North American QSO Party, SSB - January
Call: W3DQ
Operator(s): W3DQ
Station: W3DQ
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Washington, DC
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 46 15
80: 87 29
40: 52 25
20: 120 36
15: 17 8
10: 11 4
-------------------
Total: 333 117 Total Score = 38,961
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Team: PVRC Downtown DC Team #1
Comments:
Earlier this week, I ran into the perfect ham radio storm: the rotator
controller went funky, leaving me unsure of where the yagi was pointing; the
wire antenna was acting up, and the K3 failed. Fortunately, my spare rig (TT
Orion) was easily swapped in, and as NAQP is a domestic contest, I was able to
visually point the yagi to the west and leave it there. The wire antenna (which
was once an excellent performing inverted-L) lived up to my worst fears... a
cloud warmer at best.
I started out on 10m and 15m, working a few locals before moving on to 20m.
Conditions were good for the first two hours, but went dramatically downhill
after that. 40m was a slog -- the wire being exceptionally poor, It seems as if
no one was hearing me on a band with lots of activity and loud signals.
I took a long break at 5 pm local time, I started back on 75m with a decent
first hour. 40 remained troublesome for me, while 160 was pretty good.
I wasn't moved around as much as I expected, and assume fellow DCers (I
heard/worked K2ACX and NN3RP) were kept busy! N3QE, W2CDO and K3KU worked me on
all 6 bands, N8II on 5 (I could barely hear Jeff on 40m).
I take advantage of the Contest Online Scoreboard, following PVRCers with
similar stations to mine. While I prefer stations in the metropolitan area, for
this contest, the closest member on the scoreboard fitting my needs was N6DW,
who's in the middle of Virginia, about 200 miles to the southwest, I had more
mults, while Dana had more Q's (two big bursts, especially towards the end). The
scoreboard is a great motivator, during and after a contest,that's for sure. I
certainly encourage its use.
A final, side note:
For those of us living in Washington, DC, contesting has provided an excellent
distraction during these trying times.
Thanks to all who ended their QSO with these encouraging words. It meant a lot
to me:
"Stay safe"
"You may want to get out of town"
"Fun place to be these days"
"You're in the news there"
"How's the atmosphere there?"
"Might be one of these states...maybe"
"One state where I wouldn't want to be now"
"Please be safe"
"Be safe down there"
"Fun place today"
"Are you locked down?"
"Stay safe down there"
73, Eric W3DQ
Washington, DC
Orion 565, F12 C3-SS, (sort of) Inv-L
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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