ARRL RTTY Roundup
Call: K3FIV
Operator(s): K3FIV
Station: K3FIV
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 54
40: 0
20: 84
15: 83
10: 0
------------
Total: 146 State/Prov = 44 Countries = 12 Total Score = 8,176
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
My first RTTY RU. Wasn't expecting to be able to participate, but I had some
time so I fired up the rig a few hours into the fray. Of course, I was totally
unprepared for contesting, and was just going to make a few QSOs. So I just
started with a piece of paper as a log. 20M was an amazing site on the
panadapter - a wall of RF from 14.025 to the voice sub-band. After 10 or 20
contacts, I decided to just use my regular logging/digital program (HRDLog with
DM780). Not as potent as N1MM for contesting - no multiplier window, no
bandplan, etc. But I've never used N1MM with RTTY, and it seemed prudent not
to try it in the middle of a contest.
Murphy was second op. I couldn't get anyone to hear me on 15. Eventually I
noticed that the "drive" control had somehow been set to 0, and 0 watts doesn't
get very far. Fixed that as 15 started to fade. Tried 40. For some reason,
rig refuses to output any power on 40 either (even with drive setting at full).
Makes all the right noises, looks like it's transmitting, but power meter reads
0. Worked yesterday. Hrmmph.
Worked 80 and 20 mostly. The Flex is nice in a crowd. I just set up a filter
barely wide enough for RTTY and methodically worked back and forth. I could
pretty much work everybody I could hear. Curiously, it was often hard to get
the attention of CA stations. Probably they were all pointing away from me
(I'm on the coast).
Somebody called me a DUPE! Sure enough, the call is back there in the log.
But for some reason, the log entry window doesn't show it was worked before.
Curious. It always has worked fine. But now sometimes dupes are flagged,
sometimes they're not. So, I switch gears and do a quick log lookup by hand on
any call that sounds familiar before risking being called a DUPE again.
To add to the fun, the screen starts randomly freezing for a few seconds.
Seems to be triggered on receiving AGN? AGN? and I can't do anything until it
thaws. It's probably got something to do with the dysfunctional automatic log
lookups.
Do all S&P. Bands are too crowded for my measly 100 watts and wire antenna to
hold a spot, and the need to do log searches manually would be way too slow for
any running. It takes quite a while to S&P from one end of the RF wall to the
other - there's *lots* of stations in there.
Contest's over. I export and import the log entries from HRDlog to N1MM so I
can get a Cabrillo format for submission. Guess what -- the "exchange" entries
(State/serial) don't translate. Still working on that - it's time to learn more
about ADIF format anyway.
I also have to check the scoring from N1MM. N6QEK/VY1 should have been another
multiplier, but it doesn't look like N1MM picked that up.
Still, lots of fun (despite Murphy), and even with just about 10 hours or so I
got a couple of new countries (for me) - West Malaysia and Finland. Picked up
Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Asiatic Russia too, plus a slew of JAs. Heard
quite a few EU stations but that East Coast RF wall is pretty formidable. I
was surprised at how world-wide this contest is.
PS - the rig works fine on 40 now. Didn't change anything. Murphy's gone
elsewhere I guess.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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