N5JA -- 1997 CQWW 160 CW Contest -- Single Operator, High Power
CALL SCORE QS0'S PTS SECTS DX HRS
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N5JA 402,708 1055 3628 57 54 31
Equipment:
Yaesu FT1000D
Alpha 89
160' Shunt-fed vertical transmit antenna
Six 2-wire Beverage receiving antennas
The first night of the contest was the most frustrating, mind-crushing
operating I've done on 160, other than the ten minutes I spent operating
3 or 4 years ago when we multi-op'd as N5OLS. Noise from the storms to
the east and northeast gave me S9+30dB continuously on the transmit
antenna, and never dropped below S7 on the 20-degree Beverage, and
seldom below S9 on the 40-degree Beverage. I've dealt with louder
crashes, but I think this was the worst continuous band noise outside
of summer. Finished the first night with 519 Q's... took me ten minutes
to pick out JA5BJC's call and QSX freq. although he was almost S9
before I called it a night.
The second night was almost as good as the first night was bad-- I had
(again) probably the best opening to Europe I've ever had. I was called
by probably five times as many stations as I worked, and the problem
this time was just to get a few letters of someone's call... what a
problem to have, huh?!!! ZL3GQ called in during the EU run and was loud
enough I never even turned off the EU antenna-- what a signal! About
145 Europeans in the log, but only 19 JA's. Guess I needed to be able
to work the JA's the first morning instead of the second (which is their
late Sunday night/Monday morning).
Biggest disappointment was hearing from my brother Don, KH8/N5OLS, who
called me Sunday afternoon to tell me how many mults I missed because
of callers I didn't work-- he says 6W6JX called me long and hard, and
was over S9 down there in American Samoa. At the time the 6W was in
there I undoubtedly was working the big pile of EU so I'm sure I never
turned to the 90-degree antenna-- darn! There were several more that
I missed... (sigh)... but it just hurts me too much to think about it.
Anyway, I'm glad I couldn't get my wife or any visitors to sympathize
with me the first night, or I'd have just quit and would've missed the
terrific second night. Worked C31 and Z3 for new ones. It's nice to
finish a contest on a bright note with a little adrenaline high for a
change! Thanks to everybody that worked me, see you on SSB if I can
work up the determination.
73,
Jon
--
Jon A. Barclay N5JA (ex-AA5BL)
N5JA@contesting.com
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