[3830] ARRLDX SSB N6YG SOAB LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: N6YG
Operator(s): N6YG
Station: N6YG

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Sacramento
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:    4     3
   40:   58    26
   20:   35    16
   15:   97    32
   10:   39    18
-------------------
Total:  233    95  Total Score = 65,835

Club: 

Comments:

This is the first contest that I've actually participated in somewhat seriously.
I did the hunt and pounce thing and didn't bother calling CQ I just slowly tuned
up the band and answered stations calling CQ. 

 Just for fun I built a 15 meter vertical MOXON out of wire which I hung from a
tree limb with the bottom spreader at about about 15 feet. It worked
surprisingly well..!!  Much better then the hustler vertical. At times the
MOXON  was at least 2 to 3 S units stronger. 

To rotate the MOXON  I used an old TV rotor mounted on a 1-1/4 inch pipe which
I pounded 3 or 4 feet into the into the ground just below the MOXON.  The  top
of the rotor was at about 6 feet.  I mounted a 3 foot long chunk of 1/2 inch
PVC pipe horizontally across the top of the rotor, The ends of the horizontal
PVC pipe were tied to the bottom spreader of the MOXON with 550 paracord.  It
wasn't very accurate and it took a few seconds for the antenna to settle down
after turning, but hey it worked ..!!   

This year the contest kind of snuck  up on me and problems developed. Hopefully
I will plan better and next time  everything in the shack will be set-up and
properly tested  well in advance and I'll be able to call CQ myself. If I’m
going to continue to play around in contests semi seriously then two new items
are going to be mandatory. 

 One is an external trigger keypad  for the Pro-3's built in voice keyer..  And
I'm definitely buying a damn headset and using VOX because trying to log with a
mic in your hand with it's cable dangling over the keyboard really sucks..  

Low Power VS High power ??? This was a tough choice, Even though I have two
amps neither of them could be considered "contest grade amps" they are fine for
grabbing that occasional DX but to run one for 2 days with 100‘s of QSO’s is
a totally different ball game. In the end fate made the choice for me. 

I noticed a problem in a qso right before the contest officially started. For
some reason at high power I was having issues with RF getting into the rig.... 
 At that point I decided to run low power until I could find the problem. 
Besides I really didn't want to stress the amps in a contest environment. The
3-500 in my SB-1000 is the original emacs tube and the 811's in the AL-811H
have seen better days. Next year I might pick up a cheap Chinese 3-500z for the
SB-1000 and use it during contests.    

 The RF problem turned out to be a stupid commercially built audio switch box
used to switch computer audio between rigs. Even at a 100 watts I could still
tell my audio was distorted from RF which probably was making it difficult for
weak contacts to copy my signal which explains why even strong stations were
asking for repeats. 

 Up until the contest everything was fine and I couldn't figure out what was
causing the problem. Then I remembered that a few days before the contest I had
plugged the Pro-3 into the switch box so I could use it for HF digital normally
I use the FT-857d for digital modes because it has built in digital VOX.
Amazing what one simple split ferrite bead will fix once you find the problem. 


 No one said anything about my audio during the contest so I didn’t  really
realize how bad it was until after the contest..  I could have probably easily
doubled my score if I would have taken the time to find the problem and fix it
instead of just waiting to fix it.  I’m still kicking myself for at least not
unplugging everything but the Coax and Power from the rig, Oh well lesson
learned  ..!! 

73
N6YG


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