Michigan QSO Party
Call: KK8I
Operator(s): KK8I
Station: W1SKU
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Oakland County
Operating Time (hrs): 11.5
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 153 123
40: 169 91
20: 52 65
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 374 279 CW Mults = 88 Ph Mults = 86 Total Score = 178,698
Club: SEMDXA
Comments:
Equipment: IC-735, IC-4KL, Mosley TA-36/40@55ft, Dipoles@55ft
The story of a difficult contest:
My original plans were going back and forth between going somewhere (e.g. Huron
county didn't seem to be covered) or operate from home. The plans for driving
north were eventually given up due to the time involved. On Thursday night I
emailed Fred, W1SKU, who lives just 10 minutes away, if he would operate the
MiQP. I had never been to his place, but recently seen pictures of his station
and it looked impressive. Fred invited me to come over, but alerted me that he
only had Collins, Drake and one IC-781 that would not work in the first 30kc of
a band. I told him that I would be fine with the 781, since there is almost no
activity below .030 in MiQP. I was convinced that I could easliy shatter KT8X's
High Power record and get it pushed significantly beyond 200k.
On Saturday morning, I got to Fred and we set up the station. After an initial
explanation of the station, he had to leave for a soccer game of his daughter.
At the time the contest started, I had all my stuff packed and was ready to
leave to make some QSOs from home. Why? After some warming up, the IC-781 was
inop below .041 (and rising) on any band, a known ageing issue on these rigs. I
couldn't figure out how to operate the alternate RIG, a Collins KWM-380 -
actually, I never operated a Collins or a Drake transceiver in my life! My
IC-735 refused to turn on, 40m was almost dead, keying from the log computer to
the IC-781 did not work and there was line noise on 40m, going up to S3. Heck! I
just wanted to be back at home, at the familiar FT-1000MP and the G5RV.
Fred was still out when the contest started. In order not to give up a potential
good Low Power score, I worked with teh IC-781 barefoot for the first hour of
the contest. Then, Fred returned from the soccer game and he did some magic on
the IC-735 which all of a sudden got back to life. We rearranged the station and
I was up and running (sort of...) 90 minutes into the contest, now with the
PA.
As everybody noticed, 20 and 40 were in bad condition for short range QSOs, and
I never tried 10 and 15. The noise on 40 never went away, so that it was very
hard to pull out weak signals on that band. 80 turned out to be great in the
evening and the last hour of the contest was my most productive one!
The multipliers were upside down too: I worked 44 of 49 US states (36 on both
modes), but only 55 of 83 counties (33 on both modes). I probably should have
tried harder to work the mobiles, despite the conditions.
Eventually, the raw score is still slightly above KT8X's record, but there would
have been quite some room to do better (preparation, strategy, mult chasing).
My thanks go to Fred for letting me operate his fine station and for keeping me
in the contest. I received a number of comments on my loud signal and on a good
audio, so his antennas and the solid state amp do great. Thanks as well to the
mobiles, whose activities were still fun, even though heavily impacted by the
conditions this time.
See you next year!
Uli, KK8I
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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