Glad I finally got my 15M antennas up last month. Seeing K4WI 10M score one
can see how the cycle is very much on the down swing.
I'm still plagued by bad line noise. I have been working with GA power and
there is a marked improvement. Saturday was pretty bad, anywhere from S3 to
S6 towards Europe. I took several breaks out of frustration and used the
time looking for the sources. I was forced into full time S&P after about
2PM Saturday. The noise was S6 to S9 from the Pacific through Asia. This
morning it was S9 to Europe until about 8:30. The noise slowly faded away
and by 9 it was quite. Stayed that way the rest of the contest! I figure I
lost at least 4 hours of good runtime. I did find some of the sources so
I'll be calling my contact at GA power in the morning.
Now to comments on the contest. A definite lack of "over the pole" stuff.
No central Asian stations. Only a few UA9's and UA0's. No VU etc. Missed
9Y1VC on Saturday. I could just barely hear him through the line noise. I
called him a few time but I couldn't tell if he came back to me, but I heard
NQ4I work him. I had a number of good mults call me. A4, TF, OY, OX, OH0,
T9, TK, ZA, EL, A35, and YC (at the end had two including YC3MM),
Station equipment: FT1000MP x2, KW's, 6EL monbander at 93', 3 EL monbander
at 70'. One "footwarmer", my cat, Dash.
1258 QSO's, 3774 Points, and 112 Multipliers. Final score: 422.688
Just missed beating Rick's 15M SB effort of last year (he was using his
other call, K4WZ) by 20K.
Neal Sulmeyer, K4EA
K4EA@CONTESTING.COM
K4EA@SVHFS.ORG
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