ARRL 160-Meter Contest - 2020
Call: K9ZO
Operator(s): K9ZO
Station: K9ZO
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: il
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1450 Sections = 83 Countries = 19 Total Score = 304,674
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
I’m still a novice at this one, having done multiops in the past. The first
few hours were pretty rough as I got swallowed up by the crowd and could not
attract enough guys to get the rate up. You never can recover those lost QSOs.
I’ve been practicing CW every week, but that is not enough when you can’t
attract attention. Some guys get confused when I pick up two calls at once and
work them in succession. S&P is a necessity, but really cuts into the rate,
so it should be done at the same time as running.
When it was solidly dark, after about 3 hours, the rate suddenly picked up, but
nothing near what the rate should be at the beginning. I notice the same
effect when chasing DX during sunrises and sunsets - I’m not effective. I need
a vertical radiator / inverted L in addition to my low inverted vee. There are
no tower crews in the area, so things take time. I have a 102 foot vertical
laying on the ground that still needs some work. Endless projects.
I ran out of energy this fall and have not finished putting up the beverages.
The SAL 30 was OK, but failed during the last couple hours. There is always
plenty of good outside work. I had to pass on a couple guys who I could not
copy. This is unusual because the location is quiet, but lots of receiving
antennas would help. So there are improvements for next year.
The PGXL need to be told not to be so sensitive to SWR when I move about the
band. The inverted vee needs a couple inches of wire added to the ends to move
the resonance and make things perfect. I have lots of indoor work too for the
winter. The shack is comfortable this year after moving all the coax from the
window to an entrance panel in the garage and installing an insulated garage
door and caulking. It’s all part of the station improvement. I have to work
on two VFOs so I can run and search the bands at the same time.
My wife brought warm meals to the shack and this really helped. She did not seem
to be interested in hanging around the shack for a CW contest. I think she
would have gotten a kick when I had QSOs with locals, hams who have visited,
fellow DXpeditioners, CW Ops folks, and contest team members.
Missed NT and had very few DX. It was fun to catch up with the east coast, but
I knew they had the advantage of European multipliers at their sunrise.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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