ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: N9NC
Operator(s): N9NC
Station: N9NC
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 25.6
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 55 37
80: 248 73
40: 128 73
20: 399 95
15: 288 88
10: 25 12
-------------------
Total: 1143 378 Total Score = 1,285,956
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
I put in nearly 50% more chair time for ARRL CW than this weekend- that was
FUN.
This weekend was WORK, well at least partly, and not only because it was SSB
instead of CW. The choppy high band propagation forced mostly S&P, but
nowadays almost all CQing stations end up being spotted, so you can do pretty
good rates using the point click call method.
Managed to get a handful of 6 banders although I had almost given up on 10m.
At least 2 mults were lost to QSB on that band as I was giving my exchange.
Having said that, overall everyone was very persistent in completing difficult
exchanges, even at the expense of rate. I think this is better than it was
years ago. Between log checking improvements, peer pressure, and probably our
own maturity, it seems the standard has improved - it is good to know the
entire community takes the sport seriously.
Station improvements:s
Upgraded to electronic remote switching of the EU/JA 20/15 Vee beams, so a band
change was instant, no longer a trip outside! Luxury is nice! 10m was even
easier, a feature of the Vee beam and balanced tuning system is that there are
lots of good impedance points, so 10M was good at about 2 or 3:1 using the 15m
position. Also there are lots of lobes, so you can work several directions at
once, with no switching, usually an advantage. (I do like yagis, its just you
need a bunch of them to get instant directional diversity.)
Also upgraded the 80m antenna farm: In addition to the 'secret weapon' NVIS
10' dipole used in ARRL CW, there is now a single broadband vertical. This
seemed to be worth +5 dB on DX and -10 dB stateside, which helped. The clever
use of only about 20 ground radials optimizes the efficiency-bandwidth product,
thus making it broadband. This enables direct feed with 50 ohm coax
(appropriately decoupled with chokes).
Lots more work to do but even now this QTH is operator, not hardware, limited;
simply more aggressive CQing and operating time would have netted many more
QSO's.
Further operating time limit rationalization (but also true):
My excuse ran out with the XYL and had to help clean up the yard mid afternoon
today, the first solid 50 degree day in what may be an early NH spring.
Me: 'But this contest comes only once a year, I need to finish it.'
XYL: 'But you said that in October, three times in November, twice in December,
and in January, February, and now March. Here's the rake.'
CU in RUDX and WPX
Tom N9NC
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