North American QSO Party, CW - August
Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Toronto OH
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80: 119 29
40: 90 34
20: 82 26
15: 36 14
10: 30 11
-------------------
Total: 357 114 Total Score = 40,698
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Team: MRRC/NCC Team #2
Comments:
FT-950, 100w, Alpha Delta DX-EE shortened 40-10 parallel dipole, 80m inverted V
Until yesterday, the only wire up was a shortened 40m dipole. It never
performed well in the past on 80m and I didn't expect it to. Hal W1NN from Mad
River Radio Club encouraged me to try to make some Qs on 80/160 anyway. I knew
that really was going to be pointless. But, it motivated me to spend 3 hours
putting up an 80m inverted V yesterday night. In the end I had major L4-L5
pain in the back and was wondering if the 80m wire was worth it. I couldn't
tune up on it on most bands (fed with ladderline to a balun and 8 feet of
coax). I was in pain and wondering what in the world I did... how did I con
myself into putting up an 80m dipole, knowing I was going to pay for it later.
Move on to the contest... It was nonstop action. I had a blast. I did some
more CQing during this contest, trying to overcome the stage fright. When it
came time for 80m, I switched to antenna 2, tuned up, and parked on a frequency
and started CQing. Needless to say, I spent an hour and a half or more
successfully CQing and many stations. It was great to work a significant
number of MRRC guys for once. The simple vee performed pretty damned good. I
had no trouble making a lot of contacts on 80m.
It wasn't until the last minute that I realized I was just about to go over the
10-hour limit, so I shut things down. But prior to that I attempted to tune up
160m on both wires to no avail. What a shame. There was a lot of activity on
160, and it was absolutely quiet here. Had I been able to tune up on 160 I
probably would have nailed another 30-40 ops and gotten quite a few more
mults.
WX was great this weekend. Much lower humidity, no storms (which afforded me
the opportunity to raise the 80m vee's mast).
Great contest. I pushed myself, and I'm glad. Although I'm hoping the
Vicodin kicks in shortly.
Thanks to all who participated and who provided me with a contact. And a
special thanks to Hal, W1NN - whether he new it or not, his brief words to me
motivated me to give 80m everything I had, and it worked out great.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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