[3830] ARRL FD AB1J 1D LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL Field Day - 2020

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

Class: 1D LP
QTH: Waltham, EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 13:45

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:   80     0      131
   20:    9     0       61
   15:    2     3       18
   10:    4     0       12
    6:                    
    2:                    
  222:                    
  432:                    
  903:                    
  1.2:                    
  2.3:                    
  3.4:                    
  5.7:                    
  10G:                    
  24G:                    
----------------------------
Total:   95     3      222  Total Score = 1,274

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

My score is aggregated with the Waltham ARA.

The ARRL lists FD under contests (they also say elsewhere it's not a contest)
and to a casual listener it would be difficult to distinguish it from a contest.
 In any case, to me if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a
duck, it's a duck.  I'm an evidence-based kind of guy.

My goal was to practice my FT operating skills and see if I can do better in
those contests.  Fewer NILs.  Thinking about it I realize I could possibly have
golden logs if I threw out every QSO that was even slightly questionable, but
then I'd ruin it for everyone else.  They'd have all the NILs.

I've built up a set of operating practices which cover most FT contest
situations.  They are way more complicated than for CW, SSB or RTTY.  That seems
odd, since lots of people seem to think FT operation is all slick and automated.
 Actually, it's more complicated, partly because the automation makes it so
inflexible.

I had mostly FT8 QSOs.  Some FT4.  The 40m and 20m FT8 bands were crowded with
normal plus FD operators.  There was more activity above 2500 Hz than usual and
even a bit above 3 kHz but the lower frequencies were mostly sardined. 
Sometimes I couldn't see individual signals, just a huge mass.  Often WSJT-X
still pulled out individual signals.  Very impressive.

And I also did some CW, one RTTY QSO and a few SSB Qs.

Initially I had problems with WSJT-X crashing.  This happened a number of times.
 While glancing at the reflector messages I saw Bill mention AP decoding, so I
disabled it.  After that I didn't have any more problems, but that doesn't mean
much without further investigation.

I linked WSJT-X to N1MM+ and all logging was done there.  KISS.

Contest or not, it was fun.  Thanks for the QSOs.  I hope that a year from now
we'll be looking back at this time as just history.  But I hope we learned
something, too.  There are more microbes out there, just waiting for a moment of
our carelessness.

73,
Ken, AB1J

Flex 6500
N1MM Logger+  MMTTY  WSJT-X  
20m, 15m & 10m attic dipoles
40m & 20m outdoor 66' stealth wire, Dentron manual tuner and indoor
counterpoise
LoTW  eQSL  ClubLog


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/