North American QSO Party, RTTY - July
Call: AD1C
Operator(s): AD1C
Station: AD1C
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CO
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
80:
40: 232 49
20: 291 48
15: 12 8
10:
-------------------
Total: 535 105 Total Score = 56,175
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Team: Colorado Rockies
Comments:
Radio: ICOM IC-7600 (100W)
Antenna: HyGain AV-640 multi-band vertical
Software: WriteLog 10.87D w/ MMTTY 1.68A
This was a personal best for me. Two reasons:
1. time in the chair
2. running instead of S/P
I tried to run as much as possible this time, letting the chips (multipliers)
fall where they may. If things went dead for three minutes, I'd start tuning
around, but usually start CQing again if I found a hole in the band.
My two planned 1-hour breaks were the two CW Ops Mini-CWTs at 19z and 03z.
All of my 15m QSOs were made in the first hour, before I did the CW thing.
When I returned at 20z, 15m was dead as a doornail! I kept checking the band
about every hour, but it never came back. I wonder what I could have worked in
that second hour. I was really hoping this was going to be at least a 3-band
contest for me (never heard anything on 10m). As it was, it was almost a
1-band contest until I got cooking on 40m between 04-06z. Earlier attempts to
run were not as productive as I would have liked.
I was surprised to tune across (and work) ND on 40m! Later, KD0CVZ called me
during one of my runs. Biggest thrill however was returning from CWT at 04z,
tuning across 20m and finding VA2UP! A few minutes later, I found him on 40m
CQing and worked him for second mult.
When I first got the IC-7600 a few months back, I thought the 250Hz RTTY filter
was the bees knees. I noticed this weekend that when a station calls
off-frequency, sometimes MMTTY couldn't zero-in on the signal fast enough.
Tones separated by 170Hz in a 250Hz bandwidth doesn't leave a lot of room for
error, so I to use the RIT a bit to "goose" the decoder into centering in the
signal. I think I spent the last two hours with the PBT sent to 400Hz instead,
and the decoder seemed happier.
When I started RTTY in 1999, I thought it was cool how you could click the
mouse on the exchange in the RTTY window and have it automatically entered in
your log. This weekend, I realized that it's a pain to keep moving my hand
from the mouse to the keyboard and back. I decided mid-contest that I'd just
stick with the keyboard, typing in the same info that appears on the screen.
While it may have increased my error rate, the rhythm was better and fatigue
less.
I never heard Maine or South Dakota.
I was surprised to hear several Europeans calling CQ NAQP. I guess the DMC
contest didn't suit their fancy. Thanks for the calls!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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