[3830] RTTY WPX AB1J SOSB80(TS) LP

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CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: AB1J
Operator(s): AB1J
Station: AB1J

Class: SOSB80(TS) LP
QTH: Waltham MA
Operating Time (hrs): 17

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  252
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total:  252  Prefixes = 149  Total Score = 94,764

Club: 

Comments:

I don't normally have an 80m antenna.  Given the constraints of my property it's
difficult to have good antennas all around. It came down to a choice between a
poor 40/80m antenna or an average 40m one.  The latter won out, a half wave
wire exiting out my shack window, end fed through a small matchbox.  But I
really wanted to go 80m this time so I substituted a variable tuner for the
fixed matchbox and balanced the now 80m quarter wave wire with some
counterpoise wires meandering around the upstairs of my house. Plus a bunch of
ferrite chokes to tame the RF for my nearby computer.

I told my wife all those wires running around upstairs were just temporary for
the contest, but I'm already scheming to find a way to make them semi-permanent
so I can easily set up on 80m again.  And it looks as if I'll just be able to
tune the system for both 40m and 80m, so maybe I can do both.  If I'm lucky
I'll end up with an average 40/80m antenna.  A step up from poor.

I didn't know what to expect in the contest, but the kludge was adequate and
worth all the fuss, bother and tripping over wires.  

I'd forgotten aspects of 80m, especially the noise level, which did all kinds
of perverse things to the RTTY bauds.   There were many decoding errors and
lots of missed shift characters which screwed up whole segments of exchanges. 
At times all my decoders spewed garbage.  GIGO, actually, due to the noise
pre-processing.

I'd also forgotten about the weirdo signals to be found upwards of 3590 kHz. 
Like the station (~3595) sending "P" continuously.  What's that
about?  Some stuff, like Pactor, I recognized, others are just part of the
mystery and romance of shortwave radio. Strange emmanations from who knows
where? Aliens? Motherships? Spies?

Thanks for all the Qs and your patience in pulling me through. I know I didn't
have a commanding signal but you helped me have a LOT of fun.

73,
Ken, AB1J


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