ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: W2RE
Operator(s): W2RE
Station: W2RE
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: ME
Operating Time (hrs): 45.5
Radios: SO2R
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 57 35
80: 215 61
40: 641 81
20: 1755 100
15: 114 45
10: 33 11
-------------------
Total: 2815 333 Total Score = 2,810,187
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Remote Operation (W1/Eastport Maine)
First major contest event for me since WRTC 2014. The last time I did an effort
S/O was 2103 ARRLDX SSB. I'm glad to be back!
I operated remotely from the comforts of the RemoteHamRadio office in Pawling,
NY to the new station in Maine. It certainly beats driving 525 miles to the
station!
The Internet connection was perfect and the RX audio was solid. Using the RHR
web based software to control the station with the K3/0 combination is an
amazing experience.
The location of this station could arguably be the best in the USA, it sits on
63ac overlooking the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic Ocean in the far NE corner
in the USA. You can see VE9 across the bay and on a clear day see Big Ben!
Station location with birds eye taken with a Drone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWmTk1A3M1Y
Thanks to Dennis W1UE and Marty KC1CWF for expediting a YCCC SO2R Box and
cables for Elecraft K3/0, it worked flawlessly. Unfortunately, the ideal SO2R
setup is not capable at this station as configured today. The station is
operated daily on the RHR network and is complicated to switch over to an SO2R
environment and back quickly. To fix this problem we will use some clever
switching for CQWW. However, even with its drawbacks restricting some bands on
the second radio it still performed better than my expectations. The only
regret was not having the ability to push the station to its full potential.
I found the low bands to be very poor and really hurt the station performance.
I was really looking forward to some 80M and 160M runs from this salt water
location that never materialized, so unfortunately not much to report on the
low bands. However, It was a slugfest on 20M and 40M and I quickly learned what
this station is capable of. The first morning (Saturday) around 0930z I could
hear weak Europeans on 20M and decided to try and grab the bottom of the band
but K3LR was already on 14.150 calling CQ. So, I found 14153 open and started
my run, at 0945z my first station was logged. It was pretty insane from 1000Z
until about 1800Z with a few 200+ hours. This phenomenon was also noted on 40M
at 1900Z both Sat and Sun. My biggest concern is possibly having many uniques
in my log on 20M, I worked a lot of QRP stations that seemed thrilled to be
heard. I used the same strategy on Sunday.
Station #1
K3 + Expert 1.3K amp. 1100-1300w PEP
(3) GXP antennas 16EL + 3EL 40M (Poland)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0_oWQTodlQ
10M 8/8/8 @ 112/84/56
15M 4/4/4 @ 112/84/56
20M 4/4/4 @ 112/84/56
40M 3el @ 123
Station #2
K3 + Expert 1.3K 1200W
GXP antennas 7B-7L
10M 3EL @ 100'
15m 3EL @ 100'
20m 3EL @ 100'
40M 2EL @ 100'
80M 4SQ
160M Inverted L
We have big plans for this station. In 2017, we have scheduled to build a 160M
array that will be like no other! WE THINK BIG!
Special thanks to Lee WW2DX for getting the SO2R setup at the office and Rock
WW1X for making remote operation so easy using the RHR web based software.
73,
Ray W2RE
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