CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: K1ESE
Operator(s): K1ESE
Station: K1ESE
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: ME
Operating Time (hrs): 28.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 17 5 10
80: 153 16 59
40: 343 24 86
20: 549 26 103
15: 214 22 74
10: 24 5 11
------------------------------
Total: 1300 98 343 Total Score = 1,607,004
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
K1ESE - Flex 6500, Expert 1.3K amp, two wire doublet antennas up 80 feet.
Here's my contest notes in no order...
Skimmer -
I used my local skimmer about half the time on Saturday. It let me get a jump
on some stations that had not been spotted on the telnet nodes. The spots were
mostly accurate. But, I could only see spots on the band I was using and had no
idea when was a good time to change bands. Used W1VE the rest of the time.
Murphy -
On 10m at high power RFI got into the router and I ended up losing time
rebooting everything. At lower power, after removing a stray Ethernet cable,
the problem disappeared.
The choke on the short antenna overheated when running on 20m at high power
(1.2kw). I could smell the heat. Switched antennas, let it cool, went back
and it was fine when running at medium power (800w). It was never a problem at
high power during S&P.
Everything else worked.
Antennas -
Adding wire to the long doublet allowed me to get on 160m. That was good.
But, I am sure the antenna pattern on 40m suffered. I was not as impressive on
that band as I had been prior to adding the wire. I will have to model what is
happening.
Winkey -
Only used the Winkey and N1MM+ function keys when running. Did the rest with
my Logikey keyer and paddle by hand. By day 2 "5NN" was coming out
as an odd string of dots and dashes with no rhythm. Rarely, when running, the
Winkey would skip letters. Too inconsistent to investigate.
Runs -
Tried to start a run on 15m, but couldn't get 10 QSOs to make it count. Did
have a little success on 20m:
2016-11-27 1604 - 1655Z, 14105 kHz, 62 Qs, 72.9/hr K1ESE
2016-11-27 1812 - 1823Z, 14059 kHz, 14 Qs, 76.9/hr K1ESE
If you run in this contest you get a fair number of zero point QSOs. US
stations in Zone 5 call thinking they are giving you some points when actually
just cluttering up the log.
Max Rates -
2016-11-26 1158Z - 3.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 180 per hour
2016-11-26 1216Z - 1.9 per minute (10 minute(s)), 114 per hour
2016-11-26 1256Z - 1.5 per minute (60 minute(s)), 89 per hour
20 meters was hot in the mornings. I should have started operating earlier
Saturday morning.
Low Hanging Fruit -
I did well on 80m and 160m Friday night, but Saturday night was a bust. Once
the low hanging fruit was gone those bands were next to impossible with my
antennas. The limit is not BIC, it's not having a vertically polarized antenna
and a separate receiving antenna. If I want to be serious on those bands, that
needs to be addressed.
Noteable QSOs -
Managed one JA on 20 meters. Worked VKs on 40 meters both at 7am and at 3pm.
Got ZD8W on five bands.
Rates -
I had set a goal rate of 40/hour for the entire contest.
Friday night I did 5 hours at 43/hour and was pleased. 80m was good and I
picked up a few on 160m.
Saturday morning was great on 20m and then on 15m, but had a few family
interruptions. They left about noon. Things slowed about 3pm. By 9pm they
ground to a halt. The rate got so slow that I gave up three hours earlier than
planned. Saturday's rate was 41/hour, good morning, slow afternoon and
evening.
Sunday morning started slowly since I was up earlier and 20m was just waking
up. It picked up nicely by 8am and I had about 5 hours of good activity.
Sunday afternoon was like slogging through knee deep mud. Hourly rates were in
the 20 to 30 per hour range. Once I had met my QSO goal of 1200, I lost
motivation and quit at 1300 QSOs which was 5:30pm. Sunday's rate was 39 per
hour.
I met my goals. I know what I need to do better. Can't ask for more than
that.
73 de K1ESE John
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