If you live in Georgia how do you tell if its a contest weekend???
By the constant rain, occasional thunderstorms and a few tornado
warnings.
Call used: W4AN
Operator: K4JNY
Catagory: SO HI pwr
Band Qsos Mults
160 12 9
75 117 49
40 172 64
20 534 87
15 793 92
10 101 26
------------------------
1729 327 1,696,149
This was my first real attempt at 48hr SO dx contest.
Got up the shack Fri afternoon, Bill already had everything set up
and ready to go, so I managed to get some much needed rest before the
contest. It had been one of those weeks where the contest was the
last thing I was thinking about. I didnt have any sort of plan
other than to hopefully have fun and as tired as I was, didnt think
that was too likely to happen.
At the start of the contest managed to work some JAs on 15 while
tring to run on 20M. Spent most of the night bouncing around the
low bands. Never managed any real runs, 75 was very noisy so
consentrated on 40m and tuning around 75/160 on rig 2. I thought
it was funny all the europeans working split in the US subbands.
I did appreciate their doing this though as I am an Adv class op
and cant go below 3775, most everybody below 3775 was listening up
the band. With the noisy band conditions the pig farmers where
at a min compared to other years. I took 1.5 hrs off at 0830z
for some rest.
At 11z was trying to run europ on 20, made a seamless band change
at 12z to 15m. This was the best thing I did all weekend, 12Z rate
was 109 followed by a 126 hr at 13Z. Both personal bests for me
in a dx contest. Ran 15M till 17Z, S&Ped on 10M with rig 2 during
this time. Half way through the 15M run I looked up at the ant
switch and noticed I was on the top ant from working JAs the nite
before.
I quickly compared rx of the 2 top, bottom and both of the stack
and found the lower ant was 1 S-unit stronger that the top ant!! I
left it in the stack option for gud measure and made a mental note
to keep checking to make sure I was on the antennas I wanted to be on.
18Z the big move to 20M was made. The QRM was terrible, the rate
took a major drop. A 62 hr was the best I could do all weekend on
20M. :(
Sat night was spent cqing the low bands, never could get much to
happen but I at least tried. Did not make any qsos on 160 the
2nd night. 20M keep on going with some mults all nite, made
qsos every hr on 20M. Finally gave in and slept
for 3 hrs @ 7Z. Gotta get more sleep the week before the contest
next time. Worked some gud mults on 40M when I got up at 10Z.
11Z off to the 20M races, the qrm on 20M Sunday was worse than
75M during SS. I never could make anything happen on 20M Sunday.
People where telling me I was loud, but I could never get/take a
freq that I could hear on. Maybe I needed a Italian 300watt amp
to clear a spot. Speaking of which I worked 238 Italian stations,
the most of any country.
Rain static damped any good runs on 15M Sunday morning, got concerned
about lighting a few times early on Sunday.
10M was great on Sun, prob should have tried running on 10M.
I moved a VK from 20M to 10M late in the day. The VK didnt
think there was any propagation but convinced him to call me,
and he came booming in through the rain static. W4ANs secret
10M cannon sure does the trick, I never had to wait in any pile-ups.
Not running on 10M made have been a mistake.
Bounced around 10/15/20 most of Sunday, never having any sustained
runs. 15M openned up really great to JA near the end of the contest, had
several JAs give 005 as there number. Spent the last hour of
the test calling cq on 40M hoping for some rate.
The real fun began after the contest trying to get off the mountain.
It had rained all day and the road was a mud pit. I got stuck
twice, at least Bill has a 4 wheel drive and was able to drag my
truck around. The best part was fording the now raging river
at the bottom of the mountain.
Many TNX to Bill, W4AN for letting me use his station and for pulling
and pushing my truck around in the mud.
73 Jeff K4JNY
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