10-10 Int. Summer Contest, SSB
Call: N5XZ
Operator(s): N5XZ
Station: N5XZ
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 862 Total Score = 1,288
Club: Houston SHOT
Comments:
It's Monday morning after the 10-10 contest. What a weekend! The contest
started with a bang!...at 2359 BEFORE the contest started, just as I was
getting ready to switch from my regular log to N1MM, we had a power glitch!
My amp went off-line and my useless UPS did not do its job, so the computer
went dead (the 12VDC radio UPS worked, though). It took me 2 or 3 minutes to
reboot, and we were well into 0001Z before I could make my first Q with
WS5H, who was waiting on me! Conditions were fair the first night: I made
only 89 Q's. I did work perhaps 2 dozen VK/ZL and a few KH6. (I even got
called by NR5M who vowed to get his 10-10 number now!) I shut things down
after our local net, but came back to the radio around 11pm to find the band
open, so I worked another dozen or so until 12:30pm. Saturday proved to be a
fair day, with some good runs and rates, even got called by about a dozen EU
(G, F, DL, I, OE, etc.) in the morning, but no Africa like last year, which
was a bit of a disappointment.. Lots of SA in the afternoon as usual and
ended up the day at 502, at about 1:30 am...band still open but few
stations. Earlier in the day, NN5O operated K0NM's station remotely from the
Woodlands to Sugar Land as mentioned in their joint article also in this
issue. It sounded pretty darn good, too!
Sunday was exciting (as things go in the Summer on 10 with lousy
conditions!). I had a great run in the morning, only 1 EU (GW4BLE) then the
band went almost dead. SA came back (I worked a TON of them!), we worked a
couple of loud EA8's but with about 90 min left, the band opened up again
and I had a sprint to the end, trying to beat my score of last February. I
managed to beat it with 12 min to go! I ended up with 862 Q's/1288 pts.
compared to 838/1274 last February (last year I made only 500 Q's/731 Pts.
and got beat by Terry, TI5/N0TW). That's funny because I thought conditions
were better last February than over the weekend. Terry was down in Dominica
this year operating as J79TW. I am hoping to win my 12th 10-10 contest with
this one. Looking back this is my 25th entry, my first being in 1986.
Other than hitting the wrong keys plenty of times, the hardware/software
performed flawlessly: After I got the hang of using the N1MM software with
the DVK voice keyer memories in ESM mode, making SSB QSO's at high rates was
a breeze and it really saved my voice because all I had to say was the other
stations callsign and hit [Enter]; type in his info and hit [Enter]...N1MM
and the recorded audio memories in the K3 took care of the rest!
Equipment: Elecraft K3/P3, Alpha 78, 4-el SteppIR @ 75', N1MM controlling
the K3 DVK memories via CAT.
K0NM came back from his business trip about 11am and got on the
air...Fresh Meat! He started calling CQ Contest and got a lot of calls! I
have to admit I was a bit envious that he was getting so many answers and
my rate was down to one every 2-3 minutes!
I'm still battling noise issues around here...line noise crept up during
the weekend and background "hash" was a constant S3-4 (with the
pre-amp on).
I'm starting to think maybe it really is originating from my house so I need
to do some serious investigating...and there was some good info in a recent
QST article on the same subject.
Oh, and a HUGE thanks has to go to my wife Connie, KC5VHH who allowed me
to spend the whole weekend on the air with few interruptions. Have to admit
that I did buy her some roses BEFORE the contest to let her know in advance
how much I appreciate it!
Allen N5XZ #4530
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