The crew for both weekends:
AA5B, K5TA, K9RS, AI9X
The station for both weekends:
"Run": KT34XA @ 60', C3S @ 55', 2-el CC 40 @ 65', 80 vee @ 60'
FT1000D + amp
2nd station: Dipoles on 80, 40, and 20 @ 40'
TS950 + amp
2 x CT8, networked @ 1200.
Radios interlocked to prevent simultaneous transmission.
CW AA5B CW AA5B CW AA5B CW AA5B CW AA5B CW AA5B CW AA5B CW AA5B CW
Started setting up early on Saturday morning (it's our November Field Day!)
and ran into quite a few hardware problems with antennas, keyers, computers,
radios... We didn't work out all the kinks until 5 minutes before the start
of the contest. But Scott ('TA) found a good slot on 20, went to work, and did
very well until the band died a little earlier than expected. No problem, we
thought, 40 will be great! Unfortunately, we found (like almost everyone else)
that the band went "long" and was pretty useless for several hours on Saturday
evening. We don't have a big signal on 80, so this was a problem. When the sun
finally came up the next morning, the super crew at K1ZX was way ahead and we
just couldn't catch up. Missing Wyoming didn't help us much, either!
Final numbers: 1404 x 77 = 216,216
23.6 hrs (missed some time because of snow static late Sunday)
Breakdown:
80 288 21%
40 494 35%
20 594 42%
15 28 2%
SSB K9RS SSB K9RS SSB K9RS SSB K9RS SSB K9RS SSB K9RS SSB K9RS SSB
None of us was very enthusiastic about the phone contest this year. We dragged
our feet getting set up, finally getting the dipoles on the pushup mast and
installing a little tribander (in 30 mph winds) only a few minutes before the
contest. Maybe, I thought, the rush of running it right down to the last
second would get some adrenalin flowing and make us more excited about the
contest. Not so. We even argued a little about who was going to start
operating (no one wanted to!), and I lost. Of course, 20 was packed by then
and I couldn't find a good run frequency. First hour was awful, but the next
few were okay. Forty meters played nicely all night this time and we never had
to run on 80. On Sunday, we even had a nice little run on 15 -- the first one
for us during SS in at least 4 years!
Very minimal problems with anti-contesters on 20 this year. Had only a few 5-
minute bouts with SSTVers, tuners, tape loops, and even one guy who sent
pseudo-CW awhile.
Getting a sweep wasn't as fast as last year (less than 5 hrs in '95), but we
did have one before midnight on Saturday. The last 3 mults: NNY, DE, and VE2.
[We did have some nice bonus sections, working at least two each of these:
CNY, CFL, CWA, NCal, SVT, and WTN :-) ]
Final numbers: 2303 x 78 = 359,268
Breakdown:
80 110 5%
40 871 38%
20 1200 52%
15 122 5%
73,
Bruce AA5B
AA5Banana@aol.com or draperbl@sandia.gov
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