KF9PL WPX CW '95

[Sean E. Kutzko]

Hiya-

KF9PL--WPX CW 1995

Single Operator; Low Power; Unassisted; 20m single band
427 QSO's
318 Prefixes
205,746 points
17.3 hours of operation (but it sure seemed shorter)

Rig: Icom 726, 204-BA @ 90'

I was down at NM9H's to help put up more antennas. Thanks to the storms 
in the Midwest United States, Friday was the only decent day. Saturday 
was rained out, and I had to work on Sunday. So, I operated the contest 
on a part-time basis.

Worst I've EVER heard the bands.

A far cry from 6Y7M. Was that already a YEAR ago?

Well, at least I got in a round of golf Thursday afternoon. If I could 
reverse my CW contest scores with my golf score, I'd be a champion in both.

Thanks for the QSO's!

Sean

--
Sean Kutzko                                          Amateur Radio: KF9PL
Urbana, IL                                           DXCC:302 worked/296 cfmd
		    "Maybe you'll find your way someday
		But while you're at it, you'll have some fun."  -Little Feat

>From De Syam <syam at Glue.umd.edu>  Mon May 29 08:06:29 1995
From: De Syam <syam at Glue.umd.edu> (De Syam)
Date: Mon, 29 May 1995 03:06:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: K3ZO in WPX CW: Results and Comments
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950529021526.4758A-100000 at espresso.eng.umd.edu>

Well the battle is over and the results are in.  Here are mine:

1926 QSO's, 678 prefixes, 4,282,248 points.

My score was up 300K over last year's results, so conditions were 
obviously better, but the difference between the top USA score and mine 
this year is 1.5 Meg as opposed to 300K last year, so others obviously 
responded to the improved conditions better than I did.  KF3P increased 
his margin over me compared to last year and KT3Y passed me by this year.
Back to the drawing boards!

Here are my comments band-by-band:

160:  I didn't even listen.  With 80 as full of QRN as it was, I figured 
160 was a lost cause.

80:  Lots of QRN, but there were very good signal levels from Europe and 
LU2BRG was booming in when I got the beam around on him.  My QSO total 
was 56 on this band, practically all Europe and practically all S&P.  I 
didn't want to spend much time here because 40 was so good.

40:  40 played and played and played.  I had 814 QSO's here, and they 
just kept coming.  I could even run JA's between 1000-1030Z with the beam 
on VK.  

One annoyance was the hash all over the band generated by Radio Vatican's 
transmitter on 7305 KHz.  The hash appeared at 0027Z and was there with 
varying degrees of severity until 0400Z.  I can take no credit for 
discovering the source of the problem - K3DI and WF3J did that one 
evening last month while a bunch of us were analyzing the problem on the 
local packetcluster.  But the times noted agree perfectly with the 
published schedule of Radio Vatican in the WRTH-95, and I have since 
confirmed the presence of the hash and the fact that it is modulated with 
the audio from the Radio Vatican signal when listening to it on my Sony 
2010 in the wide-band AM mode.   Since Paolo, I2UIY, was headed for 
HV4NAC I asked him before the contest whether he knew anyone at the 
station but he said he did not.  (Fortunately for Paolo's sake the 
transmitter in question is not co-located with HV4NAC!).  I do not know 
if the Chief Engineer (listed in the WRTH as Pier Vincenzo Giudici with 
FAX number (+39) 6-6988-3237) is aware of the problem, but if anybody 
reading this has any influence with the Vatican, maybe it would be a good 
idea to let them know about it.  A similar hash was present on 20 meters 
around 2000Z, perhaps a harmonic of the same problem showing up before 
the 40 meter band was open to Europe for us.

For John, ON4UN, at OT5T:  Apparently I settled on a run frequency next 
to you both Sunday morning and Sunday evening.  It was not intentional! 
With the modified R4C with all the Sherwood filters, I can now get very 
close to a loud signal without being bothered.  Your solution the second 
time was the correct one, to move to the high side of me, and let me deal 
with having you on the high side of my passband.  I can live with you 500 
Hz. away with the R4C no matter how strong you are.  In both instances, I 
simply looked for a clear spot to start running and had no idea who I was 
close to.  Sorry if I gave you a hard time!   Some of the new synthesized 
rigs are not all that good at handling a loud signal next door compared 
to this gem of an R4C that KO7V and N6CZG modified for me.

20:  I had 971 QSO's on this band but it was frustrating at times.  It 
seemed that neither the high beam nor the low beam were drawing the 
desired run rate, especially around the 1400-1700Z period.  I had 
moderate line noise the first day but I learned a lot about how to use 
the SEM Q.R.M. Eliminator which is now hard-wired to the R4C.  I expect 
to have far fewer problems with line noise in the future.  Sadly, I gave 
up the UA9/UN7 evening runs in order to take advantage of the double 
points on 40 meters.

15:  This band showed signs of life rather unexpected given the flux 
numbers.  I had 84 QSO's here, almost all three-pointers about evenly 
divided between Europe and South America.  I probably spent too much time 
here S&P'ing weak Europeans, but it was fun!  The best was working UN2L 
over Africa on scatter.  He disappeared after returning to me, only to 
reappear a minute later.  Suppose he tried the short path before 
realizing that scatter was all that we had!

10: Even this band was good for 6 QSO's!  WJ2O/VP9 booming in and a 
handful of weak PY's and LU's.  I heard HG73DX on scatter but the best I 
could get out of him was "K3?"

All in all, another fun time!  Bring on the ARRL VHF and the IARU 
Radiosport!

Rig: TS-830-S driving Titan amp, modified R4C auxiliary receiver.

Antennas:
   80: 3-EL KLM Yagi at 42 meters
   40: 3-EL Telrex Yagi (15m boom) at 27 meters
   20: 6-EL Telrex Yagi at 45 meters
   20, 15, 10: 4-EL Modified W6PU dual-driven Quad (11m boom) at 24 
meters.

                                      Very 73,

                                     Fred Laun, K3ZO    

>From Steve Merchant <merchant at crl.com>  Mon May 29 08:15:45 1995
From: Steve Merchant <merchant at crl.com> (Steve Merchant)
Date: Mon, 29 May 1995 00:15:45 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: AG6D WPX M/S  Line Score
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950529001005.5768A-100000 at crl.crl.com>


1595 Q    626 P     2,731,238


AG6D, WM2C, N4TQO, K2MM


There were no Fredericks catalogs handy, but we were able to re-read the 
Beetle Valley Radio Club articles of incorporation several times on Sunday 
morning.

Detailed (nauseating) band and continent stats follow.

73, Steve  N4TQO
merchant at crl.com

>From Michael Owen <MOWE at SLUMUS.STLAWU.EDU>  Mon May 29 13:36:41 1995
From: Michael Owen <MOWE at SLUMUS.STLAWU.EDU> (Michael Owen)
Date: Mon, 29 May 95 08:36:41 EDT
Subject: Parrot summary
Message-ID: <29MAY95.09300588.0022.MUSIC at MUSIC.STLAWU.EDU>

Thanks to all the people who sent comments & suggestions regarding
voice recorders.

Bottom line : the W9XT is favored by most even though it's a plug-
in board.  As for stand-alone boxes, it's homebrew time apparently.

W9IP

Michael R. Owen
MOWE at SLUMUS.StLAWU.edu

>From Robert Penneys <penneys at brahms.udel.edu>  Mon May 29 14:19:31 1995
From: Robert Penneys <penneys at brahms.udel.edu> (Robert Penneys)
Date: Mon, 29 May 1995 09:19:31 -0400
Subject: WN3K WPX results
Message-ID: <199505291319.JAA01624 at brahms.udel.edu>


Single op, low power, no packet........

80    50
40   246
20   577
15    60

Total   939 x 462 = 1,124,970 before fixing mults in log

Tnx to all,  Bob

Bob Penneys, WN3K                    Internet:  penneys at brahms.udel.edu
     Frankford Radio Club    N.E.R.D.S. (club call KB3BIJ for now)
                     Work: Ham Radio Outlet, Delaware