K4TMC - 2024 ARRL 10M SOLP SSB Unassisted

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

 ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2024

Call: K4TMC
Operator(s): K4TMC
Station: K4TMC

Class: SO SSB LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 19.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:    0     0
  SSB:  402   107
-------------------
Total:  402   107  Total Score = 86,028

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Prologue: With the great conditions on 10 for this fall’s contests, I was
really looking forward to a full-out SOLP phone effort from the NC beach
site.
Alas, I was informed in mid-November that the 6-year old twin grandsons were
having their birthday party on Dec 15. As a result, I have spent the last
few
weeks configuring 3 of the MFJ-1890 Moxons into the second floor attic
space.
This included replacing the 3 to 6 ft length metal straps, that support the
air
duct tubes ,with poly ribbon. This additionally involved working in areas
that
did not have an attic floor, which are where the South and West Moxons were
located.
A side note: I did not realize how soon I would miss MFJ. I was finally
able to
locate one of the last available MFJ-1890 antennas at the Anaheim CA HRO. I
was
not as fortunate in finding an Ameritron RCS-4 antenna switch. I had to buy
a
new control box from a ham in Canada and a new relay box from a ham in
Montana.
As is sometimes normal with MFJ items, I opened the new relay box and
discovered
a problem. So I had to repair the relay box, a RFC coil with long leads had
broken loose during shipment. To top off my problems, the box from Canada
was
late due to the Canada Post strike. Thus backup plan No. 1 was initiated. I
knew
I had at least one working RCS-8 that was packed away when I moved from my
N.
Raleigh location to Cary 5-years ago. I quickly found two control boxes and
one
severely weather relay box with some corrosion on the internal relays. As I
continued to search for the other relay box, my eyes were surprised to see a
somewhat new Ameritron-labeled small box. Imagine my surprise to find a
new-looking RCS-4 control box. I quickly connected it to the repaired relay
box…now I’m a happy camper!
To gain maybe an extra db I replaced the RG8X runs with a single run of
available LDF1-50 Heliax to  the RCS-4 relay box, then Belden 9914 jumpers
to
the 3 antennas. After all of that work, I found that the neighborhood noise
level has increased since the earlier fall 10M contest efforts. I had an
irregular line-noise-like signal S1-3 to the NE, S1-2 to the South and S2-4
to
the West.
Denouement: This was a non-assisted (not even a panadapter/spectrum scope),
no
self-spotting, SO effort with S&P and a little running mixed.
Friday evening was a bust, only made 5 contacts in the first hour, 4 were
locals
here in NC. Occasionally as I tuned the band I would hear a station come up
out
of the noise, only to disappear before I could get the full call…meteor
scatter?
Back at it around 1145 Sat morning and the band was also dead… a few weak
signals plus AA4NC. Then at 1200 found a DL2 and made the first-of-the-day
contact. The band seemed to open slowly throughout the morning, only
reaching
max around noon. Throughout the afternoon there was a lot of strange noises
that
were not contesters; was there some kind of OTH radar or was it
communications
with all of those drones around NJ? Again with compromised antennas, I
found it
more productive to just S&P. Finished the day at 2300 with 255 QSOs. Never
heard any JA or BY signals, but did manage 3 HI, 1 VK & 1 AK. My best catch
of the day was ZD7BG.
Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday, only this time everything I was
hearing
early-on I had worked Saturday. Finally started making contacts as the
weaker
stations rose above the noise. Finished Sunday with an additional 147 QSOs;
however, the log checkers will find some dupes, mostly due to distorted
audio
and phonetic pronunciations. Heard but missed TA, TF, 8P & 4L. Never heard
anything from BY, ZL or ZS. Only one JA heard…and worked – best catch of the
day on Sunday. It took several minutes to make out the call and numbering
sequence, with multiple switching between the S and W Moxons (the noise
level
was higher on the W Moxon). The West Moxon made it through after 3 or 4
attempts.
Propagation seemed to be different between Saturday and Sunday. To the West
on
Saturday, the South oriented Moxon worked better. Then on Sunday the West
Moxon
worked better.
S&P still works well for a steady rate with the antennas available, although
the second day results in a slower rate as you have to work past the
stations
previously worked the day before. It becomes very annoying to sit on a
station
who works 5 to 10 QSOs before IDing. I did try a few short runs, just not
very
productive.
Station:
Elecraft K3+ with Heil HC-4 mic element
Three fixed MFJ-1890 10M Moxons at 26 ft in home attic oriented S, NE & WNW

73,
Henry - K4TMC