North America QSO Party - CW
Call: N9CO
Operator(s): N9CO
Station: N9CO
Class: SO
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160: 115 35
80: 126 40
40: 151 41
20: 127 44
15: 060 29
10: 044 19
----------------------
Total: 623 208 = 129,584
Comments:
Team SMC #1.
A few observations....
This is the second domestic contest since adding 30' of tower this fall. I
first felt it in CW SS, and now again in NAQP CW. Namely, a single
tribander
at 85' is too tall for a domestic contest. Works great for dx. I just
never
felt loud on 10 and 15. 20 was ok, but had to swing the beam around too
many
times. When the TH6 was at 55', it was relatively easy to "get things
going"
on the high bands. Checking last years rate sheet for both SS CW and NAQP
CW
confirms this. My rate jumped up dramatically this year when I finally went
to
40m around 2200z. I guess the 40m rotatable dipole at 96' isn't too
high....
Having the TS930 computer controlled via PIEXX cpu board is FANTASTIC!
Changing bands was a breeze (use TR for logging) and it is MUCH easier to
move
stations to other bands. A simple "qsy 21005 ?" sent with the paddles, wait
for confirmation, then type in 21005... bang, there you are. Make the q,
then
ALT-V or ALT-B and you are back to your run freq. Most of you guys who have
been using computer controlled rigs for years are probably muttering "yeah,
so
what?", but I still get a kick out out it. I've had the PIEXX board in my
930
for a year now, and will never use it without it! This is the most mults
that
I've had in this contest, and there were more to be had. I need to be more
aggressive about moving guys earlier in the contest. As it was, I waited
well
into the afternoon before I started asking stations to move.
I can't believe how good 160m was. If you could see my 160m antenna, you
would
agree with me. I literally threw it up last weekend. Tower climbing in
winter
wx is no fun. It is a 1/4 sloper with the last 50' or so about 10' above
the
ground folded back to the tower. It resonates somewhere around 1900 kHz,
and
the vswr was about 5:1 at 1820. I was only putting about 40w or so to it...
all the 930 would do due with such a crappy load. But heck... it worked! I
was even able to run with it.
Taking 2 hours of off time in one sitting is not a good thing to do,
especially
in prime evening hours and you feel louder on the low bands than you do on
the
high bands. No choice in the matter, it was part of the pre-contest
arrangement with my wife regarding babysitting for our almost 4 year old
daughter.
Thanks to everyone for the q's, especially to those who qsy'd for me.
73,
Charlie N9CO
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