[3830] ARRLDX CW WO1N SOAB(A) LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: WO1N
Operator(s): WO1N
Station: WO1N

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 39

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    4     4
   80:  313    64
   40:  352    77
   20:  557    76
   15:  491    82
   10:   13     9
-------------------
Total: 1730   312  Total Score = 1,619,280

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Station: FT1000D, C3-SS at 38', DX-LB at 55', 80M Vert. Bent Dipole, N1MM

    Soapbox : 

    Wow! A new all time high from the WO1N station. I informed K0TV I
    wouldn't be available long in advance and fended off all other
    invites to join/form other mini-Multi's. My goals were to 1) avoid
    the trip to the emergency room in the middle of the contest like
    what happened during the 2009 edition 2) put 40 hours in the chair
    and 3) 1500Q's in the log. 

    The emergency room avoidance was easy, though strangely enough my
    wife and I managed to vist the same restaurant for lunch on Friday
    that played in a part in last years ER fun. We had a good laugh
    about that. 

    40 hours in the chair would be a new goal. I've done 33-35 hours
    as a single op several times in the past, but I find myself at
    Multi-ops in recent years, which are fun, but I often end the
    contest with a feeling I wanted more operating time. Now, in
    fairness, particularly when there is SSB involved, multi-op'ing
    can be a great way to keep peace in the family and sanity in
    the mind while still having fun.

    Finally, on a morning run in the week prior I decided a Q goal
    would be a good thing to go along with the chair time goal. 
    Without much analysis I set a goal of 1500Q's.

    In some last minute pre-contest planning I dug up my previous
    best effort write-up from the home station which was 1156Q's
    in the 2004 edition of this test. While I spent a lot of time
    this winter playing with ropes in trees, I only managed to match
    my 2004 antenna complement. However the tree's have grown at least
    5' in the past six years ;-). Seriously though, I replaced the
    balun I had been using on the 80M vertical bent dipole this
    year and that antenna has been playing better than it ever has.

    I opened on 80M with a 73 hour, basically I swept up the band until
    I found a hole and then did a bit of running. That was encouraging start!

    Let's get the whole Murphy discussion out of the way. All season long the
    station has been playing fine. I start the contest only to find what
sounds
    like RF feedback on my sidetone in my headphones. It didn't sound like it
    was on my transmitted signal. I wiggled and repositioned some wires here
    and there, tried two other sets of headphones, but decided to live with
    it. About 36 hours into the contest it suddenly cleared up. I was calling
    CQ and it just went away about half way through a CQ sequence. I'm sure
    it will be back but I was happy was gone for the remainder of the contest.
    
    Next in his bag-o-tricks was while CQing on 40M he decided to set off the
    house powered carbon monoxide detector causing my wife to jump up from
    snoozing on the coach with a very pissed off look on her face. After
    deciding it really wasn't CO poisoning us, I moved it to another outlet
    and all was fine.

    Old Mister Murphy wasn't done yet. At 7:01 Sunday morning local the power
    company decided it was time to throw some switches somewhere and I lost
    power just long enough, let's say 1 second, to 1) Sound like I was 
    receiving about 13.8KV through my headphones and 2) cause the logging
    computer to shutdown throwing me into what seemed like total
    darkness. It scared the piss out of me! Fortunately everything came
    back cleanly.

    OK enough with Murphy. Now I need to document some body energy tips
    for myself for the next one. I've decided that avoiding meals is the
    way to go. Both mornings I could not surpress the urge to have something
    for breakfast to supplement the peanuts and raisins that seemed to be
    doing fine. Saturday was a bowl of Granola cereal (probably loaded with
    sugar) and Sunday was a simple fried egg on wheat toast. Both meals
    resulted in an energy crash about 45 minutes later during prime
    run times. As Nancy Reagan used to say "Just say No!". I'm certainly
    not going to waste away without a meal or two (OK, even six). Peanuts
    probably weren't the best snack I could have used but the raisins were
    great.

    As a heavy coffee drinker I made a mistake of not drinking coffee during
    Saturday. That resulted in a persistent caffine withdrawal headache that
    I really could not shake even after firing up some extra stength fresh
    ground Sumatra. Just drink coffee, at least in the morning, as you
    normally do.  

    Back to the contest. The second day offered up the best hours. I went
    straight to 15M Sunday morning as it was wide open at our sunrise. While
    15M day one offered a 98 hour during 1600Z, day two offered a 101 during
    1300Z. 20M day one my best hour was 91 during 1900Z, day two I had a 100
    followed by a 110 during 1700Z through 1900Z. 40M was my weakest band.
    My best hour was a 51 during 2200Z on the second day.

    At contest end I started to fall into the pig-pile traps on 15 and 20
    trying to snag a mult or two. These can be a huge waste of time with a
    low power/low antenna station. So, I went to 80 to close out and was
    rewarded with 3 mults. 

    The mini-packet pile-ups were awesome all weekend. Sometimes I handled
them
    better than others but good fun none-the-less. IS0IGV, if you are reading
    this, my apologies for that whole 20M thing. Let's just not talk
    about it, OK?

    Conditions like this past weekend are what keep us coming back. 21 years
    of operating and I've worked only 3 JA's on 40 from the home station. I
    worked 5 more this contest alone. TX4T on 4 bands. I found a 30 second
    opening on 10M and snagged a ZL.

    In summary, I smashed the Q goal, that was easy. I still have some
    work with energy management/chair time. My off time notes show I
    only managed 39 hours. Something to improve on in the next one. 

    Staton improvements needed include: An antenna for 160. That would
    have been useful. Solving a huge noise problem that affects all of
    80M with peaks every 50KHz (switcher switcher come out where ever
    you are). And, finally, some sort of gain antenna towards Europe
    on 40. 

    It will be great when 10 is back, but really do we care if the
    rest of the bands are as good as they were this weekend?

    CU in the next one,

    Ken
    WO1N


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