[3830] CQ160 CW W3HKK Single Op Assisted HP

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CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: W3HKK
Operator(s): W3HKK
Station: W3HKK

Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: jOHNSTOWN, OH
Operating Time (hrs): 9.35

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 434  State/Prov = 54  Countries = 37  Total Score = 224,694

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Day 1: Good strong signals all night long from all over the US, esp. the west
coast and mountain regions.  Best ever? AZ-CA-OR-WA  were coming out of the
woodwork with mostly big signals. Decent signals were heard from  southern
S.A.(CX-LU-PY) and the  tropical Pacific (KH6-E51-A35-ZM.)  Id heard nothing so
far this season from that area of the world on 160 until this contest!  Good 
signals from the Caribbean were numerous, but just a couple of weak signals
from southern Europe (EA6-CS2-EA).  However, CN2AA was pounding in and my first
contact of the contest. Nice job by those guys.  

Day 2: Good signals continued from all over the States, but they  became a bit 
hollow and washed out after about 2am. Plus QRN/background noise was a couple of
s units higher. Offsetting that slippage were   a regular & steady diet of 
many zone 14-15  Europeans all night long, some of which were surprisingly
strong, but most were  S5-S6  here in Ohio,  competing with waves of strong
stateside stations.

Operating Strategy: This year I started by looking primarily for DX, and did so
at regular intervals throughout the evening.  As they petered out, Id find a
spot near 1803khz and RUN.  The first night ended with about 350 Q's  

Night 2 saw  much more DX S&P operating, but also many more breaks.  I
heard Europe from  4:30pm EST on, but they didn't hear me or  very many
stateside signals through the EU QRM.  But as the evening wore on, I had
steadily improving results. So I did very little RUNNING on  Night 2. And much
less operating as the evening wore on (Night One took its toll.)  The S/N
wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as the night before. 

While EU was  the best in years on Night 2, SA and the Pacific were  sketchy at
best, other than KH6. 

Highlights:

Great stateside  signals and low noise on Night One.
Very good EU DX all night long (from all over zones 14 and 15) on Night Two.

Total Operating Time: 9.35 hours.  (Age:75)

Station:  IC7600 - TenTec Centurion Amp running 900w.
          ANT:   1/4 wave INV-L with apex recently raised (from 40') to 52'.
                  with 23x67' radials on the ground.
          RX Antenna:  SAL-30 (phased loops)
The SAL-30 does a a nice job of knocking down QRM and thus reducing listening
fatigue, both on DX and  especially on stateside signals.  I feel it makes 
many sigs Q5 copy by cutting down the Omni-directional clutter   received by my
INV-L.  Don't know how many times I  hear a weak one, catch a 6 or 7 in their
call,  then flip the rx pattern and theyre suddenly Q5. Of course, that's  less
fun when youre being called by weak signals from all four directions
sequentially.  But I  rarely go back to the INV-L for RX.  

          N1MM+ Logging software


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