WAE DX Contest, CW
Call: N4TZ/9
Operator(s): N4TZ
Station: N4TZ/9
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: IN
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
80: 23 72
40: 181 123
20: 321 96
15: 65 64
10: 7 14
-------------------------
Total: 597 599 369 Total Score = 441,324
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
A really disappointing contest here. After the first two hours,
I kept losing the internet connection, getting about two minutes
of data per connection attempt. Within the next hour, the telnet
part of TR4W started crashing the computer system. Went without
internet until 0547 at which time I decided to sleep on it, since
the low bands had been especially noisy here without any receiving
antennas.
At dawn I rolled out of bed and started the computer. Well,
I tried to start the computer. It would flash the Windows screen,
then go into the screen asking you to try the safe start, which
didn't work. Tried this about a dozen times, then tried even
more basic things like trying to get the BIOS's attention,
without any luck. The recover fuction did not work, either.
I drove to the big city in a driving rainstorm (making a
good 30 mph on the Interstate) to arrive at Fry's just after
opening time. Bought a cable to interface to the hard drive
to try to recover the log onto my workstation.
When I got home I ate lunch, then went about taking the
I/O boards out of the old logging computer and installing them
in the workstation. I was able to recover the log and TR4W
configuration files from the old hard drive. It took quite a while
to remember that a special driver is needed to make the parallel
ports work under TR4W. Finally got the computer online a little
after 1700 to find 15 meters weak and full of QRN. Decided to
make a few QSOs to verify that everyting was ok with the new
computer setup (I have 4 LPTs and 4 real serial ports on this
computer, plus the dozen USB). Made a couple dozen QSOs, then
wandered around the house, then back for a few more, etc. The
conditions seemed better Saturday night QRN wise on the low bands,
but since I was no longer serious I went to bed at 0423.
After a good night's sleep I got up on Sunday morning and had
breakfast before preparing for church. Saw the 10 meter band
map lit up but only heard 4 EU stations there myself. I worked
a few more on 15 then went to church. Three hours later I
was back at the radio for more casual operating experience,
just in time for the end of the 10 meter opening. Spent quite
a bit of time looking at the RBN and marvelling at
how weak my signal was is Europe on so many bands!
Given that I missed most of both mornings, I guess I did ok.
My previous backup computer (my WRTC 2010 laptop) had recently
been converted to Windows 10, with less than sterling results,
and was in the process of being rolled back to Windows 7 during
the contest, a process which took over 36 hours! Operating with
it (even if possible) would have made this a strictly one radio
show since the parallel ports control all band and rig switching.
Still need to get the DVK calibrated with the new computer, but
that's a story for another day.
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