant a call.  No HL or
BA heard.

The NI5T team is very happy with the results of this year's outing.  It was a
record for us.  Last year we did 1254-58-56=448,704. This year we had 6 more
Q's and 4 more mults, but a whopping 15% increase in score.  The fact that
Murphy visited and we were forced to implement a work-around, is just icing on
the cake.  The "fix" will be a subject of talk for many years, and
justification to add a real noise canceller to the equipment arsenal.

73, and CU all in the SSB 'test at the end of February.

Milt, N5IA, one of the ops at NI5T


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