[SCCC] CQWWSSB 2014 W4EF SOABHP

[Michael Tope]

                  CQWWSSB Summary Sheet

        Start Date : 2014-10-25

     CallSign Used : W4EF
       Operator(s) : W4EF

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
              Band : ALL
             Power : HIGH
              Mode : SSB
  Default Exchange : 3
        Gridsquare : DM04

         Club/Team : Southern California Contest Club
          Software : N1MM Logger V14.6.0

         Band    QSOs    Pts  ZN    Cty
----------------------------------------
          1.8       9      17    7    7
          3.5      16      33    9   11
            7      53     131   18   33
           14      98     265   27   40
           21     166     477   29   69
           28     306     900   26   75
----------------------------------------
        Total     648    1823  116  235


             Score : 639,873

               Rig : FT1000MP MKV + Drake L-7 Amp

          Antennas : 10/15/20 Spiderbeam at 48ft
                     40M Inverted-V at 37ft
                     160/80 Top-loaded Vertical + lotsa radials

           Soapbox : My FT1000MP MKV had been broken (very low RF output 
power) since before the IARU Radiosport contest. I used it in that 
contest to limp along with 400 to 700 watts output. I finally put it on 
the workbench the weekend before the contest and was able to trace the 
problem down to a bad $0.86 surface mount Schottky diode in the RF 
Power/VSWR bridge circuit (the bad diode was fooling the rig into 
thinking it was always looking into a super high VSWR). Unfortunately 
you have to tear the radio apart to get at that diode, so diagnosing and 
fixing the problem was a lot of work. I got the diodes in from Digi-Key 
on Wednesday, but I didn't get around to replacing them until Thursday 
night. Friday afternoon was spent testing the reworked VSWR bridge with 
an external RF power source and then putting humpty-dumpty back together 
again (PITA). I also got a chance to look into the failure on the Alpha 
87A which went dead early in the IARU contest (possibly caused by RF 
overshoot from the screwed up exciter). The fault code turned out to be 
for "PIN diode bias out of range", so I have at least a little hope that 
I didn't kill the tubes. That is as far as I got, however; I am going to 
have to save the Alpha 87A fix for another weekend.

I wasn't feeling so well on Friday so I slept in on Saturday morning and 
then spent the later morning and early afternoon cleaning up the garage 
and getting packed for the remote site. At first I was toying with doing 
a really serious 2nd day only effort, but when it got late Saturday 
night, I decided that I didn't feel like paying the price of sleep 
deprivation. I got started a little late Sunday morning since I didn't 
even bother to set an alarm. Ten meters was already wide open to Europe 
when I sat down in the operating chair (1520 UTC). I worked mostly 
search and pounce during the contest, except for a couple of short runs 
to JA. By the way, I am amazed how BY activity seems to increase each year.

My highest 10 minute rate in the contest was 126 and my best hour was 
85. I even had the rate meter up to 240 for one whole minute (I guess 
you have to be DX to sustain that for more than a minute). N1MM says I 
put in 14:21 altogether. Overall it was a fun casual effort and a chance 
to chase DX the old fashion way (no assistance). Cu all next time.

73, Mike W4EF..........