This is a very VERY long message
Okay....you wanna run a multi-op and make a bunch of points for your club,
try and introduce any newcomers who are inerested into the fun of
contesting....but you find that you only have three guys available for the
whole weekend, your fourth key player has had an illness in the family and
cannot show - decision time....what do you do?
Simple - kill yourself and enter multi-multi anyway...of course! Sure,
have three guys each get three or four hours sleep on the second night and
it is a cake walk, right?
Uggggggggggggggggh.......
I still cannot believe how something so humanly punishing can be so damn
fun - the contester is the guy who's picture is next to the word
"masochist" in Webster's unabridged dictionary......
-...-
Just like the last two multi-ops, our operators seemed to have something
happen just before the contest and again I found myself scrambling to get
it together in time.
K1TO and WD4AHZ would be able to operate full time and would show up on
Friday at mid-day....AJ4Y would only be able to get there on Sunday
morning....what to do....what to do...
Hell with it - stick with the original game plan - go MM....besides WRTC
champ K1TO is worth two ops anyway!
-...-
I took Thursday and Friday prior to the contest off from work hoping to get
the antenna work all done in time for the contest and almost pulled it
off....
The past few months have seen the addition of some new antennas - most of
them judged to be worthy after the weekend's battle...the only
disappointment really was the quarter mile long unterminated beverage which
didn't do a thing....next time I will go shorter and terminate it....
The goal of sucessfully running a multi-op is not easy....and although over
the past few years I have been getting the swing of it in no way am I close
to really figuring out all the ins and outs....
A lesson previously learned was not heeded and a price was paid...by
waiting until the last minute to set up the station (rather than setting it
up the previous weekend like I had learned two years ago is the only way to
fly) the usual bugaboos crept in - bad feedlines and interstation
interference which could have been found prior to the contest were
discovered during the contest....lots of time was lost during the contest
due to having to fix things. While a lot was gotten done pre-contest, not
enough was gotten done to do it right....
The weekend before the contest was the Orlando Hamcation and several of the
Florida Contest Group guys stopped by the shack after the club meeting to
help out with some antenna work on Saturday afternoon....some work was also
done on Sunday, this coupled with my taking off from work on Thursday and
Friday as "vacation" days meant we were indeed able to be QRV on all 6
bands...most of which with a relatively good signal...
-...-
More and more I am realizing the need to understand computers is not
necessary, but mandatory....a lot of time prior to the contest was spent
banging my head against the oprerating table trying to get comm ports
(which I thought worked) to comm....I had two instances of "one way" comm
ports which would add info to the network of computers, but wouldn't get
info out of it....very frustrating for an appliance operator like myself.
The worst instance of time wasting was my trying to figure out why the
network wasn't getting onto the porch....when I realised I had the printer
cable in the comm port I was, shall we say, a little disappointed with
myself.
After none of our club members were able to come up with another two comm
port computer to bring to the party I decided to make an "early" purchase
of a computer for my son, who has returned to college. I had bought Pete a
'386 a few months back, but that was unrealistic...it lacked the horsepower
to run Windows 95, etc....so on Friday AM I went out aiming for a 486
machine....and also some more computer cabling to interconnect the fourth
computer into our network....while we had had four stations set up before
this was the first time we would have four computers, too! (actually there
were 5...read on). Using the rationale that on contest weekends I would
borrow the computer form Pete allowing us to set up for the
multi-multis....now, to find a task for that '386.....hmmmmmmmm.
So, with the debit card in hand I went off on Friday morning to buy goodies
for the weekend.....the place where I bought my last used computer sold me
another 486 with two comm ports which was capable of running Windows 95 and
I felt that I was a-ok on the computer front ....a trip to the Office Depot
netted the cabling and gender changing pieces and parts I needed to add one
more computer into the chain....mind you I was shopping for a computer with
two comm ports....to add to my network. A stop was made at Home Depot to
pick up some EMT conduit and some PVC T-fittings, these would be the
supports for the beverage.
Upoon returning home with the machine, I inserted it into the network only
to find that only one of the two comm ports was alive.....#$%&.....I called
the guy on the phone and told him "did you remember the first words out of
my mouth when I came into your store this morning?"...to which he responded
"its the comm ports, right?"
He enncouraged me to hang on for about 45 minutes until his tech came in
and he would call me back after talking to his tech, we had tried some
diagnostic stuff over the phone but it was not looking good....his guess
was that at one time the system had had an internal modem and somehow the
machine was still thinking it was in there - occupying comm 2.
After speaking with his tech he said the only thing to do would be for me
to bring the computer back to the store and that he would be able to
exchange it with another 486, the one that had been "towering" next to
it....at the time I opted for the 486 in a bigger case because it looked
like it had more metal (rf shielding) than the other computer....by this
time however it was mid day and I was starting to panic about the antenna
work left to be done not to mention moving feedlines to the appropriate
stations, etc.....
An Angel appeared (AKA W1YL) and Mom volunteered to run the computer down
to the dealer and do the trade out of the machines....while Mom was gone
K1TO and WD4AHZ showed up...we analyzed what HAD to get done before the
contest and what we thought could be accomplished and what could not.
At this point K1TO and W1CW paired up for "cow patrol" - they would string
the quarter mile of electric fence wire beverage antenna. A friendly
neighbor has land to the West and South of the W1CW/W1YL QTH....the
beverage was run NE/SW fed at the NE end and UN-terminated.....while 'CW
and 'TO were doing this at one point I wanted to ask W1CW a question only
to find out that he and K1TO were so far away that it took WD4AHZ and I a
full minute to spot them on the horizon....I was beginning to worry if they
had fallen into a Florida sink hole...or if mebbe they had pissed off the
cows! The beverage was a thing to behold, too bad it didn't play - damn it
looked great....
WD4AHZ and I were working on getting all the cabling for the gear done and
I pulled coax out of the "shack" wall and pushed it through the porch wall
where the two added positions of our four transmitter set up were
located...we had 20 and 40 inside the shack, and the two positions on the
porch were 15/160 and 10/80.
About this time W1YL showed up with another computer which I quickly drove
to the C: prompt, made my subdirectory, and loaded CT......after
configuring the software for the two comm ports as network (have you been
paying attention - this is 2 comm ports) and finding that both would talk
all around the network if I used either comm port I breathed a sigh of
relief....this computer was at the 40 meter end of the network...but why
would a computer at the end of a network need two comm ports?
While it had not been debugged just yet we hoped to be able to run Fabio,
IK4VYX's www spotting software on K1TO's laptop (the fifth computer) hooked
up to the WWW. The packet cluster system in FL is poor in that while it is
great during non-contest times it seems that during the contests you can
depend on the local node loosing its connection to the www spots! For
several weeks I had been watching the www networks and the amount of
traffic they handled during NON-contest times and could only imagine how
great it would be to be getting fed all that info at each position.
Unfortunately the contest started without our having the WWW packet spots
getting into the network but that never deterred K1TO....Dan insisted on
toying with it whenever his rate dropped below a hundred per hour...and
finally on Sunday afternoon with about three or four hours left to go he
pulled it off....
Like an epiphany on Sunday afternoon, suddenly the www spots were in the
network and flowing to all four positions........we had been having an op
watch the screen on the "independant" computer and if he saw something
juicy then put it in as a gab message on the networked computer for all to
behold....this "fourth" position duty was without doubt the most demanding
of all tasks during the weekend....I did this for a while on Sunday and
about lost it........I was going bonkers....here is the scenario....
You keep an eye on the www spots as they scroll past...type them in on the
other computer in the network as they show up - hit F10 to see if it is a
newbie....if it is - ALt-G type in a msg to the network.....F11 clear and
do it again....ugh.....this was stressful I was about to burst when
suddenly a spot came across the network and I exploded in laughter.
If you have never seen the Halloween Beavis and Butthead show or their
movie, you will not get this.....but you must trust me when I say I was in
tears....
As I was typing away fast and furious to see if the www spots were new ones
a spot rolled past for V31TP, if memory serves it was posted by
KC1XX.......along with the post was a message line - it was the quote from
B& B "I need TP for my bunghole"......I know this is crude and crass and
all that - but when you have only had 4 hours sleep in the past two days
and you have been contesting like a madman this is a hoot.
Not content with that as being a sufficient tribute to B&B, I felt I had to
spot C0RN/H0LEO (Cornholio was the name used in B&B by the character who
needed the TP)....
Not to be outdone, W9JA posted C0RN/H0LIO "callsign corrected"....
I was SO punchy at this state that I was in tears - all I got was odd looks
from WD4AHZ who was on 20 at the time.....like I say if you have not seen
B&B you just won't get it - if you do you are probably howling now.
Back to radio....
The bands...
10 was slim pickins with 113 X 53, unfortunately it did not open up like
it did in the CQWW where we were able to run Euros....thanks to AJ4Y for
running 10 on Sunday when the picking was REALLY slim especially after
WD4AHZ had spent the previous day milking the band.....at one point on
Sunday afternoon a gab message came across from AJ4Y exclaiming an LU had
come back to a CQ! Maybe by next year the spots will have brought ten
back....
While 10 may not have been there 15 sure was....K1TO took the chair on
Saturday AM and had a ball....successive hours on 15 were 134/165/121 -
with QRATE yielding a high 60 minute period at a rate of
183....awesome.....it was a rush just watching the screen as the qsos
rolled by for Dan....wow. Fifteen kept going., too....it stayed open long
and we ended up with 1363 X 106....without doubt our best band of the
weekend.
The new 20 meter beam stack with WX0B stackmmatch is an improvement over
the last 20 meter array but we still need more work...or mebbe it is just
that after what K1TO did on 15 kind of left the me deflated! The upper 20
at 112 was killer into JA...when the www packet spots were linked in at the
end of the contest and there was a JA spotted, I would jump on them as soon
as they showed up and all but one was a "one call" and I was in - this
included beating out K1AR, W3LPL, KC1XX and many big guns ,and WX0B -
too...it works Jay! The lower beam at 70 ft proved to be the only antenna
that was able to run Euro during mid day and even then it was slow
going....by this Fall we will hopefully have three of the 204BAs stacked
and we will see if mebbe the two lower ones, or all three, are better than
just one lower one! Twenty meter total 1142 X 98.
Forty was not as good as in years gone by - but still fun - some good DX
was had including some JA runs on 40 and of course all those Europeans, the
usual running on 40 wasn't quite as productive - dunno if the DX was
getting its yah yahs on 15 or what...total 772 X 96.
80 was outfitted with a new South sloper and the EU sloper of last
year...the low SS dipole was also an option, I had hoped to add a West
SLoper but time ran out.....while we could get through quicklly we still
are NOT in New England and running EU is not productive on 80 - oh
well...... 221 X 66.
160 This worked well this year, seemed a little better than in years gone
by - like 160 we are not able to run anything but there were was no problem
working anything we heard including those wondeful top band JA QSOs at
sunrise....it is incredile how loud they are for a few minutes - they are
actually louder it seems than they are on 20 most times!
Bottom line 3685 X 462.....for 5.1 M
Is it a record breaker - NO - it is not
Is it a contender - NO - it is not
Was it a blast - YOU BET!
It was so much of a blast that I cannot wait until next year, and you can
be sure the antennas and their performance will have gone up a notch! I
hope we will have more sunsopts to move us more into the higher bands where
our distance from EU will not be as critical as it is on 80/160.
The only really bad event of the weekend for me was being called a liar by
a DX ham who did so in reply to my saying that I had been on the frequency,
which he insisted I took from him, for hours....it was true - I HAD been
there - we had been passing QSOs between 21 MHz and 14050 for hours....but
he seemed to think that since it was a contest weekend I would obviously be
telling a lie about having been there for hours....yeah, right. My guess -
I went after a packet spot - he sent QRL and I of course was gone for 10
seconds tops - and he of course laid claim to the
frequency.....whatever.....for a few minutes I let him get me mad, then I
found a new frequency and they reprogrammed the QSY message at 15 - not
worth it....it is a shame we have come to name calling however....in an age
of litigation I was shocked by what I heard, too! Of course he is not in
the 'states.
I had some good runs, enjoyed it immensly and continue to wonder how anyone
cannot love contesting.
Oh yes, the icing on the cake, getting the new computer set up on Monday
night after the contest to make sure it will be okay for my son...and then
finding out it sure runs fast, whats going on....check Win95 control panel
for system and find out that instead of the other 486 with a coupla hundred
MB of memory and 12K of RAM , the computer store guy gave Mom a Pentium
w/1.6GB of hard drive and 16 MB of RAM....sorry Pete, you will be getting
my "old" 486! Guess I made him feel real bad about giving me a bad
machine....cool.
The breakdowns follow below....
Is this a great hobby or what?
Special thanks to W1CW and W1YL - I cannot imagine a better environment to
contest from....oh and that dinner or Friday night - Ma....wow!
73, tnx DX!
Jim, K4OJ
(Almost caught up on my sleep! Time to roll up the beverage on Saturday!)
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults K4OJ ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Multi Multi
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM
TOT
0 2/2 22/13 47/24 29/24 3/3 ..... 103/66 103/66
1 2/2 . 36/6 26/5 2/1 . 66/14 169/80
2 . . 38/11 15/1 . . 53/12 222/92
3 17/14 17/7 45/7 . . . 79/28
301/120
4 13/11 41/14 21/6 . . . 75/31
376/151
5 14/7 32/8 19/6 1/1 . . 66/22
442/173
6 17/4 20/5 22/6 . . . 59/15
501/188
7 2/1 18/7 27/5 . . . 47/13
548/201
8 ..... 14/9 17/4 6/5 ..... ..... 37/18
585/219
9 . 10/2 45/7 5/3 . . 60/12
645/231
10 1/0 5/1 30/1 12/6 . . 48/8
693/239
11 4/1 1/0 23/1 62/12 . . 90/14
783/253
12 1/0 . . 121/6 134/35 . 256/41
1039/294
13 . . . 53/3 165/10 7/3 225/16
1264/310
14 . . . 97/4 121/3 13/7 231/14
1495/324
15 . . . 63/4 93/2 18/9 174/15
1669/339
16 ..... ..... 2/0 44/1 87/1 8/3 141/5
1810/344
17 . . . 28/0 51/0 13/4 92/4
1902/348
18 . . . 44/2 28/8 1/1 73/11
1975/359
19 . . . 44/1 31/16 4/4 79/21
2054/380
20 . . . 33/1 9/1 7/4 49/6
2103/386
21 . . . 17/3 26/1 6/4 49/8
2152/394
22 . . 1/0 15/2 49/2 . 65/4
2217/398
23 . . 37/1 4/1 53/4 . 94/6
2311/404
0 ..... 10/0 20/0 2/0 36/2 ..... 68/2
2379/406
1 . 4/0 19/1 1/1 . . 24/2
2403/408
2 . 7/0 10/0 13/2 . . 30/2
2433/410
3 . 6/0 47/1 9/1 . . 62/2
2495/412
4 . 10/0 18/3 . . . 28/3
2523/415
5 . 4/0 7/1 . . . 11/1
2534/416
6 . . 61/2 . . . 61/2
2595/418
7 . . 52/2 3/1 . . 55/3
2650/421
8 1/1 ..... 36/0 ..... ..... ..... 37/1
2687/422
9 . . 13/1 4/1 . . 17/2
2704/424
10 . . 8/0 . . . 8/0
2712/424
11 . . 1/0 15/2 2/2 . 18/4
2730/428
12 . . . 54/2 88/3 . 142/5
2872/433
13 . . . 51/1 73/1 2/0 126/2
2998/435
14 . . . 29/0 82/4 5/3 116/7
3114/442
15 . . . 29/0 61/1 7/5 97/6
3211/448
16 ..... ..... ..... 42/0 70/2 5/3 117/5
3328/453
17 . . . 41/0 39/2 3/1 83/3
3411/456
18 . . 2/0 38/1 15/0 2/0 57/1
3468/457
19 . . . 30/1 5/0 3/0 38/1
3506/458
20 . . . 32/0 4/1 4/0 40/1
3546/459
21 . . 6/0 15/0 8/1 4/2 33/3
3579/462
22 . . 26/0 11/0 21/0 1/0 59/0
3638/462
23 . . 36/0 4/0 11/0 . 51/0
3689/462
DAY1 73/42 180/66 410/85 719/85 852/87 77/39 .....
2311/404
DAY2 1/1 41/0 362/11 423/13 515/19 36/14 . 1378/58
TOT 74/43 221/66 772/96 1142/98 1367/106 113/53 .
3689/462
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr K4OJ ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Multi
Multi
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 3/46 9/144 30/95 17/104 3/63 ..... 61/102
61/102
1 2/75 . 28/76 27/58 2/50 . 59/67 120/84
2 . . 48/47 12/75 . . 60/53 180/74
3 12/83 11/91 36/74 . . . 60/79 240/75
4 14/55 33/75 15/83 . . . 62/73 302/75
5 11/75 34/57 13/88 0/180 . . 58/68 360/74
6 20/51 18/66 22/59 . . . 61/59 421/71
7 1/81 23/47 40/41 . . . 64/44 485/68
8 ..... 22/39 28/37 6/61 ..... ..... 55/40 540/65
9 . 10/61 46/59 4/71 . . 60/60 600/64
10 0/164 5/65 44/41 11/65 . . 60/48 661/63
11 1/236 5/13 22/63 32/115 . . 60/90 721/65
12 0/200 . . 31/232 28/288 . 59/258 780/80
13 . . . 11/301 48/205 1/382 60/225 840/90
14 . . . 26/221 31/234 3/296 60/231
900/100
15 . . . 22/171 33/169 6/176 61/170
961/104
16 ..... ..... 1/124 18/148 38/136 2/244 59/143
1020/106
17 . . . 15/115 37/84 9/86 60/92
1081/106
18 . . . 38/70 22/77 0/189 60/73
1140/104
19 . . . 36/73 18/103 7/37 61/78
1201/103
20 . . . 43/46 9/60 7/60 59/50
1260/100
21 . . . 22/47 21/74 6/56 49/60 1309/99
22 . . 1/59 12/74 47/62 . 61/64 1370/97
23 . . 18/126 2/117 40/80 . 59/95 1429/97
0 ..... 9/66 18/67 4/30 30/72 ..... 61/67 1490/96
1 . 7/37 38/30 4/14 . . 49/29 1539/94
2 . 11/38 13/46 19/41 . . 43/42 1582/92
3 . 7/50 45/62 7/78 . . 60/63 1642/91
4 . 25/24 39/28 . . . 63/27 1705/89
5 . 13/18 16/26 . . . 30/22 1735/88
6 . . 60/61 . . . 60/61 1795/87
7 . . 57/55 3/63 . . 60/55 1854/86
8 0/124 ..... 64/34 ..... ..... ..... 64/35 1918/84
9 . . 38/21 6/39 . . 44/23 1962/83
10 . . 21/22 . . . 21/22 1984/82
11 . . 4/14 17/54 2/74 . 22/48 2006/82
12 . . . 27/120 33/160 . 60/142 2066/83
13 . . . 21/148 38/117 1/84 60/127 2126/85
14 . . . 10/169 49/100 1/383 60/115 2186/85
15 . . . 18/98 38/95 4/101 60/96 2247/86
16 ..... ..... ..... 22/115 36/115 1/222 60/118 2306/87
17 . . . 30/81 28/84 2/116 60/83 2366/86
18 . . 6/19 42/55 10/93 5/27 62/55 2428/86
19 . . . 49/37 6/54 3/56 58/39 2486/85
20 . . . 53/36 2/118 5/47 60/40 2547/84
21 . . 9/42 32/29 15/32 5/50 60/33 2606/82
22 . . 24/65 10/64 25/50 2/35 61/58 2667/82
23 . . 38/56 5/50 14/48 . 57/54 2724/81
DAY1 1.1/67 2.8/64 6.5/63 6.4/112 6.3/136 0.7/112 ..... 23.8/97
DAY2 0.0/124 1.2/34 8.2/44 6.3/67 5.4/95 0.5/75 . 21.6/64
TOT 1.1/68 4.0/55 14.7/52 12.7/90 11.7/117 1.2/97 . 45.4/81
BREAKDOWN in kilo-points by hr K4OJ ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Multi
Multi
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 12 87 165 153 19 ..... 437 437
1 12 . 58 46 7 . 123 560
2 . . 87 16 . . 103 663
3 89 51 70 . . . 210 873
4 70 106 48 . . . 224 1096
5 48 66 46 6 . . 167 1264
6 34 42 48 . . . 124 1387
7 7 51 46 . . . 105 1492
8 ..... 60 34 32 ..... ..... 125 1617
9 . 18 70 20 . . 108 1725
10 1 9 26 42 . . 78 1803
11 8 1 21 109 . . 140 1943
12 1 . . 117 287 . 404 2347
13 . . . 53 170 21 244 2591
14 . . . 89 100 48 238 2829
15 . . . 66 76 62 204 3032
16 ..... ..... 1 36 66 22 125 3158
17 . . . 19 35 31 86 3244
18 . . . 42 64 6 111 3355
19 . . . 36 110 25 171 3526
20 . . . 28 12 27 67 3593
21 . . . 28 24 26 78 3672
22 . . 1 21 45 . 67 3739
23 . . 31 8 59 . 98 3837
0 ..... 7 14 1 36 ..... 58 3895
1 . 3 19 6 . . 28 3923
2 . 5 7 20 . . 32 3955
3 . 4 38 12 . . 54 4009
4 . 7 29 . . . 36 4045
5 . 3 10 . . . 13 4058
6 . . 53 . . . 53 4111
7 . . 47 8 . . 55 4166
8 6 ..... 25 ..... ..... ..... 31 4197
9 . . 15 8 . . 23 4220
10 . . 6 . . . 6 4226
11 . . 1 21 12 . 35 4260
12 . . . 48 78 . 126 4386
13 . . . 41 56 1 98 4485
14 . . . 20 79 20 119 4604
15 . . . 20 48 33 100 4704
16 ..... ..... ..... 29 60 20 109 4813
17 . . . 28 38 8 74 4887
18 . . 1 32 10 1 45 4932
19 . . . 26 3 2 32 4964
20 . . . 22 8 3 33 4997
21 . . 4 10 11 14 39 5037
22 . . 18 8 15 1 41 5078
23 . . 25 3 8 . 35 5113
DAY1 283 490 754 969 1072 269 ..... 3837
DAY2 6 28 312 365 462 102 . 1276
TOT 289 518 1066 1334 1534 372 . 5113
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