[3830] ARRLDX SSB KD9MS SOAB LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: KD9MS
Operator(s): KD9MS
Station: KD9MS

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 40.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    8     8
   80:   55    39
   40:   96    53
   20:  161    70
   15:  216    74
   10:  176    59
-------------------
Total:  712   303  Total Score = 647,208

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

I see now why I am beginning to like RTTY contests more and more, because I'm
not nearly as tired at the end from all that yelling and reconfiguring and
everything else. I am beat! But I guess it doesn't help that I have been
working on my 2nd tower and antenna almost the whole month of February. 

My almost free tower and antenna was moved ( I moved it! )from one spot in my
yard next to power lines and raised from 28' to 58'. Boy I'm gonna get some
reports in the ARRL DX SSB now! The lift crane truck came the Friday before the
NAQP RTTY one week before this contest and we put up the tower. But it snowed
that Thursday night before and the tower was laying down, with the rotor in it
and the plastic blew off it sometime during the night. I guess there was water
in the rotor and it burned up about 40 minutes into the NAQP test, and it
locked up pointing about 280 degrees, the wrong direction for the ARRL DX. The
rotor control box got hot and smoked up the room and even an hour after I had
the controller unplugged, the transformer burned my finger when I touched it
looking for the problem! Nothing like a fire in the shack!

I have spent all my mad money and I could have had a rotor in here, but you
never spend your last dollar on your toys, because you might need an alternator
for your car ( I had to buy 2 of them in the last 2 weeks) so I had to plan on
only having the antenna to the north east, if I could get someone to move it.
Found a guy! he got it pointed and I had to plan my strategy:
2 beams, one locked to the NE on the second radio.
multiple verticals for low bands but I can use the locked-to-the-NE JUST
REFITTED AND MOVED AND RAISED Explorer 14 with the 40m kit on it and my all
purpose 160m 43' DX engineering modified multiband for everything else on the
second radio. 

I had to plan to follow the sun: Work the main tower just like always but if a
mult pops up, switch em and use the band map in N1MM to keep track until I can
get a chance to move to that band to work the DX I spotted. Especially if it
was below 90 degrees or above 0 degrees. Don't put the 2nd radio on 10 meters
because the bands were doing so good, I could keep that radio on 15 and use the
longer opening to the NE towork as much off that band as I could during the day.
At night, do what I have done for the last few, except put the Explorer 14 on 40
right when it got dark enough to work stations on that radio, while I stay on 20
with the TH7DX and then go to 80 on that one. When the DX moved (again watching
the sun) switch to the vertical which screams on 40 with RTTY and CW and keep
switching between 40, 80 and 160 until I could hear openings on 20 for the beam
again.

But I forgot about the european sunrise traffic on 40 for the beam so I got to
keep it active anyway. It was kind of nice. A locked dipole for Europe and
VK/ZL and the DIS 7-1 at 70' for the early Asia and late South America stuff. 

I heard a lot of stuff I would have missed. I usually hear KD9ST in all many of
the pileups I am in anyway. Kind of upsetting when I hear KD9 at the beginning
and the "Sierra Tango" at the end, but it seems like we share contacts alot and
its cool that we end up at the same "dxing hole" a lot. From my category, I also
heard N1UR ALL OVER THE PLACE! (does that guy ever sleep) and N4TZ (he doesn't
sleep much either) Good signals from them and great audio and they always sound
wide awake. From SMC I heard N2BJ and K9CT backscatter all over the place. I
figure if I end up in many of the same places as those guys I must be doing ok,
except for the fact that I am there sometimes 10 min before and 10 min after
getting "THAT" multiplier because after just a couple of calls, they have
busted the pileup and are gone in a matter of a couple of minutes. WB9Z always
seems to have a pileup, almost reminds me of bees trying to get into a hive! I
can always tell where he is by looking at my band scope display. Great job this
weekend to all mentioned here and the dozens of others I heard in the top of
their areas of competition!

A big thank you to the N1MM development team for the logger, because I don't
need paper or pencils to keep up with everything, especially the multipliers. I
don't think I would do well assisted because I have been "hunting" too long in
the contests and everyone elses' spots are too much like noise because I didn't
put them on the band map myself. I tried using the cluster in one of the RTTY
tests and it drove me crazy.

All in all, I enjoyed this contest, even with all the problems with the tower
and rotor. But if there weren't ever any problems, how would we ever learn what
to do when a "REAL LIFE" serious problem pops up. I always plan for a fire
anytime I go to work on anything or even when I contest. I figure if it ain't
on fire, it'll be okay and I can take care of it...did I mention that I burned
up my rotor?

EVERYONE was really nice on the air. Even though it drives me crazy, I love
this contest. My tongue is tired of saying words with the letter "L" in them. I
am thru rambling. I am shutting up.

73, Kilo Delta Nine Mexico Sierra 59 Italy Lima


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