ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: K4XS
Operator(s): K4XS
Station: K4XS
Class: SO SSB HP
QTH: FL
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
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CW:
SSB: 3063 157
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Total: 3063 157 Total Score = 960,891
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
As with most big, complex stations Murphy is always lurking. It hit in two
ways.
I had tried out the version of CT with a trial run of calls and multipliers
before the contest and it seemed to work fine and it networked with my second
computer with no problem. However, two QSOs into the contest I discovered it was
not giving me credit for any of the US/Canadian multipliers and was listing the
section twice on the line. Several more QSOs later I discovered that it would
not take KH6 or KL7 QSOs with with the correct section. I had to fudge and make
all a lower 48 state...Florida. As the contest progressed, I discovered
ammending any exchange's call after the enter had been hit, caused the program
to crash. I must have hit the alt N about a hundred times to remind myself to
fix calls, and the KL/KH sections. Finally, the computer froze several
times....a first for me in all the years I have used CT. I know QSO total is
correct, but my multiplier total could be off a couple to the low side. I have
to mess with the logs to see what I have.
Murphy's second visit came as I was trying to rotate the stacks. Each antenna
is rotated by a separate antenna and I have six rotor lines running to the
tower. With all the rain we had in the last week (eight inches) a small lake
had developed that about fifty fet of line ran under on it's way to the tower.
I think some of the water must have migrated into the rotor cable because
several of the rotors would not rotate even though they did last week. This left
me with beam headings which were not in the direction I needed at times. As I
write this, all but one seem to rotate just fine after the water has almost all
evaporated.
Now for the good news. As has been posted by others, conditions were great.
Not only did we have good long haul, especially to JA on both nights, but
sporadic E was very good both nights. My first hour in the contest yielded a
255 hour, my best hour ever in any contest. It was amazing to see a mix of JA,
W6, KH6 and a bunch of midwest, northeast, southeast sporadic E all in the first
hour.
The Saturday morning European/US run was not as deep as it has been in the past,
but the evening JA run made up for it...both nights.
A special thanks to my power company for working with me for many hours cleaning
up most of the line noise over the last two months. It really helped...until my
neighbor switched on his newly installed Christmas lights Sunday
afternoon....ugh!
Thanks also to all who called....see you all next year. Happy Holidays.
Bill K4XS
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