CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: K9YC
Operator(s): K9YC
Station: K9YC
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 28
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 7 4 3
80: 68 17 26
40: 132 26 52
20: 345 31 87
15: 344 30 80
10: 28 7 9
------------------------------
Total: 924 115 257 Total Score = 926,280
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
I don't like SSB nearly as much as CW, and my station doesn't play as
well on SSB as on CW, so I wasn't planning to take this weekend
seriously. I didn't run SO2R, I didn't worry about a strong start, took
some time off to watch a movie with the XYL Friday night, and went to be
early, so no JA runs.
But, as I so often do, I got sort of fired up as things were going
fairly well, I did get up to work EU Saturday morning, and by Saturday
afternoon, had decided to take a nap before midnight and return to run
JAs on 40 and 80. That sort of backfired through -- by the time I was
back up at 3am the skip was long and they were working the east coast
and not hearing me very well. Back to a nap at 5 am, then up at 8:30 am
to hit the EU openings on 20 and 15.
Neither 15M or 20M were as good to EU as I've heard them (for example,
ARRL CW this spring), but I still had fun. The new 40M wire Yagi I put
up for SS doesn't do much for EU or SA, but it sure does help in Africa.
One of the biggest negatives about SSB contests is the really awful audio
coming out of so many stations. These guys seem to think that if they drive the
rig harder, it will be louder. Instead, it drives the audio stages into
distortion, makes the audio muddy and hard to understand, and splatters like
crazy. The excessive mic gain also brings up the background noise, which also
increases the splatter. On at least a twenty signals, I either could not copy
their call, or had to listen so many times to get it that I simply gave up on
them.
That's in addition to all the phase noise from old and/or cheap radios, and the
amps that depend on ALC to set power, creating more splatter. I had a guy like
that about 1.5 miles from me who wiped out half of 20M when he transmitted. And
he called CQ non-stop. Compare that with K6XX, who's only 3.5 miles from me --
with our K3s, we can work a kHz apart on SSB and a few hundred Hz on CW without
bothering each other at all.
Thanks for all the Qs. But PLEASE CLEAN UP YOUR RIGS! 73, Jim K9YC
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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