[3830] TBDC K1LT Single Op HP

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                    Stew Perry Topband Challenge - Warmup

Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 9.5

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 316  Total Score = 1,033

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

I have been neglecting my 160 meter station all summer and fall while
working on my new tower project.  I'll describe the tower project in
my CQ WW SSB notes next week.

Friday evening and Saturday morning I hurried around to replace
defective coax runs for the phased arrays and tighten up the supports
for the top wire of the "Tee" transmitting antenna.  The top wire
had
gotten quite droopy which raised the SWR and lowered the efficiency to
where I thought I could notice.  The west tree which supports the
"Tee" top is looking much thinner than it used to, but I guess it
still works.

Saturday morning I reconfigured the station for 6 audio channels (3
stereo pairs): phased array "East", phased array "West" and
the K3
with Beverages.  "East" and "West" are just convenient
labels.  Both
arrays can go either way.  I messed around with the software to add
keyboard shortcuts to make audio routing changes more efficient, but I
can't get enough keyboards and screens in front of me.  I'll have to
steal some keys from the SDR receiver software to use them to control
audio routing.

I had an minor epiphany while messing with the audio routing: the
computer that has the SDR receivers is the RX computer while the
computer that has Writelog is the TX computer.  Seems obvious in
retrospect, but maybe there is an ergonomic hint there.  The RX screen
needs more pixels!  1600x1200 is not enough.

I got the station preparation chores done by mid-afternoon so I
actually had time to got out an prepare another tower section to
raise.

The contest itself didn't seem to be very active until about 2200Z but
i had a nice steady 50 per hour rate for the first couple or three
hours which is very good for this contest.

First non-Ex or non-Fx grid was K5UL at 2328Z.  First Cx grid was W7FI
at 0057Z.  First DX was F6AOJ at 0123Z which might be a hint of a
decent season coming.  G4AMT called with a nice signal at 0306Z.  LY7M
called at 0348Z with an ESP level signal.  Fortunately the QSB peaks
aligned properly on consecutive exchanges to get his call and grid.
F6GOX never gave me a grid.  KH6AT called at 0504Z for the first of 3
KH6 stations.

I quit at 0530Z and slept for 4 hours.  One of these years I'm going
to have to stay up all night to see if anything happens at night.  The
cat puking woke me up.

I got on again at 1010Z.  OA4TT called shortly thereafter for the only
South American QSO.  E51MQT called at 1116Z for the surprise
multiplier (new 160 country for me) but gave no grid.  VK3TZ called at
1125Z for my best DX.  He was almost ESP level.

Overall the station worked reasonably well despite my neglectful
maintenance.  I wish I had put the transmit nulling end-fire array
back together so I could have used the 2nd radio to hunt while CQing.
Maybe I would have found HC1PF.  I never used the K3 or the Beverages
for receiving other than 1 time I noticed a signal on the P3 that I
was not yet hearing.

DX worked: E5/n, EA, F (2), G (4), HI, KH6 (3), KV4, LY, OA, PA, and
YU.

Equipment: K3, P3, Alpha 8410, 65 foot tall "Tee" antenna over 73
(and
decreasing) 120 foot radials; 2x4 phased array and SDR receiver array,
2x3 phased array and SDR receiver array; 12 unused Beverages.


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