Stew Perry Topband Challenge - Dec 18
Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 14
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 676 Total Score = 2,674
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
This year the pandemic arranged for me to take all of my accumulated
vacation time in a big block between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.
I spent that time trying to complete the new version of my SDR beam
steering receiver system. Last year I started moving the system to a
newer, faster, FPGA development board. That part is complete. I
connected the new hardware and 4 receivers to the existing Europe
facing short vertical array Friday evening and discovered a new
problem. So the introduction of the new system has to wait until the
CQ 160 assuming I can resolve the new problem. I still have 2 more
weeks before my professional life resumes.
While testing the Europe verticals on the new hardware, I noticed a
lack of directivity. The lack of directivity seemed to persist after
reconnecting the old hardware. A couple of weeks ago I replaced one
of the feedlines to one set of Europe short verticals, and my feeling
from the ARRL 160 test is that the Europe array is not working
properly. So now I have 2 new problems.
While setting up the full-duplex antenna, I changed the phase shifting
circuit, previously a variable capacitor and coil in parallel, to
series-connected. This arrangement seems to work better when the
antenna is a Beverage. I could get a deep null more easily although
measuring the phase difference and arranging the appropriate phase
shift using a coax delay line is still a major nuisance.
QSO rates were very good when I started around 2130Z but the doldrums
set in early. Finding a new frequency was never difficult, which is a
sure sign that participation was low.
During the contest I used my 30 degree Beverage for European reception
although I still used the phased array to detect European callers.
Thus every barely audible EU signal on the phased array translated to
a copiable signal on the Beverage. Unfortunately, no run ever
developed so I always had to return to the phased array to hear
callers in other direction. I avoided hunting for callers by
switching Beverages. The northwest facing phased array seemed to be
fairly normal.
Like everyone else, I observed that the night was noisy after dark and
that participation seemed low even though propagation seemed normal,
perhaps even good towards Europe. The few URs and UAs I worked were
well above the noise. On the other hand, I did not hear anything west
of the 2 (real) KH6 stations I worked nor did I hear any South America
or Africa.
Here is the annual propagation and participation "trends" table:
raw raw points cooked cooked points cooked-raw
year QSOs score per QSO QSOs score per QSO ratio
2005 491 2033 4.14 483 2439 5.05 1.22
2006 604 2224 3.68 didn't submit log in time
2007 691 3712 5.37 669 4293 6.42 1.19
2008 633 3328 5.26 617 3895 6.31 1.20
2009 761 4006 5.26 737 4871 6.61 1.26
2010 642 2477 3.86 623 2931 4.70 1.22
2011 656 2501 3.81 642 3169 4.94 1.27
2012 679 3214 4.73 667 3986 5.97 1.24
2013 723 3559 4.92 710 4525 6.37 1.30
2014 667 1937 2.90 655 2474 3.77 1.28
2015 620 1934 3.12 614 2440 3.97 1.27
2016 759 3381 4.45 742 4204 5.66 1.27
2017 transmit feedline disaster - quit with only 101 QSOs
2018 785 3587 4.57 764 4238 5.55 1.18
2019 828 4947 5.97 809 5846 7.23 1.21
2020 882 3661 4.15 866 4455 5.14 1.24
2021 676 2574 3.96
Note: the raw numbers are before log checking while the cooked numbers
are after log checking. The cooked numbers exclude busted QSOs and
include the per-QSO multiplier for low power and QRP contacts. The
points per QSO metric seems to be a good indicator of goodness of
propagation whereas the QSO count seems to track participation.
DX worked: 9A (3), DL (15), EA, F (2), FM, G (7), GD, GM (2), GU, GW,
HA (3), HI, LY (3), LZ (2), OE, OH, OK (4), OM, ON (2), OZ, PA (2),
PJ2, SM (3), SP (2), UA (4), UR (7), V3, XE, YL (3), and ZF for a
total of 34 entities.
Equipment: Elecraft K3S, P3, K3, P3, Alpha 8410, homebrew SO2R stuff,
too many computers, 60-foot "tee" vertical over 70 125-foot radials,
2x4 broadside end-fire array of short verticals and SDR receivers for
beam steering to the east, 2x3 broadside end-fire array of short
verticals and SDR receivers for beam steering to the west, and 2x2
broadside end-fire array of short verticals to the north or south (not
used). 6 2-wire Beverages of varying lengths (12 directions), some of
which don't work.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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