04/19/2008 | K1LT 2007 must be the year when the mythical, magical "good" low-sunspot
conditions occur. Conditions Friday night were excellent, while
conditions Saturday night were just good. Low noise (lower Friday)
and no storms made for pleasant "hearing".

One small disadvantage with good conditions is that the DX comes in
small, sporadic bursts rather than as a "mini-DX contest" at 05 and 06
GMT. For some reason Saturday night nearly all of the Europeans
vanished. Maybe they worked everyone Friday night. I really missed
the Saturday night DX run fun.

During the CQ WW CW I noticed that I have a severe noise problem which
obscures signals on the 330 degree and due North Beverages. I spent
the week between the contests verifying that the noise was not
inherent in the antennas themselves. I guess I need to go hunting for
a local source. Surprisingly, the noise cannot be heard in the
adjacent directions (300 degrees and 30 degrees), which is why I
suspected the antennas rather than a local source. The source must be
the low-budget farm just to the north of my location. I was lucky
that JA8DMB was able to override the noise. Also, I was barely able
to detect that RW0CWA heard my call through the noise as well. These
two contacts were the first time that I've worked Asia (other than
Cyprus and Turkey) since last year.

I used the Steerable Phased Vertical Array as a second receiver for
the diversity receiving capability. It was very handy to put "east"
signals in one ear and "west" signals in the other. That saves a lot
of time otherwise wasted searching through Beverages to find a signal.
I never needed to steer the Phased Array, since all of my DX came from
Europe. The surprise contact came from 5H3EE, and I don't recall
which antenna I was listening to when he called.

On the other hand, the broadband nature of the direct conversion
receivers led to frequent overload situations which diminished the
utility of that receiving system. Never depend solely on a single
technology during warfare!

I was amazed that VY1JA was not mobbed when he was spotted early
Sunday morning. I surmise that by that time, only die-hard contesters
remained on the air.

I missed PR and VE4 for a sweep. How could I miss PR???

I need to improve my sleep management. I just cannot maintain my
motivation after being awake for more than about 14-16 hours. That,
or go back to operating multi-op. Anybody for the CQ 160? See you
all in the SPTBDC in 4 weeks.

Equipment:

IC765 and ETO 91B (thanks, Jeff!);
Steerable Phased Array Receiving System (see k1lt.com);
14 Beverages every 30 degrees and spares;
65 foot "T" with 80 125 foot radials -- K1LT