[3830] CQWW SSB N3RR SOAB(A) HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: N3RR
Operator(s): N3RR
Station: N3RR

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: USA, Zone 5
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   21     8       16
   80:  136    11       53
   40:   89    12       49
   20:  293    33      107
   15:  374    33      110
   10:  699    29      120
------------------------------
Total: 1612   126      455  Total Score = 2,708,041

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

This was only the 2nd contest, and the first SSB contest, with my new tube amps,
2x Acom 2000A.  I previously had used auto-tune solid-state amps since 1991. 
 
I have a lot to learn about the operation of these tube amps. 

As such, I decided to take it slow and adopt N4ZR's game plan of operating a
"regular" CQ WW operating category, and then assume it's a 24 hour
contest inside the 48 hour contest time limit.  That gave me plenty of sleeping
time and troubleshooting/re-design time as I saw how the amps played.

I sure needed the down-time too.  I spent several 2-3 hour blocks of time
during the 48-hour contest period analyzing how the amps had worked in my SO2R
environment and learning how to deal with all of the issues I've never had to
face when I used an auto-tune amp that automatically adjusts for <1.5:1 SWR.
 Too much technical detail to describe here, but I could use some feedback from
other Acom 2000A users.

If anyone uses one or more Acom 2000A amps in their station with multiple
transmit antenna configurations (I have 19 different transmit antenna
configuration possibilities), in contests where they switch from band to band
rapidly or S&P up and down the bands, passing through the Acom band
segments, I'd like to talk to you.  Please contact me direct.  n3rr (at) erols
(dot)com.  
Tnx.

Because of the issues I had with the amps, I did not run much classic SO2R.
I mostly ran the N1MM (classic) bandmaps, alternating back and forth between
radio1 and radio2.

Had a nice 10M run on Sunday am.  Could not find a run freq on Saturday because
I slept too late (my new 'rules' allowed for that!) and the bands were full by
the time I got back on the air.  

Also, my 10m antennas play only up to 28.800 MHz, or so, then the SWR goes up
exponentially. 500 KHz for 10m SSB in this contest was not enough in this
sunspot environment!

73!

Bill, N3RR


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