[3830] ARRLDX SSB K0TV M/2 HP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: K0TV
Operator(s): W1UE, W1NR, K1BG, K2TE, KB1TBU, N1LAJ, W1END, W1FDR, WO1N, K0TV
Station: K0TV

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: FN42hr
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   55    41
   80:  315    77
   40:  237    82
   20: 1260   111
   15: 1256   111
   10:  190    66
-------------------
Total: 3313   488  Total Score = 4,769,712

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

The last of the majors is now in the books. All of us had a wonderful
time during this year's running of the ARRL SSB contest.

Mostly we got by without any major visits from Murphy but this
winter's weather was not good to the station. One of my 1296 loop
yagis came free from it's mount and was swinging from the coax
right above the top 15 meter beam. It didn't seem to cause much
trouble with the SWR but the pattern may have been affected.

The big 40 meter beam has been swinging on the mast for a few
months but unless it is windy, it seems to stay pointed in
the same direction, until the first night of the contest.
We couldn't get any runs going on 40 to Europe. Most other
stations were winning in the pile-ups on both the beam
and the four square. Later on that night we were able to bust
most of the pile ups going to the Northwest with ease. It seems
the beam was pointed at JA instead of EU. We were off to the side
going to Europe.

K1HI was kind enough to lend us his new K3 so we could have two
of them here. We were very glad to have the second K3. It is truly
an excellent rig. Don't let it's small size fool you, it's performance
is really huge.

A new feature here is the automatic switching of antennas, filters,
and the big autotune amplifier. There were some problems with RF from
one station causing interference to one of the other stations, not
with interference but with the band decoding and the switching
mechanism. The problems should be curable with some ferrites on the
appropriate lines.

The big autotune amp started having fits on Sunday. A little trouble
shooting found a loose connector and all was well again. The only
problem was that it happened just as I had fallen asleep to get some
badly needed rest. Oh well, I didn't need any sleep anyway. I don't
know how the single ops who do 44 hours can stay alive.

Activity on the lower bands seemed to be down. Conditions were better
the second night than the first night. Although our 160 numbers were
up a bit from last year, 80 and 40 were down. The high bands were
another story alltogether. 10 is back (well a little). Our overall
score was 1M up from last year due to the outstanding efforts of
the newest operators, W1UE and W1NR.

The rates on 20 and 15 both days were outstanding. Two of our regular
operators weren't here this year so I put out a call for help before
the contest. Dennis, W1UE and Mike, W1NR stepped up to the plate
and filled in for Rex, K1HI, and Lisa, N1ICE. Mike and Dennis did
a fine job and they're going to share the MVP award for this contest.
Together they answered the call and gave us the best numbers for
15 and 20 meters we've had since the sunspot minimum.

Speaking of sunspots, I ran predictions a couple of days before the
contest based upon an SFI of 113. I passed these out to several other
station operators as well as the operators here. The SFI was 127 on
Saturday and 135 on Sunday. As I write this, it's up to 143 so
sunspots are back. The new 10 meter system performed very well but
the rotatable antenna had a high SWR. When the snow melts, I'll take
a trip out to the 40/10 meter tower and check out what's going on there.

I hope all the other participants had as much fun as we did here. A
good time was had by all of us and we're looking forward to the
good weather so we can get the station ready for more. Thanks to
everyone who called in.

Best 73


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/