CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: NI5T
Operator(s): N5IA
Station: N5BG
Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: NM - DM52
Operating Time (hrs): ~12
Remote Operation
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 536 State/Prov = 56 Countries = 19 Total Score = 105,000
Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
Comments:
This one was different. About one month ago I knew that I would not be at home
to operate my own station for the contest. I would be in the State of Wyoming
visiting with family and committed to family activities. Even if I operated, I
would not be able to devote the normal full 30 hours of operating time.
Wanting the most points possible to go to the AOCC effort, I made arrangements
for KY7M and NA2U to operate my station remotely from KY7M's home in Phoenix.
That part of the plans worked well. Read KY7M's report for full details.
About one week ago I was thinking that there was no way I was going to totally
miss the contest. I suggested to my neighbor, N5BG, that he do a multi-op with
me. He could operate his station using the club call sign, NI5T, when he was
available, and I would assemble a haywire remote to access the station while in
WY and operate a few hours each night.
Larry declined, having other commitments already in place. But the bug was in
my head and with Larry's permission quickly put together a minimal remote
operation at his station. I also assembled a 'PC bag remote control package'
which appeared to operate well when tested at home.
The wife and I were on the road to Wyoming Thursday morning. While staying
overnight at a motel in Pueblo, CO, I tested the remote control equipment. I
assembled the entire setup in the motel room and surprised myself by being able
to make it work through the motel Wi-Fi. So far so good.
On to Wyoming on Friday and we arrived at the kids home mid afternoon. After
things settled down about 0300Z I assembled the remote control setup spreading
it out on an extra bed in our bedroom. I connected to the kids Wi-Fi and it
all came up working. Having previously programmed the laptop for N1MM+ and the
CQ 160 CW contest, I was up and running in a few minutes.
I soon found out that Internet delivery via DSL in these parts is subject to
bandwidth limitations associated with video streaming during prime time hours.
Whereas these same problems at my remoted home station cause the CW dits and
dahs to be mangled or missing at times, here the opposite was the case.
I was receiving audio with little 'holes' in the stream and at times having the
audio go away for seconds at a time. I started a ping session to monitor the
path to the N5BG station. I used this indicator during my entire operation to
know what to happening real time.
I operated for about 6 hours the first night until the JA and ZL sunset. I
S&Ped the band twice from top to bottom, and then CQed a while as 'new'
meat. I made 250 contacts and was pleased with the overall response. When
ping times to the remote station were under 100 ms everything worked very
well.
I started night two a couple of hours earlier and ended a couple of hours
earlier. The conditions were not as good as the first night. I S&Ped the
band one time and then CQed the balance of the evening.
Nearing the end of my operation I noted I had worked all lower 48 states + DC
with the exception of Wyoming, the state from which I was operating.
Fortunately in one last quick pass down the band I found WC7S CQing and put WY
into the log. Then a few kHz lower I found WL7E, also CQing. Alaska went into
the log and I had completed WAS in two short nights.
I learned a lot of things preparing for this remote operation that will be
useful in the future.
Thanks for all the Q's, and my apologies to those that I couldn't pick out of
the noise floor. CU all in the SSB show at the end of February.
73 de Milt, N5IA, operator of NI5T
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