[3830] RTTY Roundup K3FIV Single-Op LP

[Jack Haverty]

ARRLRTTY Score Summary Sheet
Operator(s) : K3FIV
Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
             Band : ALL
            Power : LOW
       Gridsquare : CM88EU
             Name : Jack Haverty
   City/State/Zip : Point Arena  CA
        Club/Team : Northern California Contest Club

        Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec   Cty
         3.5      54      54   26    0
          14      84      84   17   10
          21       8      8    0    2
       Total     146     146   43   12

            Score : 8,030
              Rig : Flex-3000
         Antennas : Carolina Windom @ 35 feet

Soapbox:

My first RTTY RU.  Wasn't expecting to be able to participate, but I had
some time so I fired up the rig a few hours into the fray.  Of course, I
was totally unprepared for contesting, and was just going to make a few
QSOs.  So I just started with a piece of paper as a log.  20M was an
amazing site on the panadapter - a wall of RF from 14.025 to the voice
sub-band.  After 10 or 20 contacts, I decided to just use my regular
logging/digital program (HRDLog with DM780).  Not as potent as N1MM for
contesting - no multiplier window, no bandplan, etc.  But I've never
used N1MM with RTTY, and it seemed prudent not to try it in the middle
of a contest.

Murphy was second op.  Worked a bunch on 20, then decided to look at 15.
I couldn't get anyone to hear me on 15.  Eventually I noticed that the
"drive" control had somehow been set to 0, and 0 watts doesn't get very
far.  Fixed that as 15 started to fade.  Tried 40.  For some reason, rig
refuses to output any power on 40 either (even with drive setting at
full).  Makes all the right noises, looks like it's transmitting, but
power meter reads 0.  Worked yesterday. Hrmmph.  

Worked 80 and 20 mostly.  The Flex is nice in a crowd.  I just set up a
filter barely wide enough for RTTY and methodically worked back and
forth.  I could pretty much work everybody I could hear.  Curiously, it
was often hard to get the attention of CA stations.  Probably they were
all pointing away from me (I'm on the coast).

Somebody called me a DUPE!  Sure enough, the call is back there in the
log.  But for some reason, the log entry window doesn't show it was
worked before.  Curious.  It always has worked fine.   But now sometimes
dupes are flagged, sometimes they're not.  So, I switch gears and do a
quick log lookup by hand on any call that sounds familiar before risking
being called a DUPE again.

To add to the fun, the screen starts randomly freezing for a few
seconds.  Seems to be triggered on receiving AGN? AGN? and I can't do
anything until it thaws.  It's probably got something to do with the
dysfunctional automatic log lookups.

Do all S&P.  Bands are too crowded for my measly 100 watts and wire
antenna to hold a spot, and the need to do log searches manually would
be way too slow for any running.  It takes quite a while to S&P from one
end of the RF wall to the other - there's *lots* of stations in there.

Contest's over.  I export and import the log entries from HRDlog to N1MM
so I can get a Cabrillo format for submission.  Guess what -- the
"exchange" entries (State/serial) don't translate.  Still working on
that - it's time to learn more about ADIF format anyway.

I also have to check the scoring from N1MM.  N6QEK/VY1 should have been
another multiplier, but it doesn't look like N1MM picked that up.

Still, lots of fun (despite Murphy), and even with just about 10 hours
or so I got a couple of new countries (for me) - West Malaysia and
Finland.  Picked up Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Asiatic Russia too,
plus a slew of JAs.  Heard quite a few EU stations but that East Coast
RF wall is pretty formidable.  I was surprised at how world-wide this
contest is. 

PS - the rig works fine on 40 now.  Didn't change anything.  Murphy's
gone elsewhere I guess.