CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: N4KG
Operator(s): N4KG +PACKET
Station: N4KG
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: ALA
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 44 13 25
80: 169 24 83
40: 231 36 106
20: 292 33 115
15: 164 29 83
10: 25 8 12
------------------------------
Total: 925 143 424 Total Score = 1,448,118
Club: Alabama Contest Group
Comments:
Lots of Fun and Lots of Frustrations.
Every Band had it's Good Times and Not-So-Good Times.
What happened to 20 Meters Sunday???
It sounded like someone put a Big Attenuator in front of my Receiver!
Since there is No Way I'm going to be able to compete hearing all those Super
Weak Signals from guys with Horrible Antennas or Locations and are 40 dB or
more below the 100W to Tribander types, I focus on Multipliers. I played every
Band like someone doing a Single Band Effort on that band, i.e. I only watch
Packet Spots for the Band I am using at the time and divide my attention
between S&P and Packet Spots, whichever I deem 'more productive'.
>From my perspective, 40M was THE BAND for a Single Band Effort.
The 'Rate Meter' hit 140 doing S&P Friday night!
I KNOW I left of Lot of Q's (and probably mults) on the 40M table
when I spent hours on end pursuing multipliers on 80 and 160M.
80M (and 160) was Noisy and suffered high absorption Friday night.
Saturday night was INCREDIBLE on 80M, especially working those juicy Asian
multipliers
(A73A P33W UA9CLB ZC4T 4L0A 4Z5J 9K2HN -AFTER the East Coast MM's of course)
The JA's were amazingly LOUD Sunday morning at Sunrise.
160M finally opened to EU around 0700Z Sunday and I was able to get a nice
little Run going, adding DL EI F G GM LX (4)-ON's and OZ. ON4UN was Super
Loud!
I had to smile when I Blew Through the HUGE pileup on TX3A on 40M Sunday
morning, 45 minutes past my SR. I'm sure the post SR enhancement gave a
considerable enhancement to my CC 2L40 at 95'. Too Bad it didn't work that way
on B7P :-(
20M was 'interesting', especially just before and after Sunset. Lots of
stations from the Far East, sometimes coming Both Short and Long Path.
VK9XW and XU7ACY were working many W6/7's, presumably SP. I was unable to get
their attention SP (519 signals) but they both came right back when I beamed LP
SSE (539). On Sunday, 20M seemed almost dead with only Zone 14 and IR4M from
Z15 coming through in late morning. Several new JA and UA0 were worked in the
last hour of the contest.
15M had a Fair opening to EU Saturday Morning which I tried to 'milk dry' for
all the multipliers I could find. Sure enough, the opening on Sunday was
marginal at best.
10M was a disappointment for me as a single op. The guys North of the
Mason-Dixon Line were spotting LOTS of Caribbean / Central American stations
that were inaudible in Alabama (except at K4WI I guess :-)
I sure missed having Multiple Yagi's on the High Bands as all of my 10,15,20M
monobanders have been broken or damaged by 30 years of Tree Growth. Advice to
Station Builders: CUT DOWN EVERYTHING within 40 ft of each tower!
On the Down-Side, the behavior in Packet Pileups has deteriorated abominally.
Continuous Calling, even during QSO's, only Slows the Rate and some people are
Losing QSO's because the DX station cannot copy their report. It's SHAMEFUL !
Many Packet LIDS don't seem to know (or care) that when they set their radio to
a packet spot and Tune Up, they are transmitting On Top of the DX station!
It would also help if they used 3X5 cards to mark the tuning points for each
band so that they don't spend endless time fine-tuning their amplifiers.
End of Sermon.
Equipment used for this contest:
Icom 746 with Cascaded 500Hz filters (and very effective Audio Peak Filters)
B&W PT-2500 (pair of 3-500's) at 1000-1200W output.
160M Inverted L (East)
.....Elevated GP (West) with common 130' Tower/Reflector between
80M Dipole between 130 ft towers NE/SW
....Dipole with ends at 90 ft JA/SA (140'High Inverted Vee broke in winds)
40M CC 2L40 at 95 ft
....100' CenterFed Dipole at 90 ft JA/SA
20/15/10 TH7 at 40 ft
..........Dipole at 50ft facing E/W
My Body just can't take sitting all this time as it used to.
I need to find a Relief Operator or two and go Multi-Single!
I took LOTS of short breaks to get up and walk around to keep flexible.
Tom N4KG in North Alabama
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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