[3830] CQWW CW K1ESE SOAB(A) HP

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CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: K1ESE
Operator(s): K1ESE
Station: K1ESE

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: ME
Operating Time (hrs): 28.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   17     5       10
   80:  153    16       59
   40:  343    24       86
   20:  549    26      103
   15:  214    22       74
   10:   24     5       11
------------------------------
Total: 1300    98      343  Total Score = 1,607,004

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

K1ESE - Flex 6500, Expert 1.3K amp, two wire doublet antennas up 80 feet.

Here's my contest notes in no order...

Skimmer -
I used my local skimmer about half the time on Saturday.  It let me get a jump
on some stations that had not been spotted on the telnet nodes.  The spots were
mostly accurate.  But, I could only see spots on the band I was using and had no
idea when was a good time to change bands.  Used W1VE the rest of the time.

Murphy -
On 10m at high power RFI got into the router and I ended up losing time
rebooting everything.  At lower power, after removing a stray Ethernet cable,
the problem disappeared.  

The choke on the short antenna overheated when running on 20m at high power
(1.2kw).  I could smell the heat.  Switched antennas, let it cool, went back
and it was fine when running at medium power (800w).  It was never a problem at
high power during S&P.

Everything else worked.

Antennas -
Adding wire to the long doublet allowed me to get on 160m.  That was good. 
But, I am sure the antenna pattern on 40m suffered.  I was not as impressive on
that band as I had been prior to adding the wire.  I will have to model what is
happening.

Winkey -
Only used the Winkey and N1MM+ function keys when running.  Did the rest with
my Logikey keyer and paddle by hand.  By day 2 "5NN" was coming out
as an odd string of dots and dashes with no rhythm.  Rarely, when running, the
Winkey would skip letters.  Too inconsistent to investigate.

Runs -
Tried to start a run on 15m, but couldn't get 10 QSOs to make it count.  Did
have a little success on 20m:
2016-11-27 1604 - 1655Z,   14105 kHz, 62 Qs, 72.9/hr K1ESE 
2016-11-27 1812 - 1823Z,   14059 kHz, 14 Qs, 76.9/hr K1ESE 

If you run in this contest you get a fair number of zero point QSOs.  US
stations in Zone 5 call thinking they are giving you some points when actually
just cluttering up the log.

Max Rates -
2016-11-26 1158Z - 3.0 per minute  (1 minute(s)), 180 per hour 
2016-11-26 1216Z - 1.9 per minute  (10 minute(s)), 114 per hour  
2016-11-26 1256Z - 1.5 per minute  (60 minute(s)), 89 per hour
20 meters was hot in the mornings.  I should have started operating earlier
Saturday morning.  

Low Hanging Fruit -
I did well on 80m and 160m Friday night, but Saturday night was a bust.  Once
the low hanging fruit was gone those bands were next to impossible with my
antennas.  The limit is not BIC, it's not having a vertically polarized antenna
and a separate receiving antenna.  If I want to be serious on those bands, that
needs to be addressed.

Noteable QSOs -
Managed  one JA on 20 meters.  Worked VKs on 40 meters both at 7am and at 3pm. 
Got ZD8W on five bands.

Rates -
I had set a goal rate of 40/hour for the entire contest.

Friday night I did 5 hours at 43/hour and was pleased.  80m was good and I
picked up a few on 160m.

Saturday morning was great on 20m and then on 15m, but had a few family
interruptions.  They left about noon.  Things slowed about 3pm.  By 9pm they
ground to a halt.  The rate got so slow that I gave up three hours earlier than
planned.  Saturday's rate was 41/hour, good morning, slow afternoon and
evening.

Sunday morning started slowly since I was up earlier and 20m was just waking
up.  It picked up nicely by 8am and I had about 5 hours of good activity. 
Sunday afternoon was like slogging through knee deep mud.  Hourly rates were in
the 20 to 30 per hour range.  Once I had met my QSO goal of 1200, I lost
motivation and quit at 1300 QSOs which was 5:30pm.  Sunday's rate was 39 per
hour.

I met my goals.  I know what I need to do better.  Can't ask for more than
that. 

73 de K1ESE John


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