Call Hrs Score Q's Pts DX
____________________________________________________________________
N1PBT ~28 148851 333 999 149
RAW VALID PTS DX
80m 47 47 141 31 Rig: Ten-Tec Omni-D (w/ext VFO now)
40m 59 58 174 33 Power: 100W
20m 203 203 609 65 Antennae: Butternut HF6V vertical
15m 27 25 75 20 80m dipole at 30'
Bottom line = ear drum busting good time!
I was able to put quite a few hours into the contest thanks to my wife doing
all the work this weekend. The score doesn't show it though. I took the
opportunity to develop my contesting skills...tail ending, scanning up the
band with one VFO while working on a pileup with the other, etc. No high
pressure push for rate...I spent my time working on subtleties. SS is much
easier than this with my antennae!! I can't count the number of times I heard
"thanks for the new one"! I didn't expect Vermont to be quite so popular. A
quick "Vermont, Vermont" at the end of my call proved to be a moderately
effective pileup buster. Timing the call just right was the most effective
means. Most of you guys have that down pat.
I tried to run a few times with various placements relative to other stations
with very, very little success. Given the responses I got to the VT mult I
was hoping for some success. I need to have a better technique and/or a bit
more muscle for that (lower radiation angle would help a lot). 98.8% search
and pounce...not the real aggressive, high stress style I use for the domestic
contests that my station is better suited for though. Someday I will put
Vermont on the ARRL DX map so to speak.
I just got the external VFO for my rig this past Monday. This was the first
time I was able to work split!! For the most part I didn't have to make the
decision to hang out at a pile-up or continue on up the band...I kind of used
the first VFO as my one "memory". I could listen to both VFOs at the same
time (same ears!!), but with a busy band it was very difficult. There were
some mixing products going on with both selected as well...I need to look into
that some. I was thrilled to get to work 40m DX and DX outside of the window
on 80m. I spent a bit of time adding some radials to my vertical that seemed
to help compared to IARU this past summer.
Observations:
EA3OT has the best audio I have ever heard on SSB.
9A1A was the as loud as the mile-a-minute SFL on 14.322 for about an hour
(S9+pegged the meter) on 20m.
300 is Italian for "1500W or so".
The central European kilowatts seemed to pick up my call first time much more
often than the others.
EI7M must have a nice TX location!
I need an (or more) antenna with some nulls to point in the right direction.
I felt like I was under a waterfall between 14.150 and 14.170. There was
definitely EU to work in there though. EU must have felt like they were
looking into the business end of a full-on fire hose!
County hunting IS catching on in EU.
--
ron <><
email: rrossi@btv.ibm.com
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