[3830] WPX SSB AB1J SOSB80 TB-Wires LP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2019

Call: AB1J
Operator(s): AB1J
Station: AB1J

Class: SOSB80 LP
Class Overlay: TB-Wires 
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 11:10

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  158
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total:  158  Prefixes = 101  Total Score = 27,169

Club: 

Comments:

Solar stats @ halfway (2019-03-31 0010z)  SSN=0 eSSN=-9 SFI=69 Ap=4 Kp=0

My wife dislikes phone contests. I'm loud all weekend and don't say anything
interesting. But she was in AZ visiting her sister which gave me an opening for
an interesting weekend on 80m (75m?) in the contest. I seldom operate there, so
it's kind of terra incognito.

My end fed 80m antenna is low, inefficient and narrow. I tune it with a manual
Dentron tuner at the window in a corner of my shack. For most 80m CW and RTTY
contests I can set it and forget it, but the contest phone band, 3600-3800 kHz,
is too wide so I tried tuning the Dentron at 3700 kHz and then adding in the
6500's internal tuner to tune it. A tuner tuning a tuner. Unorthodox, but it
worked and allowed me to cover 3600-3800 kHz with minimal retuning although it's
kind of Rube Goldbergy.

At my QTH the 80m phone band is full of hash from my neighbors' demonic
household devices. I have a magnetic loop RX antenna which I've never been able
to use effectively because I can't put it outside for fear of alarming my
neighbors, but for this contest I tried hanging it on an outside wall in the
guest bedroom where it cleared things up somewhat. Its orientation is such that
its nulls are lined up with my row of neighboring houses. The RG-6U snaking
around the upstairs is a minor inconvenience, especially with my wife away. 

After that, plus several receiver adjustments, I had a pretty good listening
environment. I could hear lots of DX but couldn't work much. My reach (RX)
exceeded my grasp (TX).  Mostly I worked W/VEs.

I went unassisted as I didn't expect many spots, relying on the 6500's
panadapter instead to take me halfway there. Speaking of panadapters, here's an
interesting illustration of their of their use in WW II on a site about the
Hallicrafters SX-28:

http://www.radioblvd.com/SX28Notes.html

Scroll down to the discussion of the R-45/ARR-7 search and surveillance receiver
with IF output to oscilloscopes to help find, ID and analyze signals.
Fascinating radio history.

I tried running, which wasn't all that productive, but it helped. Most runs
petered out after a one or two cluster cycles. Frequently I got T-boned by a
stronger station. No one ever asked me if my frequency was busy before
appropriating it. 

Thanks for the QSOs.

73,
Ken, AB1J

Flex 6500  Yaesu MD-100 mic
Outdoor 66' stealth wire, Dentron manual tuner and indoor counterpoise
Pixel receiving loop 
LoTW  eQSL  ClubLog


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