BARTG HF RTTY Contest
Call: KI7MT
Operator(s): KI7MT
Station: KI7MT
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Helena, MT
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Countries Call Areas
-----------------------------------
80: 47 4 10
40: 187 11 16
20: 355 37 24
15: 23 9 9
10: 0 0 0
-----------------------------------
Total: 611 61 59 Continents = 6 Total Score = 439,920
Club:
Comments:
First time for this contest.
Worked the entire contest with (1) antenna: 20M Elevated 1/4 Wave Vertical, 2x
junk box relays and two extension wires to make 40M / 80M possible, then beat
the daylights out of my AT5K tuner :-)
I was not planning on running in this contest, as I'm re-working all my
antennas, but I like operating RTTY, so on Thursday, I threw ( over tree's
shrubs and the house ) together something I could radiate with on the lower
bands. That is about all it does; radiate, as it sure did not hear very well
and it's certainly not resonant in the proper sections of the Ham bands :-)
Highlights:
Overall it was allot of fun. I was happy to see familiar JA calls on all bands.
I got called on 15M's from ZK3YA, made me smile on Sunday as did VK3DTX, ZL3NX
and ZM2A plus a couple more ZL's. A few minutes later I found PW2B, which was
nice. Worked 6W2SC on 20M. Worked several UK fellows on 20M & 40M, after all it
is the BARTG :-)
I Worked several new countries, thanks to all the DX stations. I'm actually
suprized at the over all number of Q's I managed with what I used, although the
Multi-Count certainly took a beating.
Only a few dupes this time, about 8 if I recall. How is that a highlight? Well
they were the same three folks :-) I just worked them again as dupes, didn't
bother to do the ole B4 thing. Some were only 30 minutes apart :-)
I also got the "Worked B4 OM" reply a few times myself. A couple was because I
didn't get their call in the box correctly or I would have seen they were a
dupe, but there a couple that I didn't get right the first time around, so,
they didn't get worked and won't get credit for the Q. I've just adopted the
policy to work all dupes, no matter what, that way everyone is covered.
Low-Lights:
Well, the bands were terrible here. Don't know if it was the thrown together
antenna or what, but 80M was almost unbearable Friday night, 40M was not much
better. It improved marginally on Saturday night, but not by much. Activity
seemed much lower than normal for 40M's a couple of hours after sunset.
Normally, I hear activity all night long, but not this time. I never heard
Antarctica anywhere, nor recall them being spotted in the contest.
I can't say its a bad thing, but certainly having the RDXC, and at least 3
Major State QSO parties going on did not help things. I know the contest
schedule is very busy, but I think the RDXC is a Major contest these days, and
certainly had an impact impact on the BARTG.
15M, aside from Sunday afternoon, was a complete bust here. It seemed to open
up in the late Sunday afternoon to the S. Pacific, but not allot of folks
around or at least that I could hear. The fellows I did work were very loud.
10M. I was happy, then not so happy all in the same minute. I saw Sue ( P40YL )
spotted, then to my amazement, I actually heard her well when I went to check. I
tried for a long time to get through the East Coast Wall, but no Joy. So I took
the 10m crystal out of my rig, smashed it with a hammer, that didn't help, so I
QSY'd back to 20M :-)
Another disappointment I was made aware of after the contest. I received an
e-mail about a Q with 6W2SC on 15M Sunday. I heard him well, called a couple
times, but could not hear him return to me due to all the other stations still
calling him. As it turns out, he replied to me "twice", but I could not hear him
through all the other stations calling him, even though he was replying to me. I
don't understand that one. Why would a station continue to call somebody if they
are replying to someone else, not calling CQ ?? I see "Hear" that allot on CW,
folks just call and call and call. "News-Flash - If he's transmitting, he's
probably not going to get your call, so sending it ten times isn't going to
help".
Every DXpedition page I've read says the same thing "Call Once and Listen
Listen Listen". I really try hard to do that, I know it's hard to do, but it's
actually working allot better then just blasting away.
This guy was desperate I guess, but I saw another "Real Bad" example of this
"Twice" in the last hour of the contest. A fellow sent his call sign "Seven
Times" to a DX station (obviously a new multi for him), not just once, but
twice. He did it to both DX stations that were spotted late in the last hour. I
know this, as I was there in line trying to get them too. I guess he needed
One-More-Multi to win the contest.
I do apologize to those that I interfered with, there were a few. One minute I
would not hear anything so I'd start CQ-ing, only to find somebody was in the
middle of a QSO, so I'd QSY. It was "not" intentional i can assure you, I just
could not hear very well.
Overall, had allot fun. It looks as though the low-lights are far more than
high-lights, but not so, just takes more to explain it. Only wish I had one of
those "Big-Gun" stations to operate one of these major contests with, maybe
someday.
Thanks to all the DX stations for their participation ( and your patients ),
very much appreciated and to the sponcers for putting on the event.
All Logs uploaded to loTW & eQsl for those that are interested.
See you in the next RTTY Test.
73's
KI7MT
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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