IARU SUMMARY SHEET
Contest Dates : 11-Jul-98, 12-Jul-98
Callsign Used : KK7GW
Operators : KK7GW, KC7DZZ
Category : Multioperator/Single Transmitter
Default Exchange : RST 6
Name : David Jones
Address : 11427 110th AVE NE
City/State/Zip : Kirkland, WA 98033
Country : United States
Team/Club : Western Washington DX Club
BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Mults Zones
_______________________________________________________
80CW 1 1 1 0 1
40CW 116 116 298 1 12
40SSB 24 24 42 1 2
20CW 160 159 459 5 11
20SSB 76 76 222 7 7
15CW 27 27 71 0 4
15SSB 27 27 63 1 2
10CW 3 3 7 0 2
_______________________________________________________
Totals 434 433 1163 15 41
Final Score = 65128 points.
Hours of operation: 21.5
Power output: 100 watts
Equipment:
Station 1: Kenwood TS-520, Timewave DSP-9
Station 2: Kenwood TS-530, Vectronics antenna tuner
Antennas: 10m vertical dipole, slightly coiled, bottom about 20 feet up,
over a roof
20m inverted vee, ends at ~20 feet, apex at ~40 feet.
40/15 dipole at ~30 feet.
Comments: I guess our M/S is the ?teenage? M/S. I?m 15 and Andy, KC7DZZ
is almost
16. This contest even cost me $15 getting a substitute to deliver my
papers for the
weekend so I could do this :).
Both good and bad things happened in this contest. We should have been
able to go the
full 24 hours. Lesson #1: Don?t wait until 2 days before the contest to
work on the
antennas and get the stations set up. Had we gotten a few hours more
sleep Friday night
local, we could have gone the whole way. As it were, we finally got the
antennas finished
at 0115z, had the stations ready at around 0515z, slept for maybe 6
hours and got up
ready to roll at 1130z.
We started up and K6XX went into the log on 40 CW right at 1200z. Then
problem
#1...we had the CW station set up on Andy?s homebrew Pentium 150. RF
was somehow
getting in through the keyboard, and locking the computer up, which
resulted in the loss
of a few QSO?s and also 20 minutes while we moved the keying interface
over to my
computer, a HP 266 MHz that I just bought. This RF problem was so bad
that whenever
the keyboard was plugged in, even when we didn?t have the interface
hooked up, the
computer would crash every time one of the radios transmitted. We have
to track that
down somehow.
Things continued uneventfully for quite a few hours, as we got our
traditional 15-25 an
hour (remember our antennas...we ARE little pistols). 15 never seemed
to open to EU in
the morning, which surprised me, even though flux was only around 110.
In fact, we got
only 54 Q?s on 15 entirely, which was slightly more surprising.
Our opening goal was 400 Q?s, then as things never really picked up,
that got changed to
325. As night approached, we decided to try our 40m split setup, as
each radio we own
has only 1 VFO. We have used an interesting setup, in that we reverse
feed a 2 position
switch, with the 2 positions being radio 1 and radio 2, and the antenna
where the jumper
to a radio normally goes. For some reason, this setup resulted in a 6 S
unit loss on
recieve, even though we?d tested this last season and it worked fine.
So split was
abandoned, and we went and did 40 SSB simplex. Finally around 0600,
while a lot of you
say there was a LP opening on 15 (even though we don?t have a beam, we
can still
sometimes take advantage of these) I went to 20 CW and worked maybe 30
EU stations.
Then my best rate ever (not counting FD) came. I got a great frequency
at around 7027
and just ran and ran. New personal best hour of 63, and it seemed like
every big gun in
W/VE called me on their second radios. Calls like KQ2M, AA3B, XJ3EJ
(VE3EJ?)
W4AN, N6TV, WB0O, K3ZO, and N4ZZ all called in during the period between
0630
and 0717. It?s amazing what a DSP can do...I managed to dig a couple
out of the noise
once I locked the DSP in and got the 100 Hz filter on it.
I then bounced around 40 and 20 before going back for another run on 40,
producing my
2 most embarrasing moments. Sleep deprivation was starting to kick in
as Randy, K5ZD
called. I first copied KH7D, then as he repeated I got stuff like K57D
K7ZD, and then
finally K5ZD clicked in. Sorry Randy.
The other one was having to have a 10 over 9 W3LPL repeat the call about
20 minutes
later. A few more big guns called, which gave me a real good feeling.
I also had the
occasional 5 pointer call, like VK2 and VK4, a couple LU?s, a LZ on 20,
and although it
was only a 3 pointer, KG4OX. That surprised me because we had come
across them on
20 SSB earlier, working ?by the numbers?. I certainly did not expect
them to call ME!
Those runs really jumped our Q total, and we ended up finishing with 433
after dupes.
I think I have a good chance of some good runs during SS now, and I?m
less timid about
trying to run.
Our point total isn?t much, the mults on 80, 15, and 10 just simply were
not to be found. I
did get 325 W/VE QSO?s too. However I renewed my faith that I am
getting better, and
maybe 20 years from now, when I?m 35, I can get into the top 10 boxes.
No NAQP or WAE for me, my family is going on a really long 7000+ mile
driving trip and
they vetoed my idea of asking to help at a multi/2 or guest oping
somewhere. We?ll be
gone Aug. 1-23, so I get to do the Sprints, and the Washington State
Salmon Run
(shameless plug).
Thanks to those that actually read this far, and comments welcomed and
appreciated.
73
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