Call: WO1N Country: United States
Mode: SSB Category: SOA, Low Power
State: MA Section: EMA
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q COUNTRIES
160 6 18 3.0 6
80 28 84 3.0 24
40 49 147 3.0 41
20 153 453 3.0 72
15 145 435 3.0 76
10 215 645 3.0 77
--------------------------------------
Totals 596 1782 3.0 296 = 527,472
Q#435 T32B set to zero points (busted him).
All reports sent were 59MA, unless otherwise noted.
Equipment Description: FT1000D, TA33@38', Alpha Delta DX-LB,
Inv L + Shielded loop for 160M
I could hear the disappointment in the YCCC Prez, K2KQ's voice when I told
him this was a planned 500Q effort at the Monday night OTA session before
the
contest. SSB contests can be so damned frustrating from the home QTH.
However, the
great conditions pushed up the Q total a bit. Water in a barrel connector
up the tower had other plans. I spent the better part of 3 hrs up and down
the tower replacing the balun section Saturday. That could have been
another
150Q's easy.
Now the frustration diatribe. Skip this is you don't like whining.
Saturday
I got run off of a decent frequency on 15M by one of the two V31 crews. I
had
presence of mind to work him and tell him he was welcome to the frequency
(that was a lie, but I didn't see that I had much choice). Later I find a
great spot at 14.197. Two QRL's, silence. Great! I start up and get about
10 stations into the log, suddenly a very strong, obviously stateside
voice comes on and says "thanks for trying to steal the frequency". Huh? I
asked him who he was and if he could have convinced me it was his frequency
I might have given it to him. He didn't respond. OK, then its the national
20M tuneup frequency for a good 3 or 4 minutes. That didn't bother me so
much.
This frequency is cranking now, I've got the last 10 at 180 and last
100 climbing to about 60 when a Louisina station opens up 300 Hz away. I
mean
he was perfect copy in my passband. You have resources with CW. A 250 Hz
filter would have done the trick, but it seems your options are limited on
SSB. I point the antenna at him and try to get him to acknowledge me. No
dice.
Lesson here, don't ever acknowledge you are trying to steal a frequency.
Once
he started running stations I was sunk as no one needed MA any more. I
guess
you could say he "won" the frequency. OK, end of whining.
Of course, through all of this I was causing OD5NJ fits as I was only
about
1.2KHz below him when I started. He came down at one point and asked me to
move which I was able to slide down a bit. I heard him a couple hours later
ranting and raving at a European who was trying to steal his freq. I guess
sideband has the same effect on lots of us.
Managed to bust a doozy Sunday morning. Weak/rare DX that no one was
hearing,
made sure I had his call right, work him, spotted him and sat back to
listen
to all hell break lose. Cool. Ooops, what's that? KC1XX figures out its
T32B.
Bummer. Used the new "T26Busted" protocol to make my ammends and zero'ed
out
the Q. From a regional club competition perspective I think this is a great
tool. The rhetorical question: Why are Pacific stations seeing New England
YCCC spots?
My hats off to the Single Ops out there with 1000+, 2000+, 3000+ Q's, I
don't
know how you aren't raving axe murderers by the end of the contest. Kudo's
to
the Packet Cluster crew. I didn't get dropped at all during the entire
weekend.
OK, I'll admit it, I had fun too, but sign me:
Give me CW,
Ken
WO1N
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