[3830] RTTY WPX KK9A SOAB LP

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CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: KK9A
Operator(s): KK9A
Station: KK9A

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: North Carolina
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  252
   40:  660
   20:  440
   15:  693
   10:  305
------------
Total: 2350  Prefixes = 785  Total Score = 5,589,000

Club: 

Comments:

I recently purchased a second Elecraft K3S and spent the week prior to the
contest modifying my SO2R and band decoder cables for this radio. I had 
purchased a new MicroHAM K3 cable for my Digikeyer II but for some reason I
could not get the device to work. To quickly resolve the issue I ordered a new
DigiKeyer II which arrived on Thursday. I do not operate RTTY very often so
during the preceding week I spent time reviewing AA5AU’s website to ensure
that my system was properly setup with the latest software. Thanks Don for all
of your efforts! Everything seemed to be contest ready until I connected the
antennas on Thursday evening. For some reason my first Elecraft K3S showed high
SWR on 80m and 40m even though the actual antenna SWR was perfect. I spent a
number of hours swapping cables, band pass filters, antenna relay positions and
finally came to the conclusion that for some reason this radio does not get
along with my band pass filters but the second K3S does. By then it was
midnight and I had to wake up at 5:00am for work and I still was not ready.
Fortunately I was able to leave work a little on Friday, install the new
DigiKeyer II, which worked perfectly, and I found a way to bypass the 40/80m
filter issue. I was tired, but the station was now ready so I took a relaxing
break and also had dinner. When I came back to the shack I discovered that the
20m antenna position quit working on station A. It was perfect hours earlier
and now there was no time to repair the antenna relay so all of my 20m contacts
had to be made on station B. Once the contest started everything else seemed to
be running well. Low band conditions were a little noisy but reasonably good. I
tried very hard to maximize 6 point European contacts on 40m with my stacked
beams but there was not as much activity as I would have liked. I stayed on
until the European sunrise hoping that it would pick up, but it did not. On 80m
I was happy to have some European callers but many had trouble hearing me making
for slow QSOs. I wished that I had completed my phased vertical array project
last summer. In the morning 10m though 20m were in excellent shape.  My best
rate occurred while running Europe on 10m and 15m around 1500z. I worked 127
stations in 60 minutes, and it was fun!  After Saturday morning the rates
slowed and never really recovered. I wish that there was more activity as this
is a very fun contest where everyone can be a multiplier. I tried using the
cluster to gain multipliers during the slower times but this was only partially
successful. Either I did not hear the spotted station or the big pileup or
inefficient operating made working the station it too time consuming. So I left
a lot of mults on the table. With less than an hour to go, I developed a
computer issue. I thought that Murphy had left two days ago! The display had
lines all over and was difficult to read. I turned off the computer and had
trouble restarting it. Then I unplugged it, plugged it back in and it started
working. I finished operating the contest. Later that evening the issue
reoccurred, this time permanently. Despite all of the problems, this claimed
score is my best ever and it may be a new US record! Thanks for the QSOs,
please QSL via WD9DZV. I will be in St. Croix during the ARRL DX Phone contest
next month operating as WP2AA. I hope to work everyone again.

73,
John KK9A
http://www.kk9a.com


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