Hello all:
Hope everyone made some contest contacts last weekend. The WAE SSB
Contest was fun with a lot of activity and some fairly rare European
stations QRV: OY9JD, JW0HR, a SV9, several LX stations, 4U1VIC (counts
as a mult in WAE). Ten meters had its best openings that I have heard
since May. Activity during the contest resulted incidentally also in
SSB QSOs with a 3DA0 and a S79. 40M sounded good and there was a lot of
calling going on in the US band. I tried to work several stations
including OH0PM, but none could hear me with my low dipole.
559 QSOs on 10, 15 and 20 (246, 191, and 122 respectively), 100 mults
(33, 36 and 31) and a score of 223,600. Don't forget that there is a
worldwide club compeition in the three WAE Contests (CW, SSB, and RTTY),
so put South East Contest Club on your log.
The Tenn QSO Party ran during the latter part of WAE and for an hour
afterward. WAE was getting slow, so I took a look at TQP. Think
activity was higher this year and more mobiles were running from county
to county including our own Jeff, KU8E. (Give us a report, Jeff.)
Also, K4LTA, NY4N, KM4FO, and a KE4T station on 40 SSB were mobile in
various counties. I started the weekend needing 4 counties bunched
together and got NY4N in three of them. May have missed him from the
fourth one...not sure. There were also a fair number of Tenn fixed
stations active, including many familiar calls and one not so familiar
call of an old friend WW4R (formerly K4WX, N4ZZ, K4PUZ).
Total of 55 CW QSOs and 26 SSB QSOs in 37 counties. Could work even the
mobiles on 20, 15 and 10 CW and the fixed stations on 20 and 15 SSB. Of
course, could work any station in Tenn on 40 and fixed stations on 80.
Didn't detect that any of the mobiles tried 80. Had a report that they
had a lot of bad weather and storms during the TQP, so QRN may have been
real high for them. It was fairly bad here, but not so as to prevent
working any Tenn station that I knew was active. They have a funny rule
that an additional multiplier may be counted for working five QSOs in a
county, but that applies only to Tenn stations, not out of state
stations. NA4K didn't know about that distinction and he encouraged me
to QSY from band to band and mode to mode with him for additional mults
that I can't count as it turns out. Glad to have the QSOs anyway. I
did tell him I would listen for him on 160 in the last hour, but the QRN
was bad and I didn't try to get my 80M antenna to load on 160 this
time. However, 160 meters is often a very good band for another QSO
Party coming up next month--the Pa. QSO Party. When the GQP was in May
years ago, I always made a number of QSOs on 160 CW, but in the Pa QSO
Party there is always a lot of activity even on 160 SSB.
This weekend there is something for everybody.
Scandinavia Activity Contest (CW) (SAC) 12Z (8 AM EDT) Sat to same time
Sunday. SSB is the next weekend. Send RST and Serial Nr. Mults are
Scandinavian country call areas. We may work only Scandinavian
countries stations. Having had a real good time in Finland in July for
WRTC, I am looking forward to giving out some QSOs to the SAC gang.
Washington Salmon Run (like Washington State QSO Party). 16Z Sat
through 07Z Sunday and 16Z through 24 Z Sunday. Send RST and State.
Mults are Wash counties. Freq: 1850, 3550, 7045, 14050, 21050, 18050,
50095 CW and 1850, 3925, 7260, 14280, 21380, 28380 and 50130 SSB. These
guys always have lot of activity and give out nice prizes. I usually
get a can of smoked salmon as a prize. If ten meters is open to
Washington, CQing on or near 28380 can bring in a lot of QSOs from
Washington stations whether or not they are in the contest. They are
planning a lot of activity and promise all but one of the counties will
be QRV with a lot of mobile activity.
A new one is the Collegiate QSO Party. Runs from 12Z Sat to 04Z
Sunday. There is a category for non-Collegiate stations, but awards may
have to be paid for if awarded. The collegiate category in SS has not
brought out a lot of activity, but it would be good to encourage these
mostly younger contest ops if they actually get on and call for
contacts. We send serial number and name (like "John") and they send
serial number and name of their college or an abbreviation for it.
There are two QRP events.
QRP Afield runs 15Z to 03Z Sat/Sun. this is a 12 hour period, but you
can count only six of them. Any six continuous hours of the 12. You
can operate the whole period and then pick the period to count. Sent
RS/RST and state and power. Stations who are NE-QRP club members send
RS/RST, SPC, and their club number.
QRP Homebrewer Sprint runs Sunday evening 00 to 04Z (Monday UCT).
Exchange is RST + SPC + output power. Usual CW or PSK31 frequencies.
CW and PSK31 are considered separate bands. You don't have to have
anything homebrew to participate, but the points are higher if you have
homebrew equip.
The websites for the Washington Salmon Run and the Collegiate QSO Party
have forms available if you want to download them.
NA will cover SAC and Salmon Run. TR and Writelog cover SAC for sure,
maybe some of the others. I think you can use the QRPARCI files in NA
for the Homebrew Sprint.
Hope everyone has a nice weekend. We have had a lot of rain and
pinestraw and leaves down in the yard will require some yardwork this
weekend.
Beam is still not rotating properly, but is stuck on Europe for the
moment. Good for SAC. Not so good for Salmon Run or the QRP contests.
73,
John, K4BAI.
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