I participated in FD this past weekend with the San Diego DX Club, of which
I am now Prez--ahem, ahem :-) We had a relatively large arrangement for a
2A entry:
o two complete HF stations with TS-850S and TS-950S plus CT on PCs for
logging. AND some *very* good contest ops--like K6NA, N6ND, K9VV, etc.
(even little ol' me). We were using K6NA's call.
o novice, packet, satellite, and UHF-VHF stations with goodies galore from
6 meters to 432,
o 3 el on 10, 4 el on 15, 4 el on 20, 2 el on 40, and an inv. vee for 80,
all from the top of Point Loma near the Lighthouse with water on three
sides about 400 feet below.
I don't have the totals in yet, but we made well over 3000 Qs, and initial
cut at the score is 11K which would put us at the top of the 2A heap in
last year's scores. We had TV coverage, too, with a small segment on local
Channel 10 on the News at 5 last night.
Although we had intended to make virtually all of our Qs on CW, we did have
a couple of incredible runs on SSB. I operated 15 SSB between about 0200
and 0400 on Sun (Sat night), and it was full-on feeding frenzy. Apparently
the 4 el on 15 put us ahead of the pack in signal and it was like being on
a DXpedition--the pileup was huge! Of course, having 15 meters open to the
E. Coast at that hour is not something one would normally expect. Any
other interesting openings?
Only disappointment was that 10 didn't really open up much, except a bit
right toward the end on Sun. morning. Still our novice op made over 300 Qs
between 10 and 220. Not bad, I guess. 6 meters never opened at all,
except for one meteor trail QSO with South Dakota.
I've always been interested in making the best score possible in FD, but
this is the first time I've been with a balls-to-the-wall FD effort, both
in terms of equipment and operators to max out on points. It's one of
several approaches to FD, and for me, a good one--especially since I didn't
have the organize this one (for a change!).
73--Jim, K6ZH
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