North America QSO Party - CW
Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160: 36 20
80: 43 24
40: 77 31
20: 169 47
15: 104 38
10: 71 32
----------------------
Total: 500 192 = 96,000
Club/Team: SECC #1
Comments:
Equipment:
TS-430S running 100 watts
20-year-old homebrew CMOS keyer
Hastily made serial CW keying adapter
AE6Y CQPWIN Software
Antennas:
A3S @ 49 feet (10m, 15m, 20m)
1/4 wave sloper @ 40 feet (40m)
125 foot doublet @ 35 feet (80m, 160m)
Comments:
Wow.
That's my summary. Wow.
Conditions were really great. 10 stayed open for hours, and both 80m and
160m were really quiet.
I started off with a goal of 400 Qs, perhaps 150 multiplers, and an
overal score goal of 60k. I'd have been satisfied to break 50k, since my
previous best score in the NAQP CW was 34k points.
Having real antennas really helps. I spent lots of time on the upper
bands, since I had a gain antenna there, and felt loud. This is the first
CW contest I've done from home where I felt I could actually run
stations. I had excellent runs on 15m and 20m, sometimes getting the rate
meter over 100/hr.
Since I put almost 7 hours on the higher bands, that left little time on
the lower bands. My best overall band rate came on 160m, where a bit over
a half an hour netted 35 contacts, with 80m a close second.
In looking at my results, I've decided the 40m sloper just doesn't cut
the mustard. I got through on the first call on every other band, but
struggled on 40m. In retrospect, I probably should have spent more time
on 80m, where I had a brief run before I went to 160m before the clock
ran out.
Worked a number of SECCers. K9AY moved me through 6 bands. Worked the
W4AN M/2 on 5 bands (just missed them on 10m). Also worked AE4Y, WA4TT,
W4NTI, K4NO, W4OC, and there's probably a couple more I missed. May have
worked more if I had spent more time on the low bands.
I QSYed for every station who asked, THAT I UNDERSTOOD. Ok, my CW isn't
the greatest, but it's getting better. I did get peeved at guys who would
send something after our QSO, but then gave up when I asked for a repeat.
Come on, it's worth the move if you'd just send it again. Be patient.
But my biggest peeve were guys who gave up when I asked them for a second
repeat of the exchange. There were a couple who just went back to calling
CQ. I'd have to call them again, and then we'd go through the whole
business again. Waste of time. Just giving the repeat would have been
faster.
Thanks for tolerating my somewhat oddly sent CW. Seems the AE6Y software
is sensitive to disk page faults, and at times my wife's
memory-constrained laptop would page like crazy, which messed up the CW
timing. It was really nice to have the computer send just about
everything for me, although I did revert to the paddles a few times. (I
found the AE6Y keyboard mode to be buggy -- if you switched out before it
stopped sending, it would crash the software. Ouch)
This was a great contest, I can't wait for the Phone portion.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at:
http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr@arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
-- Wilbur Wright, 1901
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