[PVRCNC] K4TMC ARRL 10M SOLP SSB

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

Call: K4TMC

Operator(s): K4TMC

Station: K4TMC



Class: SO SSB LP Unassisted and No Self-Spotting

QTH: FM14PQ

Operating Time (hrs): 23



Summary:

 Band  QSOs  Mults

-------------------

   CW:    0     0

  SSB:  486   110

-------------------

Total:  486   110  Total Score = 106,920



Another successful SOLP portable beach contest-pedition!

With the number of antennas to be installed, coupled with the lesser day
light available, I went down to the Atlantic Beach, NC site a day early on
Wednesday afternoon.  This provided 2 full days of daylight and allowed me
to enjoy two lunches at my favorite beef brisket restaurant prior to BIC
time.  Armed with a stack of 102-inch stainless steel whips, a similar
stack of Buddipole long telescopic whips, and a double handful of 3/8 x 24
double female couplers, I proceeded to erect two rope-supported 6-element
OWA yagis, one toward Europe and one toward Japan. In addition, I had a
manually-rotatable 4-element OWA bent-wire yagi on a Buddipole HexBeam
frame for orienting to Africa thru the Western US. I topped off the antenna
menu with a PAR EF10 halfwave end-fed vertical on a 34 ft fiberglass mast
with base at 8 ft above ground on the upper deck. I had spent the last few
weeks since CQWW SSB unsuccessfully trying to design a 5-element OWA bent
wire yagi within the confines of the HexBeam frame. I finally backed-up to
a 4-element design that worked well in EZNEC. With only light winds this
time, by the Friday evening starting gunshot, I had everything up and
operating well, with the exception of the 4-element Hexbeam yagi…it’s still
a work in progress.

The contest started well with an opening into the mid-West for 2 hours.  The
NW-oriented 6-element yagi played well. Went to bed Friday night with over
100 Q’s in the log and visions of great runs into Europe in the
morning.  Conditions
did not seem as good to Europe as we had back during the CQ WWDX SSB effort
in October.  I tried to concentrate on running, but the rate was low; so, I
spent a lot of time S&P.  My best run was the first 2 hours Friday evening.
I seemed loud into Europe since most stations answered my first call.  It
was just that I could not find quantities of the stations that were S&P for
USA stations. Maybe I should have done that self-spotting thing.  Did not
here many PVRC members via backscatter.  The few I did hear could not hear
me…must have had my antennas in the wrong direction for those paths.  Plus,
I was running low power (100W). I did work a lot of S. American stations,
half with the 4-element Hexbeam and the rest with the endfed halfwave
vertical.  During one good run, there was a short skip opening to CO
Saturday afternoon and I worked the most CO stations I have ever heard in a
single contest. On Sunday around 1500, there was a short skip opening to
New England and I ran for an hour and picked up all the mults from there.  I
never heard any JA stations, worked only 1 VK (on the vertical!), and
logged two each from HI and AK.

In looking at some of the other scores reported, there seemed to be more
stations operating CW than SSB.  It also seemed that the band conditions to
Europe were better in the New England area based on the backscatter I was
hearing from those stations.

After Friday night’s results, I thought I might get close to 1000 QSO’s if
I really stayed glued to the chair.  But after the band closed Saturday
evening, I was looking at a possible 500 as a goal by the end on Sunday.  At
the end of the European opening (1800) on Sunday I was still at 420.  So, I
spent the rest of the contest doing serious S&P.  In each sweep from 28.300
to .700, I was finding several new stations, some right at the noise level
but readable. I picked up 11 new mults (including the VK, HI & AK) and 30+
SA stations. The band was basically dead at 2300 with only W7RN and K3EST
still fading in and out of the noise. Sadly, I ended up short of my goal
with 486 Q’s, 55 state/province and 55 countries.

A good combination of BIC time and multiple antennas fixed to significant
areas made this effort one of my best from the beach site.  Looking forward
to even better 10M conditions for the next few years.  I hope to finally
get that hexbeam yagi perfected and will definitely be raising that endfed
vertical another 10 to 20 ft.

I’m still out of the ARRL club circle, so sorry that this won’t count
toward the club score.  Re the Minority View comments, I relate to Ted,
WA3AER’s comments.

Station:

Elecraft K3+ with Heil HC4 mic element

Logging via N1MM+

Antennas: 6-element yagi at 30 ft fixed on Europe; 6-element yagi at 18 ft
fixed NW; 4-element bent wire yagi on hexbeam frame at 20 ft for East
through West; PAR EF-10 vertical (top at 42 ft).  Ground at the site is 15
to 18 ft ASL with clear slopes toward the NE and NW down to saltwater
marsh/bay.

73,

Henry - K4TMC