CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K9MMS
Operator(s): K9MMS
Station: K9MMS
Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 430 State/Prov = 52 Countries = 53 Total Score = 169,365
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
K3 + P3 + AL80B 800 W ; WinTest Logging
TX: Inverted L with knee at 58 feet.
RX: 200 ft RBOG ; Hi-Z 3-element array ; Reversible 190 ft window line ; EWE
Just a part time effort. 59% of QSOs via S&P mode. Mostly looking for DX
and states while monitoring cluster spots and working during the grayline
sunrise sweep over western Asia and Europe.
Missed ND and NV plus several VE sections. The main goal was to try to maximize
DX QSOs and hopefully work one or more ATNOs on top band. The only new entity
worked was TC0X. Faintly heard 3V8SF for a few minutes, but too much QRM from a
very loud USA "CQ machine" next to him, so nil on that one. Missed a
few other countries due to other loud USA stations CQing on top of them making
copy nearly impossible for a QSO.
The first night, results were limited due to significant icing on the
inverted-L. The ice coating shifted the resonant frequency to about 1784 kHz,
resulted in very high SWR levels over the low end of the band, and prohibited
operating above 1850 kHz. A couple of times, this resulted in arcing in the
external antenna tuner at a high power level. Subsequently, operating on Friday
night was confined to a small bandwidth low in the band - still with difficult
tuner settings.
Fortunately, on Saturday morning, the outside temperature warmed to 33-34
degrees, and the ice melted off of the antennas. Retesting the inverted-L
response prior to operating on Saturday indicated the antenna had returned to
its normal performance. An internal inspection of the external antenna tuner on
Saturday revealed minimal damage - nothing to impair the performance on the low
bands. Adjusted the spacing of a couple of areas on the tapped inductor.
Friday night, many of the DX stations sounded weak and were more sparse than
expected. On Saturday night DX signals were plentiful, and many had better than
usual signal strength. I even heard a few loud EU stations after the sunrise
sweep was beyond western Europe.
91 DX QSOs: KL7SB and KH7A for zones 1 and 31 ; 2 in zone 6 ; 1 in zone 7 ; 13
in zone 8 ; 2 in zone 13 ; 30 in zone 14 ; 29 in zone 15 ; 4 in zone 16 ; 4 in
zone 20 ; 3 in zone 33 ; and 1 in zone 35.
Some people have said that life is too short for QRP. At my age, over the last
few years, I have often adopted the attitude that life is now too short for low
power. I operated mostly at 100 watts for decades - including most of the 160
meter contests until very recently.
Thanks for the Qs, Ms, and fun.
73,
Gary . K9MMS
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