[3830] CQWW CW VE3VN SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021

Call: VE3VN
Operator(s): VE3VN
Station: VE3VN

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: 4
Operating Time (hrs): 20.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  172    13       30
   80:  417    19       56
   40:  353    23       61
   20:  706    20       60
   15:  388    18       58
   10:   38    11       18
------------------------------
Total: 2074   104      283  Total Score = 2,052,648

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

Ouch.

I expected a mediocre score since one of the towers is festooned with cables and
ropes for antenna work that interferes with the antennas and makes rotation
difficult to impossible. That's when things went from bad to worse.

The 160 antenna periodically arced and knocked the amp offline. A fault in the
prop pitch controller kept me from putting the full stacks on Europe in the
morning. Later in the day the controller mysteriously returned to life. Faulty
switch? 

Among hundred of meters of control cable to distant towers and antenna system,
relays and various circuitry (all home brew) a fault erupted when too many
relays were energized and took out all the control system. That includes
critical path antenna switches.

Then the worst happened: the operator ran out of steam. I've had a busy and
tense week (a few CCO members know why!) and I was terribly fatigued at the
start of the contest. I held up well for most of the first day of the contest,
and got through most of Saturday with just 2 hours sleep overnight. As the
afternoon worn on I realized that I couldn't go the distance. 

I reluctantly shut down and crawled into bed. I slept 13 hours and as I type
this I'm yawning again. I didn't bother turning on the radios on Sunday so my
results reflect a plan only partially executed.

To get some fresh air I trudged through the snow to look for causes of the major
trouble and found nothing amiss. Probes and test equipment into the control
system hubs in the shack found nothing, even when the everything suddenly died
again for no reason the meters could detect. I opened the power supply and found
a thin pool of brown liquid at the base of an electrolytic capacitor. Well,
isn't that suspicious.

This week I'm back to antenna and tower work that has to be completed before
winter gets really serious. I have one big antenna left to lift. Things can only
get better in 2022. Doing SO2R with the pile ups and weak callers a big signal
brings is challenging. It can only get better because I couldn't possibly do
worse.


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