ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N4KG
Operator(s): N4KG
Station: N4KG
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: ALA
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 1 1
80: 30 26
40: 162 71
20: 163 70
15: 248 70
10: 238 70
-------------------
Total: 842 308 Total Score = 778,008
Club: Alabama Contest Group
Comments:
Congratulations to George, K2DM, on a fine QRP victory. I second his comment
that it never ceases to amaze me how I can break pileups with only 5 watts.
Packet pileups are the pits. Thank God for memories in radios!
It was fun collecting multiband contacts with the active stations.
6 Bands: ZF2NT
5 Bands: CS6V D4B KH7X N7OU/HI9 KP4KE WP3R TG0AA TI5N
V26G V31DJ VP5LP VP9/W6PH 6D2YFM 6Y0T P40T PJ4G 9Y4TBG
4 Bands: EA8BH HT4T JA8RWU OA4DKC P40Y V47KP VP9/K9CC WP2Z plus 25
Europeans for 34 total 4 Banders
3 Bands: FM5BH KL7WV P4/ K2LE PJ7/ND5S XE2/W5WMU ZL1GO
plus 3 JA's and 25 EU for 37 total 3 Banders
160 and 80M were TOUGH this year. Only 5 EU worked on 80M.
40M was a BLAST with my highest band multiplier of 71 countries !
LOVE my CC 2L40 at 95 ft.
20M was surprisingly good with low absorption during the day and a fair EU
sunrise opening Saturday morning (07-09Z).
15M was the QSO leader with incredible openings and signals.
10M was seriously impacted by lower sunspots and disturbance. Openings
to EU and JA were noticably shorter. Only worked 2 JA's. I thought
I was going to miss OH but OH6Y had a nice signal over the pole at
22Z.
Murphy visited with a vengence this year. Two intermittent cable / connector
failures at 0130Z Saturday (Friday night local) required cabling the radio
directly to the antenna switches and replacing the wattmeter after I broke a
sensor wire while connecting cables. Antenna maintenance revealed two broken
rotor terminal strips and a broken cable on my a backup high band aluminum
dipole. My SE TH3 became unusable when rain collected in the traps and I had to
shut down twice when lightning / thunder was shaking the house !
The 20M EU opening at 07-09Z reduced my planned 3 hour nap to 1.5 hr total for
Fri night, adding to my sleep deprivation due to only 5 hours Wed and Thurs. I
took LOTS of 15 to 30 minute breaks Sunday along with a 2 hour nap Saturday
night just to keep going. On the bright side, my new mechanical heart valve
kept on ticking with NO problems during or after the contest :-)
Antennas are as follows:
160M Elevated GP (140 ft Rohn 25)
80M Dipole aimed NE / SW at 130 ft plus Wire Vertical in woods
40M CC 2L40 at 95 ft plus Dipole aimed 150 / 330 degrees at 90 ft
20M Telrex 3L20 at 75 ft
15M CC 4L15 at 55 ft
10M 5L10 at 62 ft
plus TH7 at 40 ft locked East (rotor dead)
TH3 at 50 ft fixed SE (unusable during rain)
TA32 at 60 ft fixed South
Single FT990 radio. Memories REALLY help keep track of mults / pileups.
I envied K2DM's SO2R setup. Obviously the way to go.
I just need to get busy and fix the stack of broken radios!
Tom N4KG / QRP
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