It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
1) My score was up from 4.1 Meg to 5.58 Meg, nothing to sneeze at. But...
2) N6RT operated at W6EEN as NE6N and I think he cleaned my clock. We
were close on Saturday, but he ran many JAs on 10 that I couldn't hear,
I got frustrated listening to him on the second rig! 500 miles south
makes a huge difference.
3) My strategy for this contest didn't work this year. The low bands
were pretty good (at least 40 was) but there was no volume there. So,
despite being there both nights this year (making sure I set two alarms,
not just one), I had less QSOs than last year. So much for the six-point
advantage...
I also missed my usual nap times since I couldn't abandon the high
bands. You never know what will happen, so I made hay when I could. I
stopped operating at 18Z Sunday and took my last six hours off.
4) Conditions were good, but not good enough. At times, the bands would
go quiet, like there was a blanket on the ionosphere. Then things came
back, then went away, etc. Very sporadic. It reminded me of operating
six meters in a VHF contest and listening to someone 50 miles away work
stuff you can't even dream of.
5) BUT...it was really fun, the one-point rule was great, and the
conditions were different enough in the "summer" I am not sure that talk
of moving the contest to April is wise...
6) I used to listen to K6GV complain about his old NV6O call. It was
always a running joke how people heard it as N4BO. So I was a lit
concerned that WV6C would be W4BC. But contesters are good operators and
have learned their lesson, right? WRONG! Wrong choice to use that call,
no wonder there aren't many WV6 stations! I hope the committee notices
how many people busted the call. (It was pretty obvious they weren't
getting it right even when they didn't send it wrong. I had the highest
amount of dupes in this contest I think I have ever had. Of course WV6C
wasn't in their log!)
73! Jim N6IG
--
CQ-Contest on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
|