[3830] CQWW CW N4KG SOAB(A) HP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N4KG
Operator(s): N4KG +PACKET
Station: N4KG

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: ALA
Operating Time (hrs): 30

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0     0        0
   80:   84    17       45
   40:  172    31      102
   20:  215    33      102
   15:  190    32      103
   10:  162    30       88
------------------------------
Total:  823   143      440  Total Score = 1,319,912

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

This one was BRUTAL!

Solar Disturbances before contest greatly impacted the effectiveness of the
simple antennas I have remaining after past years storm damage.  Bigger,
Higher, and Stronger (full power) would have helped a LOT!

Packet Pileups were the worst I can recall.  I lost a LOT of time in the queues
for multipliers.  Even had to take several breaks just to get away from it. 
Saturday night I pushed hard to catch up with the locals on 40M, then 'ran out
of gas' on 80M.

Sunday morning I hit 40M before the SR peak, working a few, then picked up
RU0FM and a couple of others on 80M at the SR peak.  When I went to 20M, I
could NOT Hear ANY signals.  Just a few very strong signals on 15M made it
through the S9+20 dB Electrical Frying Noise that blanketed all 3 High Bands
just after Sunrise.  KG4CUY suspected a Bad Security Light may have been the
Cause.  This was the First Night this season that temperatures dropped below
freezing.  Two Hours Later, the noise 'moved up' on 10M (above 28150) and I was
able to catch some central and western Europeans.  I Lost Most of North and East
Europe on 10M to this Noise.  Then I was late getting to 15 and 20M.  Those 2
hours were probably the Best Hours of the contest to Europe on the High Bands. 
So it goes...

4 Contests in the past 5 weekends has taken a Heavy Toll on my body and energy.
 Next Year, I hope I remember and decide to NOT play in the Sweepstakes Events! 


On the Bright Side, persistence did pay off with some interesting multipliers,
especially in Africa Asia Oceania giving me DXCC on 40 20 15 Meters.  The
missing Eastern European Multipliers would have pushed my 10M total to DXCC
level.  Last hour of contest, I picked up 9 mults on 40M including 9M2/E21EIC
via Long Path A71CM 5T0SP 7Z1SJ, then QSY to 15M for last 8 minutes and 9M2CNC
BY5AC XV2RZ 9M6NA.  Whew!

I'm Whooped.  I'm going to have to come up with better station
hardware/software and a better plan if I want to continue to play in DX
Contests.

Tom N4KG in North Alabama

Icom 746 (love that little radio) and SB-220 at 800-1000W.

Discovered the Molex Power Connector to the exciter overheats and loses contact
tension, reducing exciter output to 80W.  Plastic Straw inserts helped but
output still dropped after use.  Someone needs to come up with a Better
Connector that is capable of carrying 25 Amps at 100% duty cycle (RTTY will
find most system problems!)

80M Elevated GP (40 ft tower w/TH7 Top Loading)
40M Sloping 80M Dipole (ladderline fed)from 120ft for NW NE SE - 
40M Delta Loop fills in Sloper Null to West.
20/15/10 TH7 at 40 ft plus D3 Dipole fixed JA/SA at 65 ft.


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