Stew Perry Topband Challenge
Call: N7GP
Operator(s): N5IA
Station: N7GP
Class: Single Op
Power: QRP
Operating Time (hrs): 14
Grid Square: DM52
QSOs: 172 Score: 3,028
Comments:
Radio: FT 1000 MP @ 4.8 Watts on the Bird 43
Logging: 486 SX 25 laptop running NA 10.24
TX Antenna: 1/4 Ground Plane w/ base @ 20 M and 4 caged radials
RX antennas: Beverages; 16 azimuths, every 22.5 degrees. Shortest = 280 M
and longest = 400 M.
Age: 57 and counting
THE SAGA OF A ONE NIGHT CONTEST (LONG)
This was my fourth go at the SPDC. I had operated LP in all three previous
runnings and had done well. After talking with some of the OPs who ran QRP in
the ARRL 160, I had the thought of trying it in SPDC IV.
I had never operated QRP in a contest before and was a bit apprehensive,
especially on Top Band at the height of the current sunspot cycle. However, I
was encouraged to try it. After all, if it doesn't feel good after a couple of
hours I could always bump up to LP or HP depending on conditions.
Murphy was lurking early on as the water well pump at my home gave up the ghost
at 10:30 PM on Thursday night. That meant not only NO water for bathing, etc.,
but no heating either as our heat pump uses water in an open loop for the
heating/cooling source.
I had planned a vacation day from work on Friday to complete the receive
antenna installation and other last minute items. An aunt of mine had passed
away on Wednesday. So Friday was taken up going out of town for the funeral;
returning home to pull the pump out of the well; determine the pump was not
repairable; going to the pump dealer and trading enough money to buy a new
laptop pc for a new pump; doing all the plumbing and electrical changes to fit
the new pump and installing it in the well (25 m deep); and having a happy
family at 10:30 PM.
Out of water for ONLY 24 hours. That's not too bad.
Up early Saturday with the temperature in the -7C range and started the antenna
work. Oh yeah. Murphy was still around as the remote control for the 16 Bevs
didn't have any power or data stream at the controller. Found the problem to
be in the buried coax cable (RG-59) and surmised that Murph had employed some
gophers. There were three new piles of dirt along the route of the buried
cable.
Ran out a new cable for that 100 M and suspended/attached it to a barbed wire
fence. Gophers won't get it, but the cows probably will.
Finished the last 2-wire Bev (0 & 180 degrees) as the culmination of a one year
project. Checked out the 0 degree antenna by listening to KSL out of Salt Lake
City (900 kM distant) on 1160 kHz.at mid day. Worked like a champ.
Finished all that by Noon and had only the TX antenna to check out. I had
always fed the GP directly through a coaxial balun resulting in a little
mismatch. Never worried about it running LP or QRO but now with the decision
to try QRP that bit of reflected power needed to be put to use.
Wound an autotransformer on a toroid with the tap for 35 Ohms looking good on
the MFJ 259 into a 32 Ohm resistor. Climbed the tower and installed it at the
feedpoint. Came down and checked the reflected power on the Bird and it said 0
at 1.825. OK and ready to go at 1 PM (2000 Z).
Wow! Time for that pre-contest nap that everyone has been talking about. Ate
a snack and laid down, telling the wife that I was setting the alarm for 4:30.
At 3:45 she woke me and said one of the line crew (I work for the local
electric power utility) was at the door and needed to talk to me.
The lineman was working an outage and had problems with a line recloser. So
off to help him solve a problem. Back home in about 30 minutes only to find a
couple of politicians out stumping for next years election process were on the
front porch talking with the wife. Position they were seeking? District
Attorney! They didn't stay long when I told them that I believed in "hanging
them high" and that the world would be a much better place with a lot less
lawyers.
Now it is 2345 Z and I had planned on starting the contest at 0000 hours, right
at sundown. Off to the radio room. Everything looked like it was ready to go
except the laptop wouldn't key the MP. Hmmmm. Hadn't used the combo since
Field Day. What could it be? Finally figured out I hadn't set the keying to
the LPT port. Cockpit error. Now I was ready.
Tuned the MP up and down the band and heard a couple of zeros and fives going
at it. Was able to get the attention of two stations after a number of calls
and I didn't feel too bad. But, there was very little activity for this time
of the day. Normally I am hearing the mid west and east coast shortly after
sundown. No go.
Did a bit more S & P, logged a couple more stations, and then made the best
decision of the whole contest. It appeared that either conditions were not too
good (no long skip) or there were not many stations in the contest. Saturday
before Christmas is surely when most guys are doing last minute shopping or
attending the company Christmas party. And when 10 Meters is open world wide
you don't need to endure endless QRN on 160 Meters to get your Ham Radio fix
for the week.
So, decided that I would try CQing, believing that the casual contestor within
range of my puny signal would come by and give me a call. I could use the 2nd
receiver in the MP to S & P with, swapping frequencies as needed to catch the
other run stations on the band.
The band never was crowded at all. I had no problem keeping a run frequency in
the mid .20s all night long. Got run off a few times by east coasters who
could not hear me, but just moved either way a couple of hundred Hz and kept
right on CQing.
At times I felt like I had worked every station on the band that I could. I
would S & P from .00 to .45 and not find a single station that I had not worked
or had called and could not raise. Highest Q rate topped at 25 per hour and
dropped to 3-4 per hour at times.
Once I committed to staying with the QRP thing, the most difficult part was
enduring the long periods without a Q. However, I attribute this primarily to
a lack of stations on the band. I believe there were not over two dozen
stations that I heard that I could not raise. Very little to be gained by
using the big power.
I never heard Europe, Africa, South America or even my neigbors in XE. I was
called by ZF, KH7 & KL7. KV4 answered my call on the 2nd try. Some Qs took 5
minutes to complete with all the retries, some on both ends. I remember only
two Qs that others gave up on me, and I gave up on one. My apologies to those
stations. Called two stations that refused the call; QSO B4! Well, they
aren't in my log so their's will be NIL. Absolutely rediculous when Qs are 5
minutes apart and they just resume CQing.
Where were the VEs and the RAC contest? I worked 1 each, VE3, VE6, and two
VE7s. Gave out three #s for RAC. Heard VE1ZZ call two other stations but I
never found him to call nor did he call me. No Jay from the northland. I
don't think it was conditions. Stations just were not on the air.
I started checking the JA window about 1100. Heard Dick, N6FF work some but
the JA sigs were few and weak to me. Kept plugging along picking up a few of
the east coast early risers. Then things opened up to the west.
Worked the FO0 on the 2nd call. WOW!! Then the JA signals just jumped out of
the murk to sky high levels. Many were S-9 on the Bev. From 1323 Z to 1354 Z
I managed to work 5 of them. With the FO0, those 6 Qs tallied nearly 500
points in the log. Absolutely incredible.
During that same period the twin VK6s were Q-5 but I never could break the
large pileups they had gathered. I never heard the UA0 that some worked, but I
was too occupied with the JAs and VKs to look much more.
And that was it. JH0INP was the last entry in the log as there were no early
morning casual left coasters that I could find.
All in all a tremendous experience and a super learning opportunity. If you
have never tried QRP on Top Band folks, it is a whole other exhilirating world.
Yes, it is great to run at a high Q rate. Yes, it is great to work every
station with the first call. Yes, it is great to be able to hold your run freq
for hours on end. And yes, it is great to work the most Qs and the most DX.
But I don't think I have been more thrilled ever than I was at the end of SPDC
IV.
Thanks to the Boring ARC for sponsoring the SPDC. Thanks to all the stations
who did get on and participate, especially those that made their way into my
log.
If I am alive, I intend to operate SPDC V.
See you all in CQ WW 160 in January. Robin, WA6CDR and I will operate XZ0A for
that one. Fly out date is 9 Jan 00. Check out the web page at
http://getnet.com/~k7wx/myanmar.htm for a preview of the 1st biggie of Y2K.
73, Merry Christmas, Happy New year es GL to all de Milt, N5IA, op @ N7GP
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