[MiQP-Mail] KK8I (@W1SKU) SO High Power

[Ulrich Ann]

MiQP 2005 KK8I (@W1SKU), Single OP High Power

      band   CW QSOs    CW pts     Ph QSOs    Ph pts
      ----------------------------------------------
       80        153       306         123       123
       40        169       338          91        91
       20         52       104          65        65
       15          0         0           0         0
       10          0         0           0         0
      ----------------------------------------------
      TOTAL      374       748         279       279

      ( 1027 ) QSO points  X  ( 174 ) Multipliers  =  178,698 points

Equipment: IC-735, IC-4KL, Mosley TA-36/40 at 55ft, Dipoles at 55ft

The story:

My original plans were going back and forth between going somewhere 
(e.g. HURO didn't seem to be covered) or operate from home. The plans 
for driving north were eventually given up due to the time involved. On 
Thursday night I emailed Fred, W1SKU, who lives just 10 minutes away, if 
he would operate the MiQP. I had never been to his place, but recently 
seen pictures of his station and it looked impressive. Fred invited me 
to come over, but alerted me that he only had Collins, Drake and one 
IC-781 that would not work in the first 30kc of a band. I told him that 
I would be fine with the 781, since there is almost no activity below 
.030 in MiQP. I was convinced that I could easliy shatter KT8X's High 
Power record and get it pushed significantly beyond 200k.

On Saturday morning, I got to Fred and we set up the station. After an 
initial explanation of the station, he had to leave for a soccer game of 
his daughter.

At the time the contest started, I had all my stuff packed and was ready 
to leave to make some QSOs from home. Why? After some warming up, the 
IC-781 was inop below .041 (and rising) on any band, a known ageing 
issue on these rigs. I couldn't figure out how to operate the alternate 
RIG, a Collins KWM-380 - actually, I never operated a Collins or a Drake 
transceiver in my life! My IC-735 refused to turn on, 40m was almost 
dead, keying from the log computer to the IC-781 did not work and there 
was line noise on 40m, going up to S3. Heck! I just wanted to be back at 
home, at the familiar FT-1000MP and the G5RV.

Fred was still out when the contest started. In order not to give up a 
potential good Low Power score, I worked with teh IC-781 barefoot for 
the first hour of the contest. Then, Fred returned from the soccer game 
and he did some magic on the IC-735 which all of a sudden got back to 
life. We rearranged the station and I was up and running (sort of...) 90 
minutes into the contest, now with the PA.

As everybody noticed, 20 and 40 were in bad condition for short range 
QSOs, and I never tried 10 and 15. The noise on 40 never went away, so 
that it was very hard to pull out weak signals on that band. 80 turned 
out to be great in the evening and the last hour of the contest was my 
most productive one!

The multipliers were upside down too: I worked 44 of 49 US states (36 on 
both modes), but only 55 of 83 counties (33 on both modes). I probably 
should have tried harder to work the mobiles, despite the conditions.

Eventually, the raw score is still slightly above KT8X's record, but 
there would have been quite some room to do better (preparation, 
strategy, mult chasing).

My thanks go to Fred for letting me operate his fine station and for 
keeping me in the contest. I received a number of comments on my loud 
signal and on a good audio, so his antennas and the solid state amp do 
great. Thanks as well to the mobiles, whose activities were still fun, 
even though heavily impacted by the conditions this time.

See you next year!

Uli, KK8I