North American QSO Party, SSB
Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 8.3
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 5 5
80: 63 27
40: 265 48
20: 90 27
15: 56 15
10: 1 11
-------------------
Total: 480 123 Total Score = 58,917
Club: South East Contest Club
Team: SECC #1
Comments:
Antennas:
A3S/A743 at 15m (10-40m)
15m shunt-fed tower (80m, 160m)
Cushcraft R7000 at 2.5m (second radio)
Equipment:
K2/100 w/ KAT100
Kenwood TS-430S w/ AT-250
Comments:
Wasn't sure I was going full time or not on this one until the last
minute. As it turned out, I ended up pulling the plug in the last two
hours. Had a bunch of fun before then, though.
Contest started slow on 15m, with nothing on 10m. I could hear
several beacons in the beacon band, but found no one up on 10m -- my
only contact there was when I moved WW4LL. After a quick run through
15m, found 20m a bit long. Conditions were not going to be good.
Usually 20m is a bread and butter band for us in the southeast. Not
this time - it was far too long. Did have KH6DV call in on 20m, and I
should have moved him to 15m.
Took a half hour at 1930z, was trying hard to S & P through the high
bands, but activity had died down somewhat - was hearing the west
coast settle on to 20m already. By 2030z, I did a brief run on 40m,
then back to S & P through 20m.
By 2130, I'd settled in low on 40m and had a good run. I also worked
the second radio on 15 and 20. In the next three hours, I kept
running at various places on 40m. People kept calling! It was great.
Best hour was during the 2300z hour, where I worked 98 Qs, virtually
all on 40m.
Best moment was when I was called W7OT. Mike and I have been friends
for some time, since we worked together at the same company years
ago. That was two cross-country moves ago for Mike. But, we'd never
worked on the air before. He called me, told me that he hadn't
intended to get on, but he saw that someone had spotted me on the
cluster.
After finishing the run on 40m, I also had a decent run on 80m.
However, rising noise levels made it tougher, so I took a break at
0130z to get something to eat. I'd been on the radio for five and a
half hours straight.
Then I made my first big mistake. Last contact was 0132z, I slapped
the headphones back on and made a contact at 0201z. Then I noticed my
80m rate had just been cut in half. Oops. 28 minutes shot to heck.
It became harder and harder to keep the rate up, and my shunt-fed
tower started giving me problems. While the SWR would be fine at the
20 watt level of the KAT100 auto-tuner, when I hit the antenna with
80-100 watts, the SWR would skyrocket. A quick jaunt through 160m
found the same problem (only worse), and most stations had trouble
hearing me.
So, at 0300z, I pulled the plug.
Managed to make some use of the second radio for much of the contest.
The TS-430S isn't very effective with the R7000, but it did work ok.
Made about 22 or so second radio QSOs.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/
3830score/
Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
-- Wilbur Wright, 1901
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