[3830] CQ160 CW AC6DD Single Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: AC6DD
Operator(s): AC6DD
Station: AC6DD

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 19

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 639  State/Prov = 56  Countries = 27  Total Score = 189,987

Club: 

Comments:

Major problems returned this year with only 30 QSO's made by 0530z on the first
night.

My 78 year old Father visiting from Slovenia came along and helped me with the
 setup this year. It was only the second year so far where the station at the
 Lighthouse was all ready to go on Thursday evening.  The previous time was in
 2012 when Charles W6UM helped me out.  It sure makes a big difference having
an
 extra set of hands.  The basic set up was the same as previous years: TX 
Vertical on the Lighthouse, RX 4 square, K3, Amplifier.  As an add on this time
a second RX4S was set up 1000' away from the first one.

The problems started when I powered up the equipment on Friday afternoon. The
  12VDC power supply had some internal arcing. Having a spare one on hand just

for such occasion this was just no big deal, kind of a lightweight test. It is
 just incredible how some items that work just fine at home break down as you
come out here.  

After I made a few contacts the SWR started climbing and the amp would shut
down.  I wasted about an hour replacing components up to the antenna feedpoint
 to no help. This was also my first time ever that I did not bring along an
antenna analyzer.

A trip to the top of the lighthouse revealed that the fiberglass insulator at
 the bottom of the whip which clamped to the rail on the top of the lighthouse
 has arced over.  The wind was blowing the salt water from the crashing waves
 into the Lighthouse and soaked everything. I spent the next few hours coming
up
 with various schemes on how to divert the water from the insulator.  I would 
just run into my garage and... uh, no such place here. I was limited to
finding
 various junk like plastic bottles etc...  

After six trips to the top (90 steps up), and various shields and schemes on
 diverting the water what finally worked was brushing off the carbonized
fiberglass one more time, cleaning it with Costco glass cleaner and wrapping
all
 of the the insulating parts I could get to with loads of Electrical tape.  It
 is now 0520 and I am finally on the air with the Amplifier not shutting off.
I made 67 Q's in what's left of the hour.  

The conditions didn't seem too great, the only EU mainland heard was CS2C,
maybe
 I missed the boat?  For another hour everything is going well until the K3
 gives   me an ERR 12V!  What the heck is that now?  Bad news.  This keeps
 locking up the radio until I shut it off and on, sometimes a couple of times
 with Q's missed and me dropping out in the middle of a QSO. I keep going like
 this for a while then I get a BAT LOW Error!  

A few nice surprises came along as FY5KE, FW5JJ, A31MM, CE3CT, PW2D, CR2X,
ZL4AS, CW5W, LU2DKT, HC2AO all reply to my CQ.  JE1BMY was the first JA
logged.
  Not a whole lot of JA's this night.  A Monster signal by HL5IVL.
Just before sunrise I find T88HK with no callers.  I call him and..... the amp
 shuts down! The antenna lasted almost until the end of the night.

Now I need to make a decision.  The QSO total is pretty low - 450, the TX
Antenna is gone, the radio has problems and a Storm is going to hit on Sunday,
 which would make tear down miserable.  

As a reasonable man I go to sleep for 2 hours and then I am back repairing the
 antenna.  The Insulator appears to be toast.  I scavenge around the site and 
find a scrap piece of PVC and some clamps. A few more trips to the top, maybe
 four or eight or so and the Antenna is "almost like new". There is
good part to
 all of this as the surrounding dirt was all soaked in salt water too!

I originally set up a second RX 4 square as an extra for diversity reception
 some 2500' from the shack, but it didn't work correctly and with the other 
problems I had I could not fix it. I now decided to remove it to save time on
 Sunday.

Saturday Night I have a new K3 error as ERR DSE starts appearing, but the good

news is that the 12V ERR is gone.  In an act of desperation I uninstall
various
 options like the second RX, and It worked! Unfortunately this was good for
only
 a few hours as the radio would now just lock up with no error displayed, but
I
 suspect this was coming from the computer.

The QSO rate started well, but after a few hours I ran out of stations to
work.
  After Midnight it was a struggle.  I was hoping for some more JA's but not 
much was going on. I decided to sleep for two hours between 0300 and 0500
local
 time, then do some more operating and start tearing down the station right 
after Sunrise. I got pretty wet picking it all up in the rain, but after five 
hours of work and an hour drive I was at home at 1400 drinking a Beer. 

DX Worked: A3, BY, C6, CE, CO, CT, CU, CX, FW, FY, HC, HH, HK, HL, JA, K, KH6,

KL, KP2, LU, PJ2, PJ4, PY, UA9, V3, VE, XE, ZF, ZL

Only 74 JA's worked.  Last year was 127.

Missed the usual VE provinces.  Pleasantly surprised to hear lots of VE4,5,6
and
 SD and ND this year.

Equipment: Problem Child K3, Alpha 8410, Smoldering TX Vertical, RX4S, 4000'
of
 RG6. 

I don't know if I am the only one thinking this, but I think it would be great
if there was a feature in logging programs similar to check partial where from
a
 database you could see what the other station is using for equipment.
Especially on 160m it would be nice to see if someone is QRP, 100w with a
short
 wire to the tree, Big amp with no receive antenna etc...  

Just to show what I was dealing with I uploaded a short video of one of my 
antenna fix attempts here: youtube.com/watch?v=9IFIMRtXBzk
It is unedited just click forward, the water you see dripping is not rain but 
salt water.  

Hopefully it will be better next year.

73, Niko AC6DD


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