ve2ezd
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ARRL 160-Meter Contest - 2011/12/04 09:27
ARRL160 Score Summary Sheet
Start Date : 2011-12-03
CallSign Used : VE2EZD Operator(s) : VE2EZD
Operator Category : SINGLE-OP Band : ALL Power : HIGH (500W) Mode : CW Default Exchange : QC
ARRL Section : QC Club/Team : Contest Group du Quebec Software : N1MM Logger V11.11.4 Total Time On : 11:36 (696 mins)
Band QSOs Pts Sec 1,8 191 394 49 Total 191 394 49
Score : 19 306
Rig : FT-950 + AL-811H + AT2k Antennas : 160m zig-zaging dipole (HI)
Thanks to VE2OJ, VA2EW and VA2WA for the QSOs.
I extended my 80m dipole to tranform it into a 160m antenna. The center of the antenna, mounted on an extension painting pole, is about 16' high. So this is not the best 160m antenna around. But it worked.
I was able to work DX stations VP2MWG, OL7M, OK1TN anf PJ2T. When you are not a big gun station a good strategy is to scan the band looking for DX stations. That's what happened for my QSO with OK1TN saturday night. I was scanning the DX window when I heard "QRL?". I was in luck, it was OK1TN preparing to run on this frequency. I was the first to call him and I made the QSO having to repeat my call only twice. I won't tell you about the pileup that began just after.
The first night was not very good for me. I toiled to reach the 100 Qs mark. Medium signal stations had difficulty copying me. Saturday night was a completely different experience. I worked most of the stations I heard and most of them easily. I experienced some fading that made me demand on occasions for repeats from stations with good signals. And you can guess that their signals seemed to fade just when they are sending their section (LOL).
The station I encountered the most often on the air was "DUPE". Ah, ah, ah. I mean you work a not so far station once and you will hear him during all of the contest. The game is to dig, between the stations you already worked, the weak signals as they appear.
I worked very few stations far to the west. The farthest stations were from ID, WY and NM. I heard a Californian station from EB but he could not hear me.
I solved a problem with my new Digi Keyer II when sending CW. It even made me thinking about reconnecting my WinKeyer USB to send morse code. I discovered that the clicking sound I heard when keying was not from one but from three relays. Beside the radio, you can key an amplifier and an LNA. So there are three relays and they work in a sequence you can program. By default they are all activated. Disabling the AMP and LNA relays made the MicroHam less annoying in CW. I wish I new that last weekend during the CQ WW CW.
The next one will be the Stew Perry, so I hope to meet you there.
73 de Louis, VE2EZD
Post edited by: ve2ezd, at: 2011/12/04 09:32
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