[3830] ARRLDX CW N9TF SOSB/80 LP

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ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: N9TF
Operator(s): N9TF
Station: N9TF

Class: SOSB/80 LP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 9

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:  35     26
   40:           
   20:           
   15:           
   10:           
-------------------
Total:  35     36  Total Score = 2,730

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Rough going here. Weekend commitments kept me from operating Saturday and Sunday
days, so I chose to do a SB 80m LP, as that was going to be my only time slot to
operate.
Friday night the wind was my nemesis. The 60MPH gusts along with 30MPH to 40MPH
constant winds, loosened the eye bolt of the 4:1 balun on the 90' leg of my 80m
OCF dipole. The SWR kept jumping all over the place, making it even that much
more difficult to make contacts with 100 watts and a low (35') hanging 80m
dipole. In addition, 80m was was noisy and signals to EU that were heard were
only partially copied. The majority of Q's were into SA and the Caribbean.
There were some pretty big pile ups on several of those stations, which took
lots of time to navigate through. 
I had a few minutes late Saturday afternoon to climb the tower and confirm the
balun eye bolt was loose. I was able to finger tighten it, but I will need to
take it down in the spring to open it up and tighten it properly. Although the
wind had died down Saturday night, thunderstorms were tracking through the
St.Louis area to my south. Between the lightening static crashes and fast QSB,
Saturday night/Sunday morning was another test of perseverance. Signals from SA
and the Caribbean were much louder from about midnight Sunday, but EU was still
mostly non existent to my receiver. Although, I had no problem hearing and
working into the pacific as I logged several HI stations between both nights.
N1MM logger says 3:48 on time. It was more like 9 hours between both nights.
That just shows how long there was between contacts!! Sure did get some good
experience playing with all the RX tools on the K3S! Heard more than could hear
me :(  

Station conditions, K3S/P3 100 watts to 80m OCF dipole at 35', N1MM+ logger

73 Gene N9TF


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