ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 23.3
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 745 Sections = 71 Countries = 3 Total Score = 111,148
Club: South East Contest Club
Comments:
Antennas:
160/80/40m Inverted-L up 10m with 24 radials (8 125', 16 67.5')
150' "Beverage" receiving antenna
Equipment:
Elecraft K3/100 w/ KAT3 running 100 watts
Elecraft K2/100 w/ KAT100 - Receive only
Comments:
A personal best score. I really feel like I am pushing the limits of what can
be done with 100 watts and 1500 feet of wire antennas suspended from trees.
Score might be higher if I had stated up the second night, but I needed to be
functional Sunday morning for Church.
Conditions were good, but not great. Solid signals stateside, but little DX
heard. No Europeans heard, and precious little from the Caribbean.
Two radio setup was done hastily about an hour before the contest started. I
used this arrangement in 2013, but found that the K2 needed a real receiving
antenna. While I intended to deploy switchable K9AY loops, I had not finished
the work on the pushbutton controller. So, I used the K9AY outdoor box as an
anchor for a short Beverage-like antenna. At only 150 feet, it's not long
enough for a beverage, nor was it terminated. However, it did the trick and did
allow me to listen on the K2. This allowed me to populate the band map while
CQing on the K3 during slow periods. Probably no material increase in Qs, but
it did let me see what was going on in the band during the slow periods CQing.
Definitely more useful than in 2013, although the K3 was definitely overloading
the K2.
Started the contest at 2201z and continued all night until 1230z -- which is
right at sunrise. Going all night was tough, but netted 544 QSOs and 68
multipliers. The early part of the night was spent CQing, with delightfully
high rates. A few sessions of S & P to look for mults, as well as when rates
got slow after 0600z.
Worked 47 states - all but AK, HI and MT. Thats all of 0-, 1-, 2-, 3-, 8-, and
9-land. Worked all of 4-land except for PR, which I never heard. I did hear one
HI station, but he never heard me.
Second night started at 2210z until 0456z. Perhaps it would have been better to
stay until at least 0600z, but I was already exhausted. Got back on at 1040z
and switched off at 1240z for a total of over 23 hours. There are only 28 total
hours of darkness during the contest in this part of the world, and I managed
to be on the air for 22 of them.
Passed 700 Qs around 0430z, which put me into personal record territory. What I
was lacking was mults. My previous best in 2010 I had 78 mults. There was no DX
to be found. I worked XE, PJ2 and ZF. Heard a V3 right at dawn the second
morning, but he could not hear me.
Found some missing mults the second night, with MT, LAX, SCV, SV. MAR and
finally WTX for a total of 74. My 2010 effort had 78 mults. Let's hope the
score stays high with the judging.
It was very hard the second night to decide between calling CQ and S & P. I
ended up doing mostly S & P for the simple reason that the rate was better.
However, I always felt I was missing out on some Qs from casual ops because I
wasn't calling CQ.
High notes: hearing N4IQ call NY4G to encourage him. Working W1OP on the first
try. I've been in too many contests where this guy was completely deaf.
Low notes: several frequency fights. I always listen, send QRL?, listen some
more before I start to CQ. Even so, if you catch me in the first couple of CQs,
I'm happy to move. A few guys dumped CQs on me while I was trying to run. But
what is really annoying is the guys who appear on frequency after you have been
there several minutes (maybe even with several QSOs in the books) and send QRL,
QRL, QSY and call CQ. One ham insisted he had been there for four hours.
Sorry, I don't care how many hours you've been on the frequency, if you've run
off to the bathroom or gone away for several minutes to play with your other
radio and you don't hear my QRL? or first CQs, then you aren't using the
frequency.
And don't dump in a CQ without at least listening or calling QRL? And if
someone sends even one dit in response to your QRL?, move. He maybe listening
to a weak station you can't hear and trying to copy an exchange.
Oh, and K1OJ -- you are not anywhere in my log. If someone calls you multiple
times, don't just send QSO B4 -- there may be a reason they are calling. Just
work them and move on.
In any case, had a blast on 160m. See you again next year.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
-- Wilbur Wright, 1901
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