North American QSO Party, CW - August
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO
Station: VE7FO
Class: M/2 LP
QTH: Vancouver BC
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80: 14 13
40: 70 47
20: 141 46
15: 45 27
10:
-------------------
Total: 270 133 Total Score = 35,910
Club: Orca DX and Contest Club
Team:
Comments:
NAME? UR NAME? CLEM? CLAM? CLM? QDN?
QDN? - (Stolen from N0AX suggestion some years ago of QDC? for "What's
your damn call?")
This is my first Summer NAQP CW in a couple of years. Haven't been
very active from home for some time as have been very involved with
the VE7UF M/M station, contest op training and Field Day planning for
the Surrey ARC. However, I'm now going to be on the air a lot more
from home as I realize that the only way to keep on top of the ever
evolving N1MM, RBN and other contesting tools is to get in there and
contest on a regular basis from my home station.
I also want to do some of my contest op training from home.
I also want to develop SO2R skills.
Besides, I've been missing a lot of fun.
So, to accommodate contest training and SO2R, major station upgrade
from SOLP to M/2 QRO is in the cards. Radios will be K3's.
Radio/computer interface will be a commercial solution as opposed to
the Elite SK10 breadboard sockets with a few transistors, resistors
and caps and frayed wire plugged into RS-232 connectors which have
served me well for ten years. (Makes the Field Day chairman look a
little queasy, though)
While I've been using one of the K3's for casual DXing and ARRL
Centennial station chasing (and Field Day) this is my first use of a
K3 in a full bore contest from home.
I really like it but there's lots of stuff I don't know how to
optimize yet.
So, here I am getting ready for NAQP. As I'm sure you know, call
recognition in contesting is really important. "Hey, there's N6RO.
He's a really good guy, better give Ken a Q, even though he isn't a
mult". (Which I have done on many occasions, even though I have never
met the gentleman.)
I believe I also benefited from this "halo effect" because of the
contest stories I used to write, most of which were well received.
Well, it's been so long since I wrote any contest stories I figure
that my halo, such as it was, has dimmed considerably and I need to
find some other means of gaining an advantage over the rest of you.
(Did I hear someone say something about op skills being the approved
method as opposed to nerdy skullduggery?)
What to do? What to do?
Hah!!
I figure that many, if not most, NAQP participants are also involved
in chasing not only the ARRL Centennial QSO Party W1AW/x stations but
also those listed in the Centennial QSO Party Points Table on the ARRL
web site. For example, if you make a contact with K1ZZ, the ARRL
Pres, you get 300 points.
Well, guess what, if you make a contact with me you get 100 points!!!
How come? I'm a Charter Life Member (CLM) of the ARRL.
So, how do I parlay this into an advantage for NAQP CW? I know,
instead of signing aS VE7FO, I'll sign as VE7FO/CLM. Hmmm... sounds a
bit problematic as I'll probably get a lot of questions about this
delivered at speeds faster than I can read.
Got it!!
My name is CLM.
CQ NA VE7FO NA
W1ABC
W1ABC CLM CLM BC
DAVE VT
TU VE7FO NA
Note the CLM sent twice. It was also sent a few wpm slower than
everything else.
Obviously, most everybody, while perhaps a little puzzled by the name,
will, like all good contesters, copy what's sent and move on to the
next Q. Equally obviously I'm going to have to expect a larger number
of fill requests than usual from those who don't.
Once a particular station has figured out the significance of CLM I
expect he will hunt for me on the other bands, picking up 100 ARRL
Centennial points for every Q (assuming he wants them). With a lot of
such stations my rate will surely go up significantly.
Well, that was the plan.
I sure did get a lot of fill requests. Mostly people accepted the
fill and moved on. Some had troubles believing even the fill. One op
was so persistent I was tempted to tell him that it was Welsh for Colm
but decided it would take too long.
I figured that everytime I got spotted on a new band I would be
inundated by stations hungry for ARRL Cent points.
Didn't happen. Guess the connection to ARRL Cent was too obscure.
Hmm... NA SSB is coming up. Maybe I could do the same thing but
provide an explanation when asked for fills. Easier to do on phone.
One of the tools I have only a nodding acquaintance with is the RBN so
I decided to dig into this and see what it would do for me on a real
time basis. (I have used it fairly extensively for post-contest
analysis of various contests but not for a couple of years.) OK, how
do I access this? Oh look, there's a menu item in N1MM for it. So, I
select that and bingo, I'm there. Neato.
OK, how do I use, right now, the info I'm getting? There was one
clear cut situation where it was a definite help. At one point my SNR
on 80 was everywhere equally poor. Switched to 40 and my SNR went up
10 dB in lots of places. Obviously, the first order analysis says,
"Stay on 40, dumbo".
While I didn't try it, it looks as if it could be used to keep track of
how your arch-rival's signals compare to yours.
Other than that, it isn't obvious to me how else one might use this
info to make operating decisions.
Apart from all that, how did it go?
Didn't catch any of the 10m Es that others spoke of. Either
inattention or too far north.
Lots of spots on 10. No signals, though. 20 was the money band for me.
15 was so-so and 40 was surprisingly good. 80 coughed up a bunch of
mults, which was unusual.
Altogether, not a particularly sparkling performance.
I did hand out 27,000 ARRL Centennial points, though
73, Jim VE7FO
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