Stew Perry Topband Challenge - Pre-Stew
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 9.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 455 Total Score = 1,682
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
As usual I paid no attention to the 160 part of my station since the
summer Stew. All of the short verticals (umbrella antennas) work
except the 2nd end-fire pair in the big NE/SW array appears to have a
bad feedline and the defect was not immediately obvious. A quick
check with EZNEC suggests that the 2x4 array still has some useful
directivity even with this failure, so I went ahead and used the
degraded array.
I finally cleared a path through the huge oak tree that fell across my
0/180 degree Beverage. It took a while to build up the nerve to saw
up that tree when it was not completely on the ground for fear of it
falling on me. Fortunately, it was more stable that it first
appeared. I used the due South Beverage for a little while to watch
for callers from the south while listening on the phased arrays.
I again used my 30 degree Beverage as the antenna to combine with the
nulling circuit. This arrangement means I can hear Europe and lots of
other stuff while transmitting. The phasing is radically different
every event. It would be interesting to understand why that is so.
Some day I shall build a box with all of the necessary tools to
achieve a deep null without resorting to random lengths of coax and
numerous barrel connectors. I also must track down the noise that has
crept into the transmitting antenna during the past year or so.
I debated using the ETO91B amplifier I bought from the K8CC estate but
I got lazy and just used the already in-place Alpha 8410. Fortunately
the fan from hell stayed quiet, even at full power. The plan is to
stack the 2 amplifiers vertically, as soon as I determine how much
space I need to allow above the bottom amplifier for proper air flow.
Anyone have any insight? The 8410 has auxiliary fans to boost the
air flow, so maybe that one should be the amp on the bottom.
There were a couple of guys CQing at 3pm Saturday afternoon. Since
there is no limit on the number of off-times so long as they exceed 30
minutes, I made 3 contacts very early then had a snack.
I started operating in earnest shortly after 5pm, 2100Z, which is
about 2 hours before sunset here. So that band was nice and quiet at
the beginning. Even the local power-line buzz and the plasma TV hash
was absent. In fact, I saw no man-made noise all weekend. That might
be a first and is probably a curse of some sort.
Well before sunset I heard snippets of European QSOs: some one said
JO33 and another grid further east that I have already forgotten.
First DX was TM6M at 2243 which is almost exactly sunset. G8AJM threw
me for a loop with JO03 until I looked at a map to reconfirm England
sticks into the JO square just a little.
Shortly after sunset the static began to appear and continued to get
louder all evening. It was loud enough that a well-timed crash would
take out a letter or two of otherwise loud Europeans. By 10pm the
west array was seeing 40db crashes.
It was super cool to work Europeans on the second radio while the
first radio was CQing. Maybe I should put up a dedicated Beverage
pointed at Europe for the second radio and the nulling circuit. Maybe
that would stabilize the phasing requirements.
At one point I stumbled across a pile of Europeans calling a station I
could not hear. There were no NA stations in that pile but there were
several Eu stations that I never hear in contests. They had nice
signals. Too bad they don't contest.
RM4F was once again the best DX to the east. KP2 times 3 was the best
DX to the south.
The rate dropped a lot by 0530Z so I napped for 5 hours. I worked 21
more stations in the 90 minutes before sunrise. I was quite surprised
by a loud KH6/KU1CW when I was not expecting to hear any OC. Then the
very next call was VK6GX for the best DX of the night. He was very
hard to pull through the static and it took some time for my addled
brain to remember that call from previous contests.
So propagation seemed perhaps better than average but terribly
affected by the significant static.
DX worked: 9A, DL (12), F (3), G (2), GM, HA (2), I, KH6, KP2 (3), LA,
LY, LZ, OH, OH0, OK (3), OM, OZ, PA, SM (5), SP (3), UA, UR (3), VK,
and YO for a total of 51 DX QSOs and 24 entities, almost the same as
last year.
Equipment: Elecraft K3S/100, P3, K3/100, P3, Alpha 8410; 2 arrays of
short verticals, computer and SDR and beam steering software; 900-foot
Beverage, 60-foot 'tee' antenna with very droopy top-hat wires over 75
120-foot radials (some no longer connected); homebrew SO2R and audio
routing stuff, and Writelog.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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