Hello all: My report to 3830 is below. For the first 7 minutes of the
contest, I was only running 5 watts! I made about 5 QSOs, hi. I had
been running 5 watts in the QRP afield contest and forgot to run the
power up and turn on the amp until I started wondering why no one was
answering my CQs.
At the beginning of the contest, the 20 band was good to the West
Coast, but not bad to areas like Missouri. However, in a very few
minutes the skip lengthened out and there was only the west coast,
PY2OMS, far west Texas, and Maine and Vermont, plus some backscatter
signals from the mid west. I also got K4XS on some sort of propagation.
After an hour or so, the rate significantly declined and I tried 40.
The zepp (favors north and north east) had tuned up beautifully, but
seemed very noisy. Matter of fact, the high bands were more noisy than
usual. Maybe Ivan loosed up some insullators on the power lines! The
dipole had fallen down and I had tied one end back up at only about 4
feet above the ground. It favors the west and north west and seemed
very quiet. At first, 40 M also seemed fairly short and the QSO rate
was pretty good. However, after just a few minutes, it went long, and
it wasn't possible to work anybody closer than MN, west TX, ME, VT.
Heard W0BH in KS several times, but he couldn't hear me. I felt very
weak. Must get the dipole back up where it belongs. Tried 80 M early,
but there are precious few spots you can operate this contest in above
3850. Appreciate everyone who heard me up there. WX5S in California
called me, so I guess I was getting out. Skip seemed OK with N4LR and
NA4BW and 2 SC stations worked. Very little noise of any kind. But,
just can't make many QSOs within the QSY rules above 3850.
I got frustrated and worked some Wash SR stations on CW. No SAC signals
heard. Finally quit altogether about 30 minutes before the end. Didn't
know at the time that we had registered a team or might have tried
harder, but result wouldn't have been much better. I hate this contest!
(Of course, I really love this contest, but compared to other
contests, it isn't good for me.)
73,
John, K4BAI.
NA Sprint SSB Contest
Call: K4BAI
Operator(s): K4BAI
Station: K4BAI
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 3.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Op Time
---------------------
80: 19
40: 57
20: 68
---------------------
Total: 144 Mults = 33 Total Score = 4,752
Club: South East Contest Club
Team:
Comments:
FT1000MP, Alpha 78, 1.5 KW output, TH6DXX, dipole, zepp, inverted vee.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at:
http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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