Please post your results for this contest here and don’t forget to submit your score to the ARRL. There seems to be a pretty good amount of activity on the top band and I have even made some Qs using my low, NVIS 80 meter dipole.
73, Ken K3IU
Keeper of the CTRI Champions Leaderboard
Call: W1XX
Op: W1XX
Station: W1XX
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: RI
Op Time (hrs): 18.1
Summary:
QSOs = 1048 Sections = 75 Countries = 26
Total Score = 234,724
Club: CTRI Contest Group
Comments:
Hey, after a preliminary look at the 3830 scores….I did not do so bad coasting along at my modest 26 wpm. Countries are harder to come by in this ARRL affair — compared to CQ in January. Almost no South America/Caribbean …PJ2T and a CO was it. EU 5-pointers was much better the 2nd night….got 26 total countries. Missed sections: VE5, VE7 (ugh!), KL7, KP4, and triple ugh!: ND, EB, WTX. Just over 18 hours operating with short 2 – 4 hour sleep times both nights. Ran mostly, but picked up some Qs and mults via S & P when it got slow. If you want a less hectic pace on CW, this is the ticket…next TB chance is the CQ 160 in January. 73. — John, W1XX
Goal during the rainy weekend was to see what an extended QRP effort on Topband from the home QTH with my modest single Inv ‘L’ TX/RX antenna could do. The very quiet band condx Friday night allowed many contacts to be made. After Day 1, I hoped to reach 200 QSOs/20k pts/establish new SOQRP RI high score. Goals met by Sunday AM with much patience, perseverance and still lots of stations ‘left on the table’. Day 2 with more noise was a tough slog! Worked CTRI Topbanders W1XX, W1AN and K1DM…heard K3IU and KI1G while they were S&P. Got ‘close but no cigar’ trying to complete Q with M5O across the pond. The sort-of Sweepstakes of 160m was certainly enjoyable, once again.
ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: W1WBB
Operator(s): W1WBB
Station: W1WBB
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 14
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 253 Sections = 49 Countries = 0 Total Score = 24,794
Club: CT RI Contest Group
Comments:
*Non-assisted* QRP operation. All QSOs made in ‘S and P’ mode. First-time QRP effort in ARRL 160m event for me.
Appears the new assisted categories certainly created bigger pile-ups on the rarer sections, DX and ‘fresh meat’ ops. As QRP op I had to move on from certain desirable CQ’n stations I stumbled upon who had a crowd gathered, and would try and return to them later.
Very quiet 160m band with good NA propagation first night allowed me to work all sections east of Mississippi River except MAR, NL, NNY, PR, SFL and MS.
Eight sections worked beyond that line including exceptional RX/TX stations K7CA -UT- and of course N7GP -AZ- . In addition, excellent ops in SD, IA, MO, AR, NTX, STX and KP2 worked my 5 watt signal. Later, MAR was worked Sat.
afternoon and multiple NNYs contacted that eve.
Thunderstorms off NC coast produced much QRN here Sat. night and band condx became disturbed, so 2nd night was tough and slow going…having worked most of the big sigs thru Day 1 and trying to be heard amongst the 2nd/3rd-tier stations and remaining ‘alligators’! Slightly fewer than half as many QSOs were made on Day 2 and only two new sections…1st contact after wake-up Sunday AM from NN4X
-SFL- with FB sigs/ears at 1000Z and then a *very* patient KV0Q in CO 45 mins before my S/R — TNX!!
All USA sections outside W6/W7 were heard except KP4. VO1HP was easily heard CQ’n late Sat. afternoon but stopped abruptly, and was never heard again – not
sure what happened.
Always nice to work familiar contesters on the Topband. Many thanks to so many who hung in there thru QSB, QRN (and QRM) to complete our contact!
Icom IC-706 MKIIG @ 5 watts; TX/RX 3/8 wv Inv ‘L’ (and 18 mostly short gnd
radials) with vert radiator < 40' up; MFJ-929 tuner/watt meter; N1MM
Logger+; hand-generated CW with Vibroplex Deluxe iambic paddle(!).
73, Bill W1WBB
Here is the result of my l’il effort. I wasn’t going to bother, but when I came down on Friday evening and heard the band jumping with good signals, I tried matching my low 80M dipole to make the amp happy on 160. It worked! so I jumped into the fray. Also put in some time on Sat night and this morning, and the Logger says my “On” time was 3h+15m. I worked both Johns, heard W1WBB and KI1G. The only DX I got was PJ2T and my signal apparently was fading at the Mississippi River. I did get one IA though.
Here is my result:
73, Ken K3IU
Friday morning I climbed up the 40M tower to retrieve a bracket I needed to use on the tall tower in preparation to better secure the upper 15M antenna and repair the coax to the 20M monobander which failed in ARRL SS. By noon I was out in the backwoods cutting up a large fallen birch tree for my next door neighbor. Conversation arose which, to make things brief, led to permission to run my beverage antennas over the line which will improve greatly the azimuth to EU in the upcoming CQ 160. I also cleared some brush climbing into the existing JA beverage.
To prepare for the evening, I had some time left to add 6 new radials to the 160M T vertical. Being nearly 3PM with some daylight left I decided it would be a good idea to check the vertical with the MFJ to see how SWR looked. It looked BAD! It showed dips on 6 and 9 MHz. No dip near 1.8. There was a break in the line somewhere. The antenna was lowered and repaired into dusk just before needing a flashlight and only slightly eating into contest time.
I was bushed. I took a cleanup break, shower and nourishment before starting.
I did an initial S&P tour of the band to find an open parking space. Ended up near 1862.5. Most operation from hereon was running, broken by short S&P tours when things were slow. Friday was much much better with 503Qs than Saturday with 237. As Bill mentioned, Saturday was painful. A slog most of the time, awakened by short spurts most likely from being spotted. About 70 sections were added in the first half. Noise and signals were tough copy in the second. Missed ND, PR, WTX, LAX, PAC, SB, SJV, AK, NL, NT, SK. Some of those should have been easy! Surprisingly more EU stations called in Saturday night. Last Q was 0655Z, near 2AM. Enough was enough. I was still beat up from Friday.
In comparing with last year, I was near 100 QSOs less and 90K less in score and not nearly half as many countries worked. I did work aficionados W1WBB/QRP, K1DM, KI1G, W1CTN, W1XX and a weak K3IU. Highlight of the weekend was seeing Rick KI1G who stopped by to pick up goodies.
73, John W1AN