K0EJ ARRL 160

[SPECK at uansv3.Vanderbilt.Edu]

813 Qs  70 sections (missed ME, VE4, VE5, VE8/VY1, PAC, AK, VI)
        11 DX (TI, VP2V, VP5, F, PA, DL, YV, XE, G, S5, ON)

137,594
TS-930 -> Amp (500W)-> inverted L (62' up) near Nashville, TN

debated on HP or LP but when XYL told me (reminded me) of social obligation 
Saturday, decided to fire up that tube-thing and generate some rate. Started 
about 2225Z and stayed with it until 0830Z. First 2 hours were right at 
100 Qs/hr with exponential decay afterwards. Had 666 Qs at 0830Z. Got up and 
played again from 1030Z until 1300Z looking for PAC and JA but nothing heard. 
Got on for short time Saturday night ( to the best of my recollection!) 0615Z 
to 0800Z and finished with an hour from 1200Z to 1300Z. Good condx here, EU 
seemed better Friday night but west coast better Saturday night. It was fun!!  
Some EU even called ME!!!

73,  Mark K0EJ

>From bhorn at netcom.com (Bruce Horn)  Tue Dec  5 15:35:59 1995
From: bhorn at netcom.com (Bruce Horn) (Bruce Horn)
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 07:35:59 -0800
Subject: SI Contesting Article
Message-ID: <199512051535.HAA10622 at netcom20.netcom.com>


Hi All,

Although the thread regarding the Sports Illustrated article on contesting
has tapered off, I thought others might be interested in the results of my
request asking permission to reprint the article in a club newsletter. It
took several weeks to receive a reply, but here is its full text:


"Thank you for your letter dated November 12, 1995 requesting permission
to reprint the article, "THE BATTLE OF THE HAMS," by Bill Leonard (SPORTS
ILLUSTRATED's June 30, 1958 issue).

"SPORTS ILLUSTRATED no longer retains the rights to Mr. Leonard's article.
I might suggest you try to contact him through CBS-TV.

"Additionally, you might like to consider reprinting up to 350 words
verbatim from Bill Leonard's article for your newsletter. This would be
considered "Fair Use." Fair Use is reprinting material within the public
domain providing said material is quoted exactly as written and given full
credit. I suggest you seek your legal counsel in this regard.

"Should you chose "Fair Use," the SPORTS ILLUSTRATED credit line is as
follows:
          The following excerpts are reprinted from SPORTS
          ILLUSTRATED's June 30, 1958 issue. Copyright (c)
          1958, Time Inc. "THE BATTLE OF THE HAMS" by Bill
          Leonard. All rights reserved.

"Thank you for writing to SPORTS ILLUSTRATED.

                                     Sincerely,

                                     Linda R. Verigan
                                     Director/SI Editorial
                                       Rights and Permissions
-----------


I guess this explains why someone indicated that the ARRL had investigated
the possibility of reprinting the article in the past and had been told
they could only reprint a small portion of the article (Fair Use). Since
Bill Leonard recently passed away, I assume that permission to reprint
in its entirety should be sought from his estate. Although I would think
they would be willing to do so, I'm not prepared to pursue this matter
further.

73 de Bruce, WA7BNM   (bhorn at netcom.com)

>From Douglas S. Zwiebel" <0006489207 at mcimail.com  Tue Dec  5 15:43:00 1995
From: Douglas S. Zwiebel" <0006489207 at mcimail.com (Douglas S. Zwiebel)
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 95 10:43 EST
Subject: CONTEST topics: poetic justice
Message-ID: <74951205154347/0006489207PK5EM at MCIMAIL.COM>

[with apologies to Janis Joplin]
 
Oh Lord, won't you buy me, a brand new "MP,"
My friends all have Kenwoods,
Some have two or three,
I've struggled all my life,
With this one oh one zed dee,
Oh Lord, won't you buy me, a brand new "MP."
 
Oh Lord, won't you buy me, some ears like Fred Laun,
He can hear all the weak ones,
Of this I can't be wrong,
He copies all the callers,
Even though they are not strong,
OH Lord, won't you buy me, some ears like Fred Laun.
 
OH Lord, won't you buy me, a house on the Cape,
Conditions there are better,
I know it's no mistake,
I know I could win, if from this HOLE you would me take,
Oh Lord, won't you buy me, a house on the Cape.
 
Oh Lord, won't you help me, copy faster code,
All the boys are sayin',
It's the only mode,
My score on RUFZ is 10k
Guess I'm watchin' too much "node,"
Oh Lord, won't you help me, copy faster code.
 
OH Lord, won't you make them, ID every time,
How can I get the calls right,
What they're doin' is a crime.
And when I guess you know they say,
I'm just bein' slime,
Oh Lord, won't you make them, ID every time.
 
Oh Lord, can't you stop, all this crap I gotta read,
The reflector is a garbage dump,
It's information that I need.
No whines and no poems,
Oh can't you hear me plead?
Oh Lord, can't you stop, all this crap I gotta read.
 
:-)  de Doug  KR2Q at mcimail.com


>From David C. Patton" <mudcp3 at uxa.ecn.bgu.edu  Tue Dec  5 16:04:22 1995
From: David C. Patton" <mudcp3 at uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (David C. Patton)
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 10:04:22 -0600 (CST)
Subject: HC8N--CQWW CW--notes by an op
Message-ID: <199512051604.KAA03484 at ecom2.ecn.bgu.edu>

What a great time.  Mark, AG9A and I (WX3N) joined Trey in the
Galapagos for a Multi-single in the WW CW.  This was Mark and my
first trip to South America.  Each of us carried a TS930 to the
islands along with many pounds of switching, filtering, coax, and
computer stuff.  Likely no different than any other traveling
multi-op crew.

Trying to save money, Mark and I and my wife rented a car and drove
from Chicago to Miami to catch the flight to HC and then HC8.  The
airlines wouldn't open up any more frequent flyer seats.  SO after
the long drive we were pretty tired.  Then, of course, our flight to
Ecuador was postponed and we spent 7 restless hours waiting for a new
plane to arrive in Miami.  This means more schlepping of the heavy
TS930s around the airport.  Our flight left at 2 AM.

HC1OT met us a t the airport in Quito for a quick car tour of the
area, then back to wait for our delayed flight to HC8!!  After
sitting on the floor of the airport for  a couple hours, we are
finally on our way.

Guido, HC8GR, guided us through the HC8 tax paying booths and hauls
our luggage out to his home and station where we will spend the next
week.  A very nice and comfortable home complete with tin and
fiberglass roofing, roosters and goats running around, and lots of
volcanic rubble to walk across.

There are 4 towers at HC8N.  They range from about 25 feet to 80
feet.  Evident at first glance are 5 el monobanders on 10 and 15 on
one tower, 5 el on 20 on another tower, and 2 el on 40 with an A4 on
top of that, and a 2 el 80M V array below the 40.   the station sits
on the side of a hill with clear, high, unobstructed views to EU, NA,
and JA.  the sea is about a half mile in the distance to the West.

The three of us went to work immediately installing all the equipment
and planning antenna work.  Everthing is pretty smooth.  Three
complete stations are set-up, but we somehow forgot to bring two
keyers and paddles!  Only one keyer to share among three stations.
Two notebook computers and a desk top 486 make up the network.Mark
built a couple of keying lines for the computer and keyer.  We
installed a 160 inv vee on the 20 meter tower, and reconnected a
ground for the slanted vertical for 160.  The inv vee never does come
close to the vertical in the contest.

We also had to change the feedline lengths for the 80M 2 el array to
bring its resonance into the CW band.  What a great antenna.

We make good use of our technical advisor, Dave Leeson W6QHS over the
radio.  Many problems with the computer network and the power system
are worked out by Dave from California.  This man is a true genius.
It was comforting to hear his calm voice instruct us on various
matters.

The island's power station shuts down each night at 11 PM and does
not get turned on until about 7:30 the next morning.  This means we
need a generator for the night shift.  Unfortunately Guido's 8KW
diesel has bit the big one, and is in Guayaquil to be repaired.  BY
FAR our biggest concern and problem involved the AC supply.  Guido
was able to rent a 5KW honda for the weekend, but that just wasn't
enough.  One station was completely shut down.  The other two were
drastically reduced in capability.  The amps were switched to low
voltage and would put out about 200-300 watts.  Sometimes we would
switch the Alpha 78 up to high voltage and get 600W to get throgh a
pile-up or control the pile-up better.  But the other station really
suffered.  We hope our signal didn't sound TOO bad as the rigs gasped
for power!!  We shut off all the rotor controls, and even turned off
the lights and lit a candle to operate by.

Then murphy jumped-in.  Saturday morning the power company decided to
maintenance on some of the lines near the house.  No commerical power
until about 9 am.  Then about noon the power shut down again.  Back
to the generator.  About 3 hours of lost commerical power.  Then
sporadically throughout the rest of contest the power dropped.  Lots
of runs outside and downstairs to the generator.  

Still, we continued to run, run and run some more.  We CQ'ed
constantly somewhere for about 47.75 hours of the 48.  We had to
rearrange the station several times during the contest in order to
use the Alpha's greater output power.  We managed a couple "seamless"
station changes that moved the running band to another radio across
the room--moving the coax, filters, switching, and keyer in an
instant and not losing more than 20 seconds.

Midday on Sunday all the power fluctuation cost us a blown computer
power supply/battery.  We only wanted to use that computer to run if
necessary so it was shut down to conserve the battery till we needed
it.  Because we had only one key, and no computer to key the rig, we
hooked up a foot switch to send CW on this station.  I made several
contacts as the mult station by squeezing the footswitch in my right
hand to form the characters.

Also we became somewhat adept at using the keyboard function of CT to
send CW.  It is much slower than a paddle, and very confusing in the
heat of a contest.

As a group I don't think any of us likes the new interpretation of
the 10 minute rule--which we followed closely.  Seems really wrong to
spend 15 minutes searching on a band, then find a multiplier and be
stuck there for another 10 minutes.  Instead of passing mults as
easily as in the past, we were forced to make schedules that often
did not work out.  I really want to see the old interpretation of the
ten minute rule reinstated that counts listening time as oeprating
time.

Now for some numbers:  We had 9 200 hours and only one hour that fell
below 100 (maybe about an 85 hour).  I had never even witnessed a 200
hour before.  Trey, combined with the mult station started the
contest with a 237 hour.  It didn't let up much after that.  4300 Qs
at the halfway mark was neat.  

I have never before heard pile-ups such as we had at HC8N.  I never
saw anything close from Zone 24 or 27.  The JA path is unbelievable.
NA is great and EU is pretty good too.  But we could have run JAs on
40 and 80 for hours longer than we did, but being M/S had to leave
for the high band sin the AM.  We worked more JAs than EU on 20,
equal to EU on 80 and slightly less on 40.  We even worked a couple
JAs on 10 but did not hear even a single EU on ten.  we also worked
JA3ONB on 160--something Trey had never done and what may have been
one of the only topband Qs between HC8 and JA ever.

160--  Very good band the first night.  We started running here in
the 3rd hour.  If anyone missed us here it was beacuse they didn't
look early enough.  85 EU on top band!!  Last year Trey only worked
one EU.    Lots and lots of DX that never heard us.  We called EK6GC
(S9++), 4X4NJ, C4A, LZ9A, and many more with no luck.   432-14-47
total.

80--  725-25-79.  The 2 el vee beam is a cannon to the north.
Sometimes S units better than the dipole.  But the dipole much better
to JA.  Again called several stations that couldn't hear us.  Sunrise
in Zone 21 was productive when we logged A92Q, A71CW, 7Z5OO, and a
couple others I don't remember within seconds of each other.

40-- 1806-36-115.  Productive and active band.  The 2 el works well.
Could run JA until noon if we were M/M.

20-- 2192-37-120.  Lotsa Ws.  But good stuff calls-in so we stay
there for the last 4 hours of the contest and distribute the mults to
the other bands.  Best pass of the contest came when 4S7TWG calls-in
and goes to 40 where he is S9.  Never heard Zone 23 or 40.  Where is
Zone 29???  As everybody else experienced, nobody in Zone 12
interested in moving to the other bands.

15--  1891-29-104.  CQ NA.  Ws/VEs the best around.  Great running
fun.  EU wide open for two hours on Saturday, but closed early.
Sunday was poor.  

10--  432-19-42.  Interesting that the fringe bands (10 and 160) have
identical Qs and mults.  Lots of tuning around a seemingly dead band.
 A few Es on saturday allowed decent runs into the states.  But
mostly weak, scatter Qs.  We were available for anyone that could
radiate.  Lots of Pacific stations, and a couple JAs.  No EU.  Ouch.
Good passes to the band included KL7WP and lotsa CA.  AH0T calling in
was cool.

More big signal QSNs later, but the king of 160 is WB9Z followed
closely by N6DX.  Biggest signals out of EU included SP7GIQ on 40 I
think, and OH0MEP on 160--wow.

This was the most amazing contest of my career.  Trey is a great
operator and we are glad to have been a part of this event.  It was
fun to think of all the guys who have been through the HC8 stations
and all the work that guys like N6KT and Trey and W6QHS have done
there.  Plus going back to the early operations at El Junco there
have been lots of guys including N6AA, W6NV, WS7I and others.  

Now I am spoiled.  World record type scores are something I have only
dreamt about.  Glad to have the excellent competition from the
4M5Xers.  Keeps you going when things get tough.

73, de Dave WX3N, Trey WN4KKN, and Mark AG9A

mudcp3 at uxa.ecn.bgu.edu