[NLRS] contest summaries...long
Dave Aho - N9TTX
n9ttx at yahoo.com
Sun Mar 20 16:19:57 EST 2005
Here are a bunch of contesting summaries and soapboxes
for this fall/winters events for me. I am not sure
what I had posted before, so it may be old hat for
some eyes. I don’t have internet service at the house
still, so I can’t remember which contests I posted
before. So here goes in chronological order:
There are no entries for the MNQP as I did not hear
anyone at all on any of the bands for that one, and
also nothing for the 10-10 winter contest as the band
was graveyard silent except for about 10 minutes early
morning of trying with the only VERY QSB station heard
all that weekend. I did contribute to various other
state/country QSO parties and general contacting and
made a few new states and countries though.
I also participated in the TCFMC Groundwave
competition on 10-Meters as a 5 county rover.
For the MWA team scoring please credit the scores to
the Green Team this year.
TCFMC 10-meter Groundwave 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Mobile
Mode: Mixed
Phone QSO’s 22 X 1 = 22 pts
CW QSO’s 15 X 2 = 30 pts
Total QSO points = 52
Counties worked = 10
Single element Vertical or dipole antenna (2 mult
bonus)= 2
Total Multipliers = 12
Grand total: 52 QSO points X 12 mult => 624
total points
This was an interesting exercise. I mounted/tuned the
Valor AM-5 antenna on the Blue Whale, and pulled a
small utility trailer behind with a tripod mounted on
it’s bed to facilitate raising an antron-99. I ran an
RCI-2950DX with a straight key and a small 100W brick
from a separate battery. I activated 5 counties in
the 5 hours of the contest. This was sort of a
“Planned” spur of the moment exercise. I did not have
anything set up mobile in the van, so it was a toss it
together and hope for the best bit. I did plan on
going mobile, but had not had the time to organize. I
got some good ideas for next year. I had not used a
straight key since about 1995 when I got my HF
privileges, so it was a chore to relearn that Ameco
key again. I did make a CW contact while steering
with my knee while steadying the key with one hand and
keying with the other while I went down I-94 at 65
mph, but other than that last CW contact, I did all my
CW work while stationary.
CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: SSB
Country: United States
Zone: 04
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES
COUNTRIES
160 3 2
0.67 2 2
80 15 29 1.93
6 5
40 7 14
2.00 4 7
20 64 171 2.67
18 32
15 100 254 2.54
19 49
10 100 264 2.64
17 38
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 289 734 2.54
66 133 => 146,066
This was the best all-time contest score for me. As
it was until the ARRL DX contests in February and
March, 2005, this was the last time the old FT-101ZD
actually did not act up to it’s Hair-pulling (and I
have a lot of it to pull) antics of frequency
shifting. New countries for the paperchasing totals
across the bands…particularly on the low bands where I
got extremely lucky in a few cases.
ARRL SWEEPSTAKES -- 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: CW
Section: WI
BAND QSO QSO PTS SECTIONS
160 0 0 -
80 36 72 -
40 40 80 -
20 40 80 -
15 27 54 -
10 18 36 -
-----------------------------------
Totals 161 322 65
Score: 20,930
ARRL SWEEPSTAKES -- 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: SSB
Section: WI
BAND QSO QSO PTS SECTIONS
160 0 0 -
80 43 86 -
40 75 150 -
20 80 160 -
15 72 144 -
10 26 52 -
-----------------------------------
Totals 296 592 67
Score: 39,664
Both the CW and SSB Sweeps were not good. The “ZD”
was shifting frequency so much I gave up, and although
for the CW portion, the
TS-120S worked fine, it has no filter so it was almost
impossible for me to concentrate on the signals. For
the SSB, it (the TS-120) developed an attitude for
running through the tuner and such, and threw a
carrier whenever keying up and showed a consistent
(non-tunable SWR) on the high bands. A pain when
everything is run through the tuner for my rig/antenna
switching purposes and setup at this time. The bands
were good, but the rigs were a pain so I gave up early
in both cases.
CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: CW
Country: United States
Zone: 4
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO ZONES
COUNTRIES
160 4 6 1.50 1 2
80 12 23 1.92 4 3
40 30 65 2.17 10 19
20 58 143 2.47 17 37
15 45 106 2.36 14 27
10 33 84 2.55 13 18
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 182 427 2.35 59 106
=> 70,455
The same Frequency shifting problem got worse here for
the 101ZD, and toward the end I gave up
early…otherwise I would have made a good score.
Almost every contact was a battle to stay on frequency
both in RX and TX. I had to constantly watch the
readout and be quick on the dial if I noticed it
“taking a hike” up or down the band. I did not use
the 120 for the aforementioned non-filter issue. High
points were busting pileups to Senegal and Antarctica.
ARRL 160 METER CONTEST -- 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: Mono 160
Mode: CW
Section: WI
QSO QSO PTS PTS/QSO SECTIONS
COUNTRIES
Totals 100 200 2.00 35
0 = 7,000
I whomped my last year score of under 1K by a good 6K.
And all this was done with loading up the G5RV as the
standard dipole and not as an end-fed. It was a
struggle with the shifting on frequency, but it did
not seem to be as bad for this contest. The antenna
was the determining factor though. It was a real
struggle to be heard as you can imagine, but although
the signal was inefficient and week, it did work, and
I didn’t do so bad…at least compared to last year.
ARRL 10 METER CONTEST -- 2004
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: Mono 10
Mode: Mixed Mode
State: WI
MODE QSO QSO PTS STATES COUNTRIES
CW 24 100 8 8
SSB 41 82 12 10
-----------------------------------------
Totals 65 182 20 18 =
6,916
Most miserable to say the least. Bottom of the cycle
for sure. The propagation Gods were definitely
sleeping this contest. I thought last year was
bottomed out…but this year took the cake. I am used
to doing the 41 SSB contacts going to work in the
mobile (albeit at 300-500 watts compared to 150 watts
at best at home) in a period of two days (3 hours
worth of driving).
NORTH AMERICAN QSO PARTY -- 2005
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: CW
Country: United States
MODE QSO QSO PTS STATES COUNTRIES
CW 50 50 31 0
-----------------------------------------
Totals 50 50 31 0 =
1,550
NORTH AMERICAN QSO PARTY -- 2005
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: SSB
Country: United States
MODE QSO QSO PTS STATES COUNTRIES
SSB 60 60 29 0
-----------------------------------------
Totals 60 60 29 0 =
1,740
Scores speak for themselves…Ugh!!! Not good. Between
conditions and rig problems, the showing by me on
these two contests was not good.
ARRL VHF SWEEPSTAKES -- 2005
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: Mixed Mode
State: WI
BAND QSO QSO PTS GRIDS
50 25 25 7
144 36 36 12
222 19 38 6
432 24 48 6
1.2 6 24 1
-----------------------------------
Totals 110 171 32 = 5,472
Again, the propagation was bad…no 6-meter opening at
all. Only a little local enhancement for a short bit.
I was not hearing signals on any bands like I should,
but I did notice that for the first time, my 432 was
actually working well, and when I did make contacts,
the 220 (after re-running the 220 feedline) and 432
were apparently working quite well. 144 was about
normal other than band conditions. 1296 was
disappointing, and 50 was even more so. I was
disappointed at the score, but it seemed that most
everyone was in the same conditions.
ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 2005
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: CW
Section: WI
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES
160 0 0 0.0 0
80 3 9 3.0 3
40 25 75 3.0 21
20 93 279 3.0 48
15 120 360 3.0 52
10 27 81 3.0 16
--------------------------------------
Totals 268 804 3.0 140 =
112,560
Propagation picked up other than for 10 meters of
course…and the low bands were not too great. I did
work a bunch of new countries for the paperchasing on
multiple bands though. The frequency shifting on the
101ZD was annoying at worse or very calmed down this
time. I did beat my last year’s score, which was my
overall goal. The money band was 15 meters which was
HOT, with 20 being a close second. 40 was ok for Q’s,
but really good for country totals.
ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 2005
Call: N9TTX
Category: Single Operator
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: SSB
Section: WI
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES
160 0 0 0.0 0
80 0 0 0.0 0
40 24 72 3.0 18
20 113 339 3.0 57
15 128 384 3.0 57
10 40 120 3.0 14
--------------------------------------
Totals 305 915 3.0 146 =
133,590
Propagation was still down, and the 120 was still
being finicky on the high bands and since the low
bands were not good to me, it was essentially used as
a band opening check Receiver. Again the money bands
were 15 and 20 respectively. 10 finally opened up for
an OK showing on Sunday morning/afternoon, but
propagation was weird. Shooting anywhere from 30 to
180 degrees AWAY from the station worked seemed best
rather than on actual normal headings. The 101ZD
hardly shifted at all (maybe a couple dozen times, but
definitely not like it was before). 10 meters was an
interesting time. The 101ZD puts about 50-75 watts in
the air on 28Mhz, and has great RX sensitivity and
audio. The Turbo is in need of sensitivity and audio
work, but it tosses 125-150 watts into the air, so if
I found a new mult., I tuned in on the ZD, got the
info, and worked the pileup on the Turbo with RX audio
being distorted but recognizable…the combo worked, but
it was an exercise in running switches toggling the
two rigs and the ZD band-switch to save on front end
overload. High points were busting a few good sized
pileups on the high bands, working a bunch of new
countries for paperchasing, actually getting an ok
total on 40 when it finally had propagation, and
beating last year’s score before going out to help
with W0AIH later on Saturday night and Sunday
afternoon after 10 died off. Low points were of
course 10 meter propagation, early low band el-stinko
conditions, and at the end, I accidentally broke one
side of the G5RV when I neglected to remember to untie
it from the passenger side mirror of the van when I
took off for the farm on Sunday. I heard a “tionk”,
and saw the sheared off half of the “ground side” of
the antenna swinging in the breeze…Oops—Soldering iron
time. That’s what I get for having 4 hours of sleep
since Thursday night/Friday morning.
WISCONSIN QSO PARTY 2005
Call: K9CVC
Category: Multi-op, multi transmitter mobile
Power: Low Power
Band: All Band
Mode: Mixed mode
Section: WI
Counties worked from: Eau Claire, Chippewa, Dunn,
St. Croix,
Pierce, Pepin, Buffalo, Trempealeau,
Jackson, Clark, Taylor
Phone QSO’s: 97 X 1 = 97 QSO points
CW QSO’s: 375 X 2 = 750 QSO points
Total QSO’s: 472 847 QSO points X 1.5 (Low Power)
1270.5 Total QSO points
Counties: 31
States: 32
Provinces: 3
# of counties activated: 11
1270.5 QSO points X 66 multipliers = 83,853 points
Activated county bonus @ 500 ea. = 5,500 points
WIQP total score = 89,353 points
Justin (K9MU) and I (N9TTX) took the blue whale out to
rove through a planned 10 counties. We had 3 HF
antennas, and 1 2-meter antenna on the van, running 3
rigs. We had CW interference (From Justin in the
passenger seat) from 40 meters into all the other
bands through 6 meters, so the SSB station run by me
was very limited. The 2-meter FM and 6-meter SSB
bands were the predominant phone bands, although I did
get in a few other various band QSO’s here and there.
We banked hours in the 1st few counties and by the
time we were sitting in Clark, a spur of the moment
decision was made to try and activate Taylor County,
and we were off. 5 miles shy of Taylor (downtown
Thorp), we were pulled over for a defective brake
light, supposed no bumper (it is there but barely),
and a cracked windshield. The Squad was friendly and
only a violation warning was given, so off we went,
activated Taylor with about 20 minutes to spare, and
ended the contest. I suprisingly had almost 100 QSO’s
on my rigs. Justin was the Morse code Demon…he had
pileups throughout the day, and was the meat and
potatoes of our points and multipliers. Next year if
we do this again as a rove, there are going to be
filters installed.
The equipment run consisted of:
Icom 746 Pro into a homebrew 40 meter coil loaded
antenna and an
optional Hamstick 80 meter whip.
Yaesu 100D/tuner into a Valor AM-5 multiband antenna
for 40 through 6
meters.
Kenwood TM-621A for 2 meter FM (no 220 antenna) into a
Radial/Larsen
whip antenna.
Thanks to all those that made our trip eventful and
fun. This was a very enjoyable contest.
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