[3830] CQ160 SSB N1CC Single Op LP

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CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB

Call: N1CC
Operator(s): N1CC
Station: N1CC

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: TEXAS
Operating Time (hrs): 7

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 252  State/Prov = 44  Countries = 5  Total Score = 27,734

Club: North Texas Contest Club

Comments:

Station:  Elecraft K3/100 @100W to Inverted L 50' Vertical 78' Horizontal with 8
symmetrically spaced 65' radials elevated at 10'.  No RX system due to
unresolved power company "hash" that is being worked on by the RUS
carrier TVEC.  2-days of 3 crews reduced ambient noise from S9+20 to S6 - rest
is a "buzz" that I suspect comes from a convenience store a quarter
mile away.

Given the "noise" level is higher than the RX antennas can resolve
and that the K3's excellent NB can reduce the S6 noise somewhat I am able to
work stations out to about 3500 miles somewhat reliably.  With NB on, as you
would expect, the "clamor and clutter" of many stations on the band
degrade your S&P capability so that 70% of my QSO's were made
"running". Yet, there were many cases where people were calling me
that I could not pull out of the noise and band clutter.  It didn't help when
stations would pull to less than a kHz from my frequency and start up CQing...
when that happened I usually moved.  There were two particularly
"obsessive" individuals a "WA1**" and a "VA3**"
who moved in 400 to 500 Hz from me, and then kept trying to steal.  I finally
had to tell both to "buzz off" ... and then kept running, so I know
they could hear me and just didn't care about courtesy.

There were a LOT of stations way to broad, with the NB on that just makes it
seem worse, however, when you cut the NB off and they still show up close to 5
kHz wide and distorted there is something else wrong - it's called failing to
follow the FCC/DOC rules on signal quality. (I run the K3 with 1.8 kHz RX
bandwidth, Attenuator On, Pre-Amp off and RF gain retarded).

Still, I had better results than previous attempts, it was fun - and a lot of
ear-work!


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