[3830] WAE CW K1LT Single Op HP

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                    WAE DX Contest, CW

Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 18.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:   84    10    21
   40:  137   120    34
   20:  363   470    42
   15:   79     0    22
   10:    0     0     0
-------------------------
Total:  663   620   119  Total Score = 402,862

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Score fudged per sob tale below.

I entered the Worked All European Grids contest with the expectation
of making lots of contacts in lots of locations.  However, there
didn't seem to be as many locations available as in previous years.

I started out trying to run stations and decline the requests for
QTCs.  After a while I began to feel like a party-pooper, so I sent a
few QTCs.  By the afternoon of the second day, I had accumulated
enough QSOs to consider maximizing my score.  So I started sending
QTCs whenever asked and even sought out fast, loud stations to inquire
if they would like some QTCs.

I use Writelog version 11.  Every once in a while, I spend the money
to buy a new version that does the same stuff as the version I already
have.  One must love proprietary software.  Maybe this tome would be
shorter if I bought Writelog 12 (or switched to something else).

I was sending QTCs to a station when it became apparent that he could
not keep up with 30 wpm.  Since Writelog version 11 provides no
apparent mechanism to change sending speed while using the QTC dialog,
I faked it by using the keyboard sending mechanism and hand typed a
few of the records.  When typed by hand, then Writelog doesn't mark
the item in the QTC record as 'sent', and after its too late, the QTC
record in the log is too short.

Naively assuming that all of the data the program needs to maintain
its state is present in the log file and displayed via the GUI, I
edited the 'Tx-QTC' field to change '62/8' to '62/10'.  Upon hitting
enter to save the change, Writelog version 11 deleted the 'Tx-QTC'
field completely.  The individual QSOs in the record in the 'QTC-n'
fields far to the right of the regular QSO data were still present,
but the 'next QTC number' was broken.  While testing how Writelog
works, I succeeded in deleting the QTC data from the previous QTC QSO,
so I had 2 broken QSOs, both in the last 2 positions in the file.  So,
I copied the file, deleted the 2 broken QSO records (with QTCs) and
attempted to type them in again.  However, Writelog somehow remembers
the last QSO transmitted for a QTC so it won't repeat them in the QTC
dialog.  That trick didn't work.

So I said, screw it - I'll just operate the last hour and not send any
QTCs, since that was the original plan.  But I couldn't find any new
stations to work, and I was sufficiently disgusted with events that I
stated typing this tome instead of operating.

I hate imperfect software, especially if I have to pay for it.  My job
is to write imperfect software, so other people should write perfect
software.  I write plenty of imperfect software myself, no need for
anyone else to do that.  This paragraph is supposed to be humorous.

It was nice that 15 opened to Europe the second day.  15 was open
briefly the first day, but not many stations discovered the opening.
After a while I ran out of stations to work on 15, even though the
band was still open.

I got "buzzed off" by a passing thunderstorm.  Over a few seconds,
the
noise level on 20 and 40 rose about 40 db over the normal background
level.  20 I could understand by arcing or corona off the tribanders,
but 40 is either Beverages or a ground mounted vertical near trees.  I
would expect corona there.  So I started to go outside to see if I
could hear the corona, but it was just beginning to rain.  Where does
this noise come from?  Can I reduce it?  It seems to be much worse
since I put up the 100-foot tower.

The Alpha 8410 seems to have another new problem.  Apparently, the FCC
mandated input swamping resistor must be going south.  The amplifier
requires more drive to get to full output, and the radio shows a 1.5:1
SWR and the amp tuning is slightly off.  Also, the input power sensor
not longer registers any drive power which defeats the overdrive
protection.

Slightly surprising multiplier: TA1NAI for European Turkey to make up
for the lack of SV and related entities.  No 9H, CU, IS, or TK which
one would assume to be sort of common.

Equipment: K3, P3, Alpha 8410, 2 tribanders, verticals on 80 and 40


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