[3830] ARRL 160 W4PK SO Unlimited HP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: W4PK
Operator(s): W4PK
Station: W4PK

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 15:43

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 808  Sections = 86  Countries = 16  Total Score = 142,846

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

This is one of my favorite contests since it leaves me with plenty of time to do
other things during the weekend.

My 160M station is geared for working DX, and not necessarily a “local”
contest like this one.  I use Beverages for receiving and a 75-foot shunt-fed
tower top-loaded with a beam with a 36-foot boom. I have 60-plus radials around
the tower and I use an ACOM 2000A for my amplifier. 

My Beverages are spaced 60-degrees around the compass, and I have a total of 11
available. I can select any two Beverages and combine them so I can either
listen in two directions, or in the case of Europe I can phase them together. 
Needless to say I usually can hear much better than I can be heard.

For this contest I usually left one of the European Beverages connected and I
would select the “other” Beverages depending on where the station was
located.  This was okay the first night since I mostly searched and pounced.
However, the second night I was forced to try running as I had already worked
most of the running stations.  I was continually switching between my Beverages
to make sure I was not overlooking stations.  This resulted in my sending
“AGN” until I could find one that worked.  And there were several who I
could tell were calling but I just could not pull them out of the noise no
matter what Beverage I had selected! 

Propagation was so-so Friday night but it was better Saturday night with
Europeans coming in at times S9+, at least for the few that I heard.  I
listened to the northwest before daybreak on Saturday but worked only KH6.  I
did near U.S. stations out west working JAs but nothing heard here.  It was
probably better Sunday morning but I didn’t get up in time.

I had 15 dupes, all while I was running.  I attribute this to the skimmer spots
which often would give erroneous decodes.

I only worked 16 countries, 9 of them in Europe.  The other 6 were in the
Caribbean or Central America.  I was able to work all states except for
Alaska.

Last weekend during the CQWW CW contest I experienced broad-band interference
on 80M that whet “BRAP-BRAP-BRAP” every few minutes for about a second or
so. This weekend I experienced the same thing on 160M except that the
“BRAP-BRAP-BRAP” was followed by three weaker “brap-brap-braps”.  This
is obviously propagation-related as I don’t hear it during daylight hours. 
Does anyone have a clue as to what this is? 

Overall I had fun and thanks to all of those who put up with me while I
switched Beverages to find one that worked!

73, Sam W4PK


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