N4YOS, Alabama, Low Power, Single Op
827 q's X 78 sections = 129,012.
Band totals: 80 40 20 15
410 203 140 74
Qso's via cq: 620 (75%) via s&p: 207 (25%)
Number of A, B, Q stations worked: 266, 477, 84 (over 10% qrp!)
Dupes worked without informing the other end: 11
Antennas were A3S at 35' and wire at 35-40'.
Comments: My goal was to get 900 q's, but I'm very happy with the
consolation prize of a sweep! I ended up 5 qso's and 3 (or 2) sections
ahead of last year.
At 19:10, a ve2 answered my call and I was down to just SD and PAC. No
sweat, I thought, I don't even have to look for those (although I worried a
little about not working kh6 on 40 during the previous nite). An hour or so
went by and I started to worry! I started a "systematic" search of 20 and
15 and found W0SD in short order. I then spent about 2 hours looking for
kh6, including searching old logs and QST for possible calls/times/bands. I
wasted 20+ minutes figuring out the pileup for Wyo before I finally got a
clue. I pondered if the westerners I was working would understand if I
ended my exchange with "seen pac?" (and I wondered if that was single-op
legal). Finally, it was dark and I resignedly went to 40. I pounced a
couple, came across a quiet spot and started calling. After just a couple
of answers in 5 minutes, I thought I would just go on to 80m (40 hasn't been
kind to me lately). Since band switching between these two involves a bit
of knob twiddling, I decided to make one more listen on 20. Much to my
surprise, there was kh6/w1wef just a few hertz from the 20m place I had last
occupied!
Things to do next time:
1 - Get comfortable with reaching for the F10 key (keyboard cw in trlog)
instead of the paddles. I can send CW good enough, but it takes a couple
chars each time so I sometimes flub repeat requests (both ways). I do have
all the standard requests/repeats programmed in various keys, but the more I
think about it, going into keyboard mode to repeat something or to say
something outside the format would be the best.
2 - Get more antennas!
Tom N4YOS
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