[3830] CQWW CW K1LT SO(A)AB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2019

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

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 34

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  200    21       82
   80:  245    27       94
   40:  211    30      108
   20:  247    33      132
   15:   89    22       71
   10:   25    11       24
------------------------------
Total: 1017   144      511  Total Score = 1,808,455

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Last fall I tried several times to slide my Cushcraft X7 tribander up
the mast on the 100-foot tower to make room to insert another antenna
such as a future 40-meter beam or my 40-meter dipole element.  The
mast is 22 feet of chrome-moly and weighs about 100 pounds.  There is
10 feet of unused mast above the tribander which is just above the top
of the tower.

The plan was to raise the mast out of the rotor, remove the rotor,
loosen the tribander mast clamp, drop the mast about 8 feet, tighten
the tribander mast clamp, and then raise the mast and reinstall the
rotor.  The first time, the pair of U-bolts wrapped around the
come-along hook and the mast slipped.  The second time I seem to
recall that I was missing some important part or tool but that the
improved clamping worked.  The third time the come-along bound up
after 6 inches of lowering.  After that, I ran out of warm days.
So, rotatable 40-meter antenna this year.

10 days ago, I tried to operate on 160 to chase the African
DXpeditions but I found the SWR was high.  The next day I walked out
back expecting a connector problem but found my 65-foot vertical was
horizontal.

My vertical is made of 48 feet of aluminum tower with 15 feet of heavy
aluminum tubing as a stinger.  The tower is mounted about 18 inches
above the ground on 4x4 wooden posts.  The third post is actually 3
2x4s bolted together so that the third tower leg can slide between the
2x4s while the tower is tilted.  Nominally, the whole structure is
self supporting.  Nevertheless, there are 4 guys made of 1/4 inch
Dacron rope from which the 80-meter 'cage' elements hang.  Top loading
consists of #10 wire and more Dacron rope to trees about 200 feet each
side of the vertical.

One of the Dacron guy ropes broken and the nominally self-supporting
aluminum tower tilted over hauling the third post out of the ground.
At some point the 2x4s on that post shattered and let the antenna
fell.  The top hat wires held which bent the stinger at the joint
between its 2 constituent pieces.  The tower itself was not damaged.
The PVC box that houses the impedance matching transformer was
severely mangled during the fall.

Thus instead of operating a lot during SSB Sweepstakes I spent much
time refurbishing my 160 meter vertical.  The stinger is now only 10
feet long.  I replaced 2 of the guy ropes because I had insufficient
rope on hand and the other 2 guys looked OK, except for the lichens.
I pulled the antenna back vertical and built a new matching box.
Since the vertical is 5 feet shorter, I had to lengthen the top hat
wires about 7 feet each to compensate.  There is no compensation for
that 'my antenna is less than it was before' feeling.

Because my antenna ambitions were somewhat thwarted, I entered the
contest with less enthusiasm than normal.  At the start I was
contemplating just operating 160 meter single band.  Thus my first
contacts were on 160.  Conditions seemed very, very good - the band
was full of signals right at the start.  So I decided that I would
indeed go single band, assisted, lazy mode (no CQing).  After 4 hours
and 42 multipliers, I ran out of waterfall traces to click, so I went
to 80 meters for a couple of hours, dashing back to 160 whenever
yellow calls appeared on the band map.  At 0600z I added 40 meters to
the mix.  So now my single band effort was a low band effort.

At 0830z I quit so I could get 3 hours of sleep and still have time
for sunrise.  Amazingly, I woke up on my own just 5 minutes before the
alarm.  Between 1130z and 1210z I worked a few more contacts and
multipliers on all 3 low bands and even got a K1? from JA3YBK on 160.
Then I went back to bed.

At 1520z I arose again.  Long story short, my efforts changed to 'any
multiplier, any band'.  I was thinking that more than 100 mults on 40
would be new, not realizing that I did that last year.  Also 100 mults
on 80 seemed doable.

3B8M must like me.  Each time I called him on 80, 40, 20 and 15, he
came right back with my call intact.  I worked them a couple nights
before the contest on 160, but I never heard them on 160 during the
contest.

I worked RM9A on 160 at 2355z.  I think that is the first time I have
worked zone 17 on 160 during a contest.  Either losing 5 feet from my
vertical helped, or conditions from Ohio were pretty good.

Saturday night I did some CQing on 160.  I worked a small flurry of
various Europeans intermixed with the usual Ks and VEs.  A very
difficult to hear station called me at 3 different times.  Each time I
could pick out 'LY' and '4Z' and 'ZZ' and I would guess LY4ZZ.  But
each time I came to that conclusion, the mystery station seemed to try
to correct me.  On the last attempt, he maybe seemed happier with
LY4BZ although 'B' doesn't take as many dit times as 'Z'.  Hopefully I
don't earn a not-in-log penalty.  If the mystery station reads this,
send me an email!  I promise I won't fudge my log.

I stayed up until 0630z the second night.  I did not set an alarm but
I did wake up around 1130z.  I checked for new spots on 160 but I
didn't see any at that time.  Also the waterfall was nearly empty.  I
went back to bed and slept until 1400z.

Sunday morning I did some more CQing on 20 when there weren't any new
multipliers to chase but whenever a couple of CQs went unanswered and
there were no new mults to chase, I did some some other chore.

At 1936z I worked HB0A on 40 which I think is the earliest I have ever
worked Europe on 40 meters.  At 2154 I worked JH8YOH on 40 which I
think is the first time I've worked Japan long path on any band.

Sunday evening I had a delightful time CQing first on 40 and then
later on 80.  Rather than the annoying cluster pileups that happen on
20 and 15, I had a steady stream of callers which included several new
multipliers and the surprise multiplier PJ5/SP6EQZ.  He was a surprise
because I seemed to be exclusively on FT8 during the weekend.

Sometimes the goal is to make the highest score possible.  Other times
the goal is to make as many multipliers as possible, which is less
strenuous but demonstrates my station's abilities.  Thus this table to
track multipliers (no zones) by band versus score by year:

        160       80       40       20       15       10
Year  QSO  DX  QSO  DX  QSO  DX  QSO  DX  QSO  DX  QSO  DX  score
2019  200  82  245  94  211 108  247 132   89  71   25  11  1808455 A
2018  168  74  198  84  352 107  506 110  263  85    0   0  2442872 A
2017   82  41  274  92  294 104  739 121  310  95   26  19  2882288 A
2016   71  35  121  49  260  79  619 104  360  88   39   9  1949796
2015   87  33  214  72  461  92  518 106  659 102  226  74  3883008
2014   43  31  162  63  461  81  726  96  736  94  719 106  5059287
2013   53  33  146  65  350 102  395  87  932 104  619 109  4750020
2012  112  49  199  71  276  90  311  91  631  94  329  87  3355242
2011  115  49  304  69  230  76  274  79  520  92  592 102  3484089

Years 2011-2016 I operated single-op, all bands unassisted.  Single-op
single band 160 years:

2010  357  87                     88  27   26  22   47  31    96193 A
2009  216  64                                                 41002
2008  211  72                                                 45630
2007  201  77                                                 47094 A

DX worked: 3B8, 3V, 4L, 4O, 4X, 5B, 5H, 5N, 5T, 5U, 5W, 6W, 8P, 8R,
9A, 9G, 9H, 9K, 9Y, A4, A7, C5, C6, CE, CM, CN, CT, CT3, CU, CX, D4,
DL, E7, EA, EA6, EA8, EI, EL, ER, ES, EU, F, FG, FM, FO, FR, FS, FY,
G, GD, GI, GJ, GM, GU, GW, H40, HA, HB, HB0, HC, HH, HI, HK, HP, HR,
HZ, I, IG9, IS, IT9, J3, J6, JA, K, KH2, KH6, KL, KP2, KP4, LA, LU,
LX, LY, LZ, OA, OE, OH, OH0, OK, OM, ON, OX, OY, OZ, P4, PA, PJ2, PJ4,
PJ5, PJ7, PY, PY0F, PZ, S0, S5, SM, SP, SV, SV9, TA, TF, TG, TI, TK,
TR, UA, UA2, UA9, UN, UR, V2, V3, V4, V5, V6, VE, VK, VK9C, VP2M,
VP2V, VP5, VP9, XE, YL, YN, YO, YU, YV, Z3, Z6, ZD7, ZF, ZL, and ZS
for a total of 144 entities.

Equipment: K3S/100, P3, Alpha 8410; bands: X7 at 101.5 feet and X7 at
61 feet; low bands: full sized 40 vertical over 32 radials, full sized
80 vertical over 60 radials, 60-foot 160 'tee' over 75 radials.
Beverages for low band receiving.  Arrays of short verticals for 160
receiving including homebrew receivers and software for beam steering.
Writelog 12.


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