[3830] CQ160 SSB K1U(N5IA) Single Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB

Call: K1U
Operator(s): N5IA
Station: W1IMD

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: ME
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 929  State/Prov = 57  Countries = 41  Total Score = 247,548

Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club

Comments:

I traveled to the northeast for the experience and learning opportunity. 
Actually I thought it would be nice to get a clean sweep of the Canadian
Maritimes for once in this contest.

I accomplished the first.   I truly enjoyed a great experience with station
owner Paul-W1IMD and his super team of locals which includes Norm-KA1SG,
John-K1ESE, Bob-W1IF, and Norm-W1ITT.  Thanks, Paul, for your super hospitality
and for the fantastic efforts of the team.

The week was spent preparing the W1IMD station with two, wire transmitting
antennas and four, 2-wire Beverages in the Maine woods.  This effort was not
easy, as tramping through the woods and over the rocky ridges with a whole lot
of snow on the ground is not something this desert rat does every day.

What I found out is it is no easier to work PEI, LB, and NF from Maine than it
is from New Mexico.  Apparently there were no stations on from those Provinces.
 MB was also a non show in my log.  Nothing from the frozen north either.

The actual operating experience was a real eye opener.  Wall to wall
overlapping signals clear up to 1.980 or so.  Absolutely no where to squeeze in
to run without offending someone.

The propagation was strange.  I have no experience at this latitude, but even
local signals were very weak much of the time.  I apologize to all the stations
I could not copy, or with which I could not complete the contact.

Propagation to the west was lacking.  Contacts west of the Rocky mountains was
less than 2 dozen.  First contact with CA was after 0700 the first night.  Only
a couple of OR and 3-4 WA.

I did manage to work all 50 states.  KL7RA was the last one, after sunup Sunday
morning, and the 7th to last contact in the log.

Thanks to the quantities of OH, PA, and VA stations who helped the Q count
tremendously.  Likewise, the local 1 area New England stations were abundant.

It was much more difficult to work the EU stations than I had anticipated. 
With the shoulder to shoulder locals CQing, I found it difficult to hear any EU
other than the dominant super stations.  Still, the learning experience was
good.

I never felt strong, even though a number of stations commented on the strength
of the signal.  All things are relative I suppose.

Many things were learned about the station which will assist in preparing it
for the next go-round.  The duplex operation with two K-3s worked very well,
but narrow band TX antennas and auto type tuners is not conducive to QSYing
quickly up and down the band when using the 2nd radio in the S&P mode.

Even though we measured in excess of 60 dB of isolation between the two
transmit antennas, there was interaction between the two Palstar tuners with
reverse direction RF.

Thanks to all those that made it into the K1U log.  All QSL requests should be
made directly to my mailing address as shown in the QRZ.com listing.

73 de Milt, N5IA


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