California QSO Party - 2021
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): K2YY KM6WCC KN6MYI N7MH
Station: W6YX
Class: M/M LP
QTH: Stanford
Operating Time (hrs): 23:17
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160: 43 2
80: 213 72
40: 375 203
20: 618 483
15: 484 319
10: 3 0
--------------------
Total: 1736 1079 Mults = 57 Total Score = 419,862
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
John/K2YY and I were joined for CQP this year by Juan Carlos/KM6WCC and
Samyak/KN6MYI. After a recent amp failure and with a couple of relatively new
ops we decided it would be a good year to try low power in the M/M category.
This also had the added benefit of reducing inter-station interference between
our same-band stations, enabling CW and SSB stations to co-exist on 15 without
the normal heavy interference we experience running high power.
The CQP records don't list the overall California record for M/M LP. The SCLA
county record was 861 points. That record was surpassed in the first few minutes
of operating. Scanning through all of the county records we found that the
highest M/M LP score was from 2001 when the Central Oregon DX Club activated
Modoc county for a score of 293,799. Breaking this record would be a challenge
as the 3830 posting showed over 500 Qs on 10 SSB. It seemed unlikely that we
would get anywhere near this number on 10 and in fact we had exactly 0 Qs on 10
SSB.
We set up 4 operating positions. Two K3s with DVRs were used for SSB and on CW
we used an FT1000MP and FT1000MP Mark V (dialed down to 100 W).
Both antennas for 80 were inverted vees and most of 40 CW was done using an
inverted vee. 160 was a double-L, 40 SSB a M2 4 el. Yagi, 20 SSB a KLM 6 el.
Yagi, 20 CW a HyGain 205CA, 15 SSB a Telrex 6 el. Yagi, 15 CW a HyGain 155CA
with OWA mods, 10 CW a HyGain 105CA. Separation between antennas on the same
band is between 500 and 700 feet.
We started the contest with Samyak on 20 SSB and John and I on 15 and 20 CW.
After a couple hours I realized that I could probably handle both CW positions
using an audio switch that I'd assembled when starting out with SO2R. That
enabled John to move to 15 SSB. When Juan Carlos arrived he took over on 15 SSB
and John came back to 15 CW, soon moving to 40 CW.
Juan Carlos operated for about 5 hours and after that I did all the CW operating
and John and Samyak were on SSB. John left at 0300 and Samyak and I stayed until
nearly 0630 when we weren't getting answers to CQs and had worked through the
packet spots.
I planned to return before 1200 but my plan was thwarted by my 3-year-old
granddaughter who is frequently at our house. She adjusts knobs and flips
switches on everything she can reach. I woke up at 5 a.m. (1200) hearing very
weak white noise coming from the clock radio and realized she had turned the
tuning dial to a dead spot. After a quick breakfast and coffee I was back on the
air just before 1300.
John arrived about an hour later and Samyak a couple of hours after that. John
stayed on 20 SSB all Sunday and I got on 15 SSB for a short time before Samyak's
arrival. We tried 10 periodically on both CW and SSB but only worked a few
locals on CW.
We had worked all mults except NT by 1900 on Saturday, with #57 being WA. Our CW
antennas were not rotatable except by going outside and using a pull rope and I
realized that the nulls in our antenna pattern are almost exactly in the
direction of VY1 so we weren't getting called or hearing them. Never heard NT
and the only VE8 I saw spotted on Sunday I couldn't hear even after going
outside and rotating with the pull rope. Apologies to KL7SB who I called on 20
for the AK mult and wasn't able to comply when he asked to rotate in his
direction. We eventually completed the Q after many repeats.
We passed the existing M/M LP record at about 0500 on Saturday evening. If we
had a few more operators participating then the totals could have been higher,
particularly on SSB. We were all pleasantly surprised by the final result.
After reading other reports that ON was the most common mult worked from CA I
was surprised that TX was most common for us.
TX 158
ON 136
FL 117
OH 111
TN 108
IL 99
NY 91
SCLA 91
PA 90
VA 73
CO 73
Thanks to all for the QSOs.
73,
-Mike, N7MH
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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