With the "lack of sleep" cobwebs cleared from head here is a more
detailed summary of N7EX's adventures in the Stew Perry Distance
Challange.
Catagorey: High Power
Operating time: 12 Hours (00:00z to 08:00z and 11:00z to 15:00z)
QSO's: 252 (Just flat ran out of people to work)
Points : 1624 (The JA run made a big big difference)
Home Grid: DN17
Point /QSO ditribution:
1pt 21 QSO's
2pt 19 QSO's
3pt 27 QSO's
4pt 28 QSO's
5pt 28 QSO's
6pt 34 QSO's
7pt 41 QSO's (love those east coast Q's)
8pt 8 QSO's (the last of the US Q's)
10pt 1 QSO (KH6)
14pt 2 QSO's (GM & SM)
15pt 1 QSO (SM)
16pt 5 QSO's (Love that JA run !)
17pt 19 QSO's ( " " " " )
18pt 10 QSO's ( " " " " )
19pts 1 QSO (thankyou KH2D )
22pts 1 QSO (thankyou KC6VW)
-------------------------------------------
Stew POT (Soap Box)
EXCHANGE:Started out giving out RST but quickly saw that the norm was to
not send it, so abandoned it early on. Mostly because it was one more
thing I had to do (look at the S-meter). The exception were the JA's,
95% of them were handing out RST to which I reciprocated. The grid as an
exchange and point calcultor is great I hope more contest adopt this
apporach in the future. Certainly the TOEC contest would be more
interesting this way (anybody listening?). The lack of "multipliers" was
not missed at all, and I'm sure that some interesting strategies will
develop over time. I expect that more west coasters will pay more
attention to the JA opening next time. Only had 3 stations who didnt
know their grid.
OPERATING PERIOD: Just right! (For an ole man of nearly 50). Just enough
contest to feel like it was a contest. Not enough contest to interfere
with family or plowing snow the next day. Work precluded the first hour
on Saturday AM for me which I will defintely do next year. I went to bed
at 0800 and got up at 11:00 for the JA run. next year will get up at
10:00 instead as the JA run was under way when I got there. I could have
gone to bed at 0730 as I ran out of stations to work by then. As this
contest grows in populaity this might change. In the ARRL 160 contest we
get a spurt of east coast activity around 0800 as the east coast gets up
to look for their morning pacific opening, did't see that this time.
DATE: Works for me! After 4 days under foot the XYL was glad to be rid
of me for a bit! I know this was originally billed as "test" test but
unless the ARRL 160 test picks up this format lets keep it around I had
a lot more fun in this one!!!!!
SAGA: Steady snow produced a S-5 snow static on the bevrages the whole
time, rendering them nearly useless. In fact many times I could actually
hear better on the transmit Inverted L's. As a result I became an
"alligator" unable to pull many weak stations out. I missed VK6HD and
SM4CAN (per their earlier posts) and others as a result I'm sure. The
adverse weather further teamed up to load my Inverted L's with ice which
lowered their resonace from 1830 down to 1805, giving me 2:1 swr limit
of 1835. fortunately there was almost no one above 1840! K7FR commented
earlier about snow changing his resonance as well. I suspect again that
this is dielectric loading due to ice on his tower. Most folks were
mindful of the DX Window and the few who forgot quickly moved when
someone reminded them.
DX PROPAGATION: GM3POI while not as strong as he was during the ARRL
test was certainly consistent and was copied here for over 3 hours. Next
came SM5EDX who was copiable for nearly two hours. Thanks to SM4HCM who
called me earlier in the opening but we couldn't get the exchange who
then worked me later. The JA opening was staggering with 36 stations in
the log. Almost like 15 meters during the height of the sunspots. Some
like JA3ONB and JH5FXP were 10 and 20 db over at times. I'm sure that
there were some 4th nd 5th tier stations there as well which I couldnt
pull through the snow static.
EQUIPMENT:
TS-850S
TL-922 (amp)(running 700 watts, "most" of the time, OK..so I cranked it
up to 1300W to work KC6VW)
2 Inverted L's (1/2 wave spacing), phase switchable for broadside or
endfire.
inverted V at 90'
Beverages for receive (for all the good they did this time).
See you all in CQWW 160
Dave
N7EX
..
PS: My special thanks to N6TR and KM9P for "fathering" this bastard
child. I'm sure there were others I just dont communicate with them as
often.
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