Hello all:
What a fantastic contest! The activity was great and conditions were
pretty good. I made only 8 fewer QSOs from home with my poor antennas
and one radio in this contest than I did from W4AN with SO2R going all
the time last year. Of course, I worked 36 more multipliers last year
and the score was almost 30,000 points higher. But making contacts is
what contesting is all about and I never had a significant drop in QSO
rate. It seemed to me that I could run better on 20 and 80 than on the
other bands. So much of the time on the other bands was spent S&P.
Probably my 40-meter dipole is not competitive with 100 watts and I know
the 160 meter lash up with both sides of the 80 meter inverted vee fed
through a tuner as if it were a random wire is very sub-par. However, I
did work K0RF easily on 160 as well as W1s and VE3KP and ZF2NT (a 6
bander). I don't keep records, but I'd be surprised if this wasn't my
best score from home, primarily due to the high level of activity.
There seemed to be a few more from the second call area. Note that in
August there was only one score submitted from NJ and NY together.
Some of the increased activity no doubt was brought about by the FCG's
big turn out and maybe some by guys looking for them to QSO? I doubt
that promise of recognition was a big motivating factor, but being on
the air and calling no doubt helps. Note that they were not just using
"Chad," but "Dubya" (K4OJ), "George" (W1CW), "Jeb" (NF4A--formerly
WA4IMC from Panama City), and "Al" (N2NL).
I didn't hear VY1JA at all. Glad that some of you got Jay. I guess it
was the result of not having the second radio, but I was really doing
S&P in the early hours of the contest. Also, heard no AK, no NE, and no
DE. No DX inside NA except for ZF2NT and XE1/AA6RX and XE2MX. We
really could use some Caribbean and Central American activity. I also
heard no VO stations. I heard, but did not work a VE9 on 20M. He
called someone and I moved up the band and CQ'd, but he didn't call me.
There were at least two VE1s (VE1OP and VE1WT) on the high bands. I
worked only VE2AWR in QC (QSY to three top bands and heard only on 40),
only VE4VV in MB, and worked only VE5SF (but heard VE5SWL). Think SF
was worked on 5 bands. Plenty of VE3, VE6, and VE7 stations on most
bands.
I took about 45 minutes off around 00Z to eat supper with Weesie and
make a quick visit to my parents so I missed the best western openings
on 80 and 160. Before the QRT at about 0445Z, I did have W6 and W7
stations calling on 80 (as well as XE2MX) and heard N6RO on 160 M. I
can usually work Ken with the amp, but it would probably have to be
later than my QRT time to get him barefoot on 160.
I tried a lot of QSYs for mults (and sometimes just to accommodate
someone else's request--I didn't say no but maybe once when I wanted to
hold a CQ frequency on a new band). Some worked and some didn't. I
think I was more successful at W4AN as most guys could hear Bill's
signal under marginal conditions. It took about a minute to change the
feed on the 80/160 meter antenna, so those QSYs were slower.
I still can't send CW with the computer, but I enjoyed using the keyer.
I did have some standard messages programmed into the memories, but
didn't use them very often.
SECC members that I remember working were: K4OGG, K4NO, W4OC, AA4LR,
KA9EKJ, W4NTI, NJ8J, N4DU, WA4TT, W4WA, K4IQJ. Thanks for the QSOs. I
heard K4WI on 15, but it's hard enough for Cort to hear me ground wave
with high power.
As far as I can tell now, I can do full-time next weekend from a time
standpoint. But, due to the General Class License and poor top-band
antenna, I can usually not make many contacts on SSB after the activity
moves to 40, 80 and 160. So, let's still call it part-time.
Here is the score: K4BAI, SECC#1, JOHN, GA, FT1000MP, TH6DXX, wires. 10
hrs
160 66 29
80 115 40
40 134 42
20 216 49
15 119 49
10 89 38
ALL 739 247 = 182,533 points.
Hope everyone has a nice week.
73,
John, K4BAI.
--
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