K1SX SO LP
235–44–21–47,255
9.5 hours, not necessarily at the best times
Genesis G11 SDR, homebrew SSPA, inv L 65-65′ w/16 radials
I actually got the SSPA heat sink hot for the first time 🙂
Still on the learning curve for how to do a 160m contest well. I made a big improvement over last year with only a few more q’s, by concentrating on mults and higher point values.
I had 19 ten-pointers. But other NE ops outscored me anyway, with much higher qso numbers. Some 3830 posters are excited about the great conditions, but to me they were mediocre to average, with deep qsb that cost a number of points. Sat. was better definitely. The crashes were luckily only occasional with the storm. I had a couple ok runs–I held down 1802.3 for a long time at one point, K3LR move over! But my runs didn’t attract the Eu callers that some seem to find. Or were they calling and I heard nothing? In the big picture I think I need more balance of running, easy s&p and the digging. Maybe a beverage can happen this spring–but that might have me calling even more stns that can’t hear me.
I heard KL7SB faintly–that was a first. CR3W was the strongest Eu throughout. I wasted a lot of calls on the very loud FM5–no luck. Yet some very weak stns also heard me.
Other members heard or wkd–AB1BX patiently running up higher in the band, W1WBB doing qrp (I’ve sworn off for 160 Bill!) , W1XX, W1HI, KA1J, W1CTN. Ri gets you some attention in this one.
73, Dave K1SX