ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: N4TP
Operator(s): W4LT
Station: W4DUG
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: WCF
Operating Time (hrs): 17:30
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 25
40: 534
20: 284
15: 77
10: 0
------------
Total: 920 Sections = 83 Total Score = 152,720
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
Rig: Flex6400/Maestro - 100% remote operation via local HamWAN
Antennas: Force 12 EF240x@118ft - C31XR@108ft - C19x@70ft - 80m Sloping dipole
at 90ft
First attempt at a solo 100% remote operation for a major contest. Learned a lot
about the radio! Learned the evils of internet latency.
The connection to HamWAN and then to the Tampa ARC clubhouse was great the
entire week BEFORE the contest started! Rock solid 40up/30 down. Then the
squall line came through at 3pm local Saturday... And the wind blew the dish on
the club tower slightly off of azimuth... Causing the internet speed to drop to
12up/1.8 down. That's barely above dial-up! The MicroTik based HamWAN system
literally performed data magic, managing the TCP/IP dropped packet resends and
ack's, doing its best to keep the data flowing, but packet loss was 5% and at
times more, with serious jitter issues. The connection held, but packet loss and
jitter are VoIP's mortal enemy! Ever listen to DStar close to fringe? Or a
cell phone with one bar? That's how everybody sounded in my ear for 18 hours.
So if I asked you for a repeat, now you know why.
Turned on my personal 6400 my antennas here at home just in case the connection
dropped. It didnt. Best thing about Flex is if I had to switch radios, all I
had to do was log off the remote Flex and log in to my local Flex. Everything
else, connections, logging, microphone, headset... stays exactly the same!
That's a great thing!
Found interesting "Features" in the Flex like not being able to hear
DVK playout unless I had local monitor on which then put my own headset audio
into my ears at almost one second latency and letting off of the footswitch
during a DVK playout then mutes the DVK, among other fun things, added to the
challenge.
Dove in head first into VY2WW's murderous pileup with 100 watts and
overconfidence. 45 minutes later, after learning latency timing patterns (press
footswitch before the other station is done, wait till you see the TX envelope
rise on the Maestro, then talk), he was in the log.
Never heard NT, though I saw VY1CO spotted as MAR... And I already had MAR... So
I missed a sweep again by one. Last section other than NT was SFL. Searched
for a solid hour. Had heard several other SFL's on 20 and 40, but they couldn't
hear me. Finally AA4NP was found on 80m and was logged. At that point, my ears
had had enough.
Prop was great! My numbers don't show how great it was, other's numbers do.
Great fun and a great learning experience in remote SSB contesting with Flex
Radios. The Virus stay shut in at home since March experience didn't help my
physical endurance! Keeping B-I-C was difficult!
Thanks for all the points. See you in better shape and better prepared next
year for the 2021 version of my favorite contest!
Lu W4LT
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|