[3830] CQ160 CW K1LT Single Op Assisted HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2023

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

Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 28.5
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1214  State/Prov = 58  Countries = 49  Total Score = 450,470

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

My new and improved beam steering project stalled for various reasons,
mostly because I am distracted by other projects.  However, the N/S
2x2 broadside end-fire array that I built as a test antenna definitely
works.  Therefore I moved that array from the test station to the main
station along side the NE/SW 4x2 array and the NW/SE 3x2 array.  I had
to hack the software to support 3 instances of the receiving and beam
steering software which took a couple of weekends of scattered effort.
But the effort paid off.

Back in December I ordered a K4D because shiny and also to annoy my
friend Bill, N8LT, who won't buy a radio until he can buy one to be
shipped from stock.  Now he can buy mine and I'll wait 5 weeks for
another.  Murphy thought he would have fun by making the delivery date
Friday of the contest.  However UPS showed up early Friday afternoon
while I was "indisposed" so I missed the delivery.  No matter, they
will return the next delivery day, presumably Monday.  Better not to
have distractions.

Meanwhile I had to track down a malfunctioning short vertical which
turned out to be just intermittent relay contacts which are easily
cured by cycling the relay a few times.  But I couldn't figure that
out before making several trips to the field with instruments.

Also I had to repair my audio routing to cure some distortion that has
crept into the audio over the past few months.  However I somehow
broke the FM stereo transmitter that I use with my wireless
headphones.  So I repurposed some PC speakers as a headphone amplifier
and used my cheap head-crushers.  At least it worked.

The contest started with weird conditions: everyone seemed weak and
the Eu Beverage was outperforming the phased array for distant
signals.  The first Eu was EA5C at 2247Z and he was not strong.  Some
years conditions at the start cause immediate trans-oceanic frequency
battles, but not this year.  Europe continued to trickle in weakly all
evening and I had to use the Eu Beverage to hear most of them.
Nevertheless the 10-point QSO rate was better than last year.

Worked PY5XH at 2323Z which proved the N/S phased array could be
useful.  Also I no longer had to hunt for the correct receive antenna
to hear stations in southern states such as TN, AL, and GA.  Yay for
efficiency.

Around midnight the power-line arcing noise began to sputter, even
though the temperature was well above freezing.  Fortunately the noise
was intermittent although very annoying.

By midnight the difference between the Beverage and the phased-array
seemed to disappear.

Europe faded before 0600Z although I found a very feint MW5B at 0705Z
and a weak OT1A at 0721Z.  At 0800Z I moved to the recliner to keep
CQ-machine well fed and log the occasional QSO.  I made 59 QSOs
between 3am and 6am.  I might have dozed-off twice.  Then I made
another 58 QSOs between 6am and 8am.  No morning DX.  Then sleep!

After 4 hours of nap, I checked the UPS delivery schedule for the K4D.
Saturday delivery!  That never happens.  Now I have to listen for a
knock on the door instead of using headphones.  What if the delivery
doesn't happen until night?  If I miss the delivery, will they make me
drive 40 miles to get my radio?  Worry, worry.  But UPS delivered
about 4pm so I was relieved.

The second evening was extremely slow and frustrating.  The sputtering
noise ceased sputtering and went nearly full on for the entire
evening.  Steering the phased array to 35 degrees put a null over the
noise which made copying the stronger European signals possible, but
the very weakest signals were masked.  At least I could unbox the new
radio while waiting for the CQ machine to make QSOs happen.

Around 10pm the band opened nicely and there were Eu stations almost
everywhere.  I was search and pounce mode for quite a while before I
realized how open the band had become and switched to running.

Around 0730Z I ran out of stations to work although the band seemed to
still be open.  Last Eu was GM5X at 0756Z.  Shortly after that the
rate crashed so I went for a 2 hour nap.

Back at the radio at 1100Z for more slow times but no VK, ZL, or JA.
Quit Sunday morning around 1300Z.

Came back for the last 90 minutes for 13 more QSOs.  Normally the last
90 minutes is good for the usual end-of-the-contest 20 Qs per hour,
but not this year.

DX worked: 5B, 9A (4), CM, CT (2), CT3 (2), DL (42), E7, EA (2), EI, F
(3), G (21), GD, GJ, GM (4), GW (2), HA (3), HB (3), HB0, HI (2), I
(7), IG9, IS, KH6 (3), KP2 (2), KP4 (2), LA (4), LX (2), LY (2), OE
(3), OH (2), OK (12), OM (9), ON (4), OZ (3), P4, PA (9), PJ2, PJ4,
PY, S5 (12), SM (4), SP (10), UA (2), UA2, UR, V3, XE (2), YL (2), and
YU (3) for a total of 49 entities.  945 2-point QSOs, 74 5-point QSOs
(64 VEs), and 195 10-point QSOs.

Running yearly comparison:

 __ Year  QSOs  States  DX  Hour  Raw score  Ops Asstd  10p  Pts/QSO
 __ 2023  1214 __ 58 __ 49 _ 29 __ 450,470 __ 1 __ y __ 195 __ 3.47
 __ 2022  1209 __ 58 __ 53 _ 25 __ 437,118 __ 1 __ y __ 154 __ 3.26
 __ 2021  1466 __ 60 __ 56 _ 30 __ 594,384 __ 1 __ y __ 235 __ 3.50
 __ 2020  1392 __ 58 __ 82 _ 30 __ 826,700 __ 1 __ y __ 359 __ 4.24
 __ 2019  1408 __ 58 __ 62 _ 30 __ 588,720 __ 1 __ n __ 223 __ 3.48
 __ 2018  1275 __ 60 __ 62 _ 30 __ 498,004 __ 1 __ n __ 157 __ 3.20
 __ 2017  1308 __ 59 __ 52 _ 29 __ 460,095 __ 1 __ n __ 162 __ 3.17
 __ 2016  1210 __ 58 __ 54 _ 28 __ 456,848 __ 1 __ n __ 172 __ 3.37
 __ 2015  1274 __ 59 __ 42 _ 30 __ 374,609 __ 1 __ n _________ 2.91
 __ 2014  1199 __ 58 __ 48 _ 30 __ 367,820 __ 1 __ n _________ 2.89
 __ 2013  1329 __ 58 __ 58 _ 32 __ 536,140 __ 2 __ y _________ 3.48
 __ 2012  1297 __ 59 __ 47 _ 30 __ 396,016 __ 1 __ n _________ 2.88
 __ 2011  1471 __ 59 __ 67 _ 30 __ 670,320 __ 1 __ n _________ 3.62
 __ 2010  1559 __ 58 __ 75 _ 39 __ 776,587 __ 2 __ y _________ 3.75
 __ 2009  1416 __ 59 __ 71 _ 30 __ 757,510 __ 1 __ n _________ 4.12
 __ 2008  1350 __ 58 __ 64 _ 38 __ 553,758 __ 2 __ y _________ 3.36
 __ 2007  1063 __ 58 __ 68 _ 32 __ 422,100 __ 1 __ n _________ 3.15
 __ 2006 _ 764 __ 58 __ 47 _ 26 __ 260,505 __ 1 __ n _________ 3.25

My statistics suggest that this year was not particularly special,
maybe just a slight improvement over last year.  But the overall
season seems to be down, so this weekend seems better by comparison.
Looking forward to 2033.

Equipment: K3S/100, P3, K3/100, P3, Alpha 8410, 2x3 BS-EF phased
array, 2x4 BS-EF phased array, 2x2 BS-EF phased array, 60-foot "Tee"
over about 75 radials, weird signal combiner to make full-duplex
possible.  Several Beverages of which only 3 were used.


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