[3830] SS CW W8FN Single Op LP

[webform at b4h.net]

ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: W8FN
Operator(s): W8FN
Station: W8FN

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: NTX
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  148
   40:  251
   20:  455
   15:   32
   10:     
------------
Total:  886  Sections = 82  Total Score = 145,304

Club: DFW Contest Group

Comments:

Station Equipment:
K3S + KPA500 (@150W out); K3
Antennas:
80 - 44' vertical with ~30' top hat wire
40 - Inverted vee @ 45'
20, 15, 10 - 3 El SteppIR @ 35'(Bi-Directional mode is fantastic)

This one was a real grind. Every year I start SS hoping to break the elusive 1K
QSO barrier. I nearly did it last year, but this time I couldn't even break 900.
Bad conditions really took their toll on little pistol guys like me and probably
kept down the number of casual ops who are the lifeblood of Sunday afternoon.

I started on 20 and had a decent rate the first hour and a great 2nd hour. Then
everything went downhill from there. 20 was the money band this year, but the
big QSO total there couldn't make up for the deficits on the other bands. 40
was mediocre at best Saturday night, even worse Sunday morning, and went long
early Sunday evening. My 80 meter signal is pretty lousy, but I had to gut it
out for 148 QSOs, my best 80 meter total ever. The diversity receive capability
of the K3 was invaluable in pulling out some of the many weak signals on 80 and
40. Based on recent conditions and propagation forecasts I didn't expect much
out of 15, and that's pretty much the way it was.

I missed a sweep again this year, with no NL in the log. I **think** I might
have heard VO1MP weakly doing S&P on 40 once, but never heard him again.
VY1AAA had a tremendous signal on 20 and was pretty easy once the huge pileup
thinned out.

In addition to the bad conditions, another big disappointment this weekend was
a problem that severely limited the usefulness of the second radio. I spent a
large amount of time and effort and a fair amount of cash this summer building
up a bank of transmit bandpass filters to suppress harmonics and noise. But...
something in the local environment is rectifying the transmitted signal and
producing harmonics and broadband RF trash. This spurious signal shows
pronounced 60Hz lines, so the culprit is probably somewhere in a nearby power
line. The noise created by this phenomenon made it impossible to hear anything
but very strong signals when the run radio was transmitting. This probably cost
me a few dozen QSOs that would otherwise have been made on the second radio.

On a more positive note, this was my first serious effort using the new K-Pod
remote tuning knob on the K3. This little gem greatly reduced fatigue and
wasted motion by eliminating the need to constantly take my hand away from the
keyboard to reach for the radio tuning and RIT knobs. I'll be writing a few
macros to move the XIT and SPLIT function to the programmable buttons on the
K-Pod to make it even more useful. I'll also be ordering another one for the
2nd radio.

Thanks to everyone who managed to pull out my puny signals on 80 and 40 and put
up with my many requests for fills. I'm hoping for better conditions in 2017 and
hope to work y'all next year in what is still my favorite contest.

73...
Randy, W8FN


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/