[SECC] ARRL 160 AA4LR Single Op LP

[Bill Coleman]

                   ARRL 160-Meter Contest - 2020

Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Georgia
Operating Time (hrs): 19

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 635  Sections = 67  Countries = 4  Total Score = 91,022

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

Antennas:
Shunt-fed 13m tower topped with Cushcraft A3S/A743
Half-sized K9AY loops

Equipment:
Elecraft K3/100 w/ KAT3 running 100 watts

Comments:

Semi-serious entry from my Gwinnett QTH. 

Early Friday morning, my daughter Lauren and I got the A3S/A743 back up on top of the tower before the rain. This was important for the 160m contest because the tribander  top loads the shunt-fed tower. Unfortunately, the antenna isn’t correctly in tune, having four resonances consistently below 40, 20, 15 and 10m. That's a problem to be solved later. 

I put some half-sized K9AY loops back up after many years being down. They aren't terribly effective on 160m, but they did help some. I need to restring them, as they are a bit too tall. I'm going to lower them and make them more squat to enclose more area. The PIC-based push-button controller worked well, although a glitch in the SE switch would occasionally have it select that direction.

After the first couple of hours, I put the K3 into diversity receive mode and kept it there the rest of the contest, Most stations were perfectly readable on the transmit antenna (left ear), but the loops (right ear) gave an edge in certain situations. It's a little weird listening this way, as signals tend to move around your head a bit. I'm definitely sold.

I think I could have broken 100,000 points had I not slept. Rates were good Friday night, and I stayed on until 0700z with about 400 Qs. Back in the morning about an hour before sunrise. Night two stated at sunset around 2220z, and I stopped about 0520z. Back on earlier at an hour and a half until sunrise. Second night didn't seem as good a conditions as the previous night. 

DX - only worked ZF (ZF5T was everywhere), XE, C6A (C6AGU was everywhere, too!) and V3. I heard a KP4, but I could not raise them. CO2RG was loud the second evening, but he never could hear me. I never heard any Europeans at all. I did hear a few folks working them. 

Missed a few sections -- several in California, and a few out west.  Worked all of 0, 1, 3, 5, 8 and 9-land, and all in 2-land but NNY (Heard W0AAE, but I could never get through the pile), 4-land but PR.  

This was the first contest with my revised operating table. For 35 years, the operating table (a 80x30" solid-core door) sat on two filing cabinets which left the surface 31" off the floor. I built new stands that have the surface 29.5" off the floor. MUCH more comfortable. Best of all, the stands are on rollers so I can get behind the desk easily. Next project is to build a new equipment hutch (also 35 years old...)

Overall, a satisfactory outing. Thanks for all the Qs!


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Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901

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