[3830] ARRLDX CW W5RU(@KN5O) M/2 HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: W5RU
Operator(s): KN5O K1DW W5XU K5YG
Station: KN5O

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Covington, LA
Operating Time (hrs): 31

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   18    14
   80:  134    64
   40:  362    96
   20:  553    98
   15:  803   111
   10:  264    70
-------------------
Total: 2134   453  Total Score = 2,896,027

Club: Louisiana Contest Club

Comments:

Well, just our luck.. When we finally got a good crew to go the distance, N1MM
had an issue and mother nature decided to give us a pounding as well.  

To start things off, I thought I had everything ready to go.  As the contest
began, I noticed Station 1 wasn't getting log updates from Station 2 and
everytime Station 2 logged an entry, Station 1 got an error message, which I
was forced to clear before I could proceed at Station 1.  This became a major
issue - one that basically shut down Station 1 until the issue could be
resolved. 

Then combine that with major QRN Friday nite (even my beverages were not that
helpful), both 160M and 80M suffered greatly.  So, Friday nite through Saturday
early AM, we were basically Multi-Single.  Once Dave, W5XU went to bed about
midnite Friday, I started to troubleshoot N1MM and quit operating.

Spent many hours trying to re-sync the databases without much success.  Also
tryed numerous ways to see if I could repair the issue, with no avail. 
Finally, decided to install the latest N1MM updates which apparently fixed the
communications issue.  I was then able to re-synce the databases and N1MM was
happy - no more error messages.  Time now is about 5AM Saturday morning.  Gave
up on 160/80 as noise was getting worse.  Operated on 40 to catch the Asia
Pacific Qs and ran a bit, but it was getting to late to get a good JA run.

Dave finally re-joined me at about 6:30 AM Saturday morning and we began to
finally get into our M/2 planned operation.  Things were kinda looking up, only
to hear the TV news say that we were under a tornado watch.. Then, looking a the
WX radar, a bad "bow-echo" line of thunderstorms was heading our way with wind
gusts to 70MPH.  By this time (9AM Saturday), Bill, K5YG, had joined us. 
Lightning was getting close, so pulled the antennas and control cables. 
Basically we were "dead in the water" for about 6 hours until this stuff
passed.  Then as the storms approached, we lowered the towers to half height. 
Sure enough, the big blow came through.  Glad we did the right thing.  A few
hours later, we were able to re-raise the towers in the drizzle and get back on
about 3PM or so.

Dave had to leave to get back to Baton Rouge, so his operating was quite
limited, but glad to have had him here as long as he could stay.  I hadn't had
any sleep for nearly 36 hours, so we pulled the plug at about midnite Saturday.
Again, 160/80 was useless due to the QRN. 

Got back to it Sunday morning at about 6AM - 80 was very quiet and could
finally work the Asia-Pac area for a little while.  Sunday was a good day, but
the rates were much lower.  10M was a big dissapointment Sunday when I look
back at how good it was for CQWW 2011.

Did get VU2PTT and 9M6XRO to call in on our CQing - those were very welcome
suprises, as opposed to having to try to work them through some potentially
ugly pile-ups. Thanks guys.

So, here's hoping DX Phone weekend is better.  Hoping old SOL helps out and
that we are better prepared.

Thanks to all for the Qs.

73,
Ted KN5O

For Team W5RU - Dallas K1DW, Dave W5XU, Bill K5YG and Ted KN5O


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