ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: N6WG
Operator(s): N6WG
Station: N6WG
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: Newark CA
Operating Time (hrs): 29
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 259 Sections = 41 Countries = 1 Total Score = 21,882
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
In spite of conditions that had me thinking about quitting, this
eventually became a very successful effort. Saturday night
signals became very fuzzy and weak for a while, but eventually the
band came back and things picked up.
This outing raised the bar for my personal best again. I had 14%
more points, 11% more QSOs and 1 more multiplier. Not bad for a
contest I thought was going in the tank.
The day before the contest, a rather brisk rain/wind storm took
out a mast holding up one of my top loading wires. Naturally it
fell across my overhead counterpoise wires, taking out a number of
them. Got them all fixed just in time for the start of the contest,
better than ever. My neighbor loaned me the use of his tree limb to
take the place of the downed mast for the next couple of months.
My rotating tuned receiving loop went WAYYYY out of tune, probably
a fixed capacitor opened up. As a jury rig, I hung a spare antenna
tuner on it and got it working well enough to continue.
As a QRPer, I prefer S&P, but I gritted my teeth and let the CQs
roll. They really did add a lot of QSOs to my log, so maybe CQing
can work for me more often now. At least on 160m where I have a
decent antenna.
The main reason I had more QSOs this time was I spent more seat
hours than in previous contests. It's really necessary when you
have a peak rate of 18 QSOs an hour, with an average more like 6.
My biggest disappointment was working just one east coast station.
In the past I've worked a lot, but the number is decreasing each year.
I've heard that 160m is supposed to thrive during the down yeaars of
the solar cycle, but I sure haven't seen any evidence of it so far.
Anyway, I had a fun time, and I'm looking forward to the 10m CW
contest next weekend. I hope there is enough propagation to let us
work out of town :-)
73, Bob N6WG
The Little Station with Attitude
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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