Beam Steering in Combat or How to Use Software Radio and an Array of Short Verticals in the 2007 ARRL 160 Meter Contest 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 radials Breakdowns: UTC 160 rate total --------------------- 22Z 132 132 132 23Z 111 111 243 00Z 92 92 335 01Z 114 114 449 02Z 110 110 559 03Z 73 73 632 04Z 76 76 708 05Z 83 83 791 06Z 52 52 843 07Z 55 55 898 08Z 39 39 937 09Z 9 9 946 10Z 20 20 966 11Z 37 37 1003 12Z 41 41 1044 13Z 39 39 1083 14Z 19 19 1102 15Z 0 0 1102 16Z 0 0 1102 17Z 0 0 1102 18Z 0 0 1102 19Z 13 13 1115 20Z 25 25 1140 21Z 29 29 1169 22Z 43 43 1212 23Z 25 25 1237 00Z 51 51 1288 01Z 66 66 1354 02Z 23 23 1377 03Z 28 28 1405 04Z 46 46 1451 05Z 26 26 1477 06Z 15 15 1492 07Z 16 16 1508 08Z 11 11 1519 09Z 0 0 1519 10Z 4 4 1523 11Z 1 1 1524 12Z 18 18 1542 13Z 11 11 1553 14Z 0 0 1553 15Z 0 0 1553 DX Prefix Total -------------------- 5H 1 8P 1 9A 1 C6 1 CM 1 CT3 1 CU 1 DL 12 E5/s 1 EA 1 EA6 1 EI 1 ES 1 F 3 FM 1 G 9 GI 1 GM 4 GW 3 HI 1 HP 1 I 5 J3 1 JA 1 LA 2 OE 1 OH 1 OK 3 OM 1 ON 2 OZ 2 P4 2 PA 2 PJ2 1 S5 4 SM 6 SP 3 SV 2 UA 1 UA2 1 UA9 1 UR 6 VP2M 1 XE 1 YO 1 YU 1 YV 2 ZF 1