[3830] Rus DX OT6M M/S HP

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                    Russian DX Contest

Call: OT6M
Operator(s): ON9CC PC5A
Station: OT6M

Class: M/S HP
QTH: JO20ws
Operating Time (hrs): 23:50

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Countries  Oblasts
----------------------------------------
  160:    34    34                   
   80:   170     0                   
   40:   264    30                   
   20:   406   142                   
   15:   144   208                   
   10:    99   152                   
----------------------------------------
Total:  1117   566      369       316  Total Score = 7,714,470

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:

In the previous months and weeks we did quite some preparations to develop the
after-PI4TUE-era at the OT6M station. Hence this was the first contest at OT6M
we used 2 transceivers. 

Work carried out lately in a nutshell:
- shack rebuild so it can house a 2nd station.
- 2nd TRX installed (kindly lend to us temporary by Mark PA5MW).
- 2nd PC purchased and installed (N1MM+, QSOrder, winkey, audio interfacing,
TRX-CAT).
- antenna work done and last weekend temporary put up dipoles for 40m and 80m
untill we have a better solution).
- We got the interlock working last weekend. 
- Etc.

Everything looked OK until 30 minutes before the contest when during testing
the ACOM2000 gave an ARC failure and both the receivers went dead! ....
diagnose in the end pointed toward an N-connector on the Sixpack. Wiggling the
connector on the coax running between the shack and the Sixpack (mounted in the
barn besides the tower) brought back the RX-signals on both TRX. So the
N-connector was refitted and didn't give any further issues.

During the contest Murphy wanted to scare us again with lightning strikes a
couple of miles to the south of us ... checking blitzortung.org showed a clear
map of Western EU, except for about 5 lightning strikes near us ... :| ...

Anyway, we started the contest a couple of minutes late and began on 20m, then
went to 10m as soon as it opened. Later we then dropped to 15m, 20m and
eventually to the lower bands. I had expected more from 160m, but unfortunately
the dipole wasn't resonating low in the band so we couldn't do (a lot of) CW and
this needs to be fixed. No SSB done on 80m because we only had one dipole and
due to the bandwidth, we decided to have it resonating in the lower part of the
80m band. Future action point is creating bandwidth somehow so we can also do
80m SSB. 

Running rates were fairly low ... rarely got above 200. Even if you'd be
spotted on the cluster (which was rare too), the 'pile-up' was very small and
just got you going for a couple of minutes. Hence we did a lot of S&P that
gave us just as high rating, with a lot of multipliers. 

Anyway, besides the 'sub-optimal' conditions, we had a lot of fun in the
contest (which is my main driver) and besides some RFI from 40m in the headset,
we didn't see any smoke in the shack and everything worked as it should.
Teamwork was good (as usual), spirit was good and the food was good. An
EXCELLENT apple-raisin cake was by Aurelio 'the pattisier' PC5A :)   ... it's
my turn now to prepare a nice soup for the next contest ;)

Station:
- ICOM IC-7800 & TenTec ORION
- ACOM2000A
- Optibeam OB11-3, wire dipoles for 40m, 80m and 160m.

As usual: all QSO's are recorded. If you want a copy, drop me a note (e-mail on
QRZ.com).

And last but not least: thanks to my wife and kids for accepting a couple of
contesters calling 'you are 59' for hours in the middle of the night.

73
Frank
ON9CC / OT6M


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