IARU HF Championship -- 1999
Call: WU4G (@ W4MYA) Country: United States
Category: Multi Single
BAND QSO QSO-PTS PTS/Q ZONES HQ STNS
160 4 6 1.50 2 1
80 30 70 2.33 9 7
40 116 344 2.97 18 11
20 827 3639 4.40 43 28
15 930 4152 4.46 36 25
10 40 152 3.80 7 7
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 1947 8363 4.30 115 79
Score: 1,622,422 points
Despite great conditions on 15 and 20, we ended the contest with mixed
emotions and lower results than last year. A bit frustrating as we had set
higher goals, only to fall way short. As I have seen in many other?s
comments, it was not a contest without problems, but I still left with the
feeling we could have done better despite the problems. Nevertheless, it
was fun, the camaraderie was great, and that?s what it?s all about!
Our problems hit even before the starting gun; a power line noise problem
that refused to show itself on Friday for the power company crew to fix,
reared it?s ugly head about an hour before the contest. It all but
obliterated 10 meters to Europe and played a very big part in keeping our
total Q?s on that band to 40 and very few mults. Saturday evening brought
in a line of thunderstorms that lasted for an hour. And while the rain shut
down the power line noise for the rest of the contest (10 meters was dead by
then), the hour?s worth of rain static forced us to a low antenna and a low
rate during some prime time on 15 & 20. Sometime during the night the 40
meter stack switching unit quit, leaving us with one antenna instead of two.
W4MYA sent me this note after the contest: "Sometime during the night we
were visited by either a horse or cow.. There are piles of dung in 10 or 15
places around the yard!!! The reason the 40M stack stopped working is
because the control wires were ripped from the remote switch box and laying
back in the woods across the path from the 40M tower!! What ever it was, it
was right up against the shack between the 20 and 15M positions. Tracks in
the muddy soil from where it had been landscaped and the absence of tall
grass were tell-tail signs.. The bird-bath was knocked over, some of the
rose bushes had all the leaves eaten off them... Not your average beast!! "
Late Saturday night the middle beam of the 15M stack stuck to the south. We
figured that wouldn?t hurt us but so bad as come Sunday morning the high and
low could still be phased together towards Europe. That was until somewhere
around 3 AM local Sunday morning the high antenna stuck to the east. So
much for a big signal into Europe for the last hours of the contest. It
showed in the results too, only 91 Q?s in the last 2 hours.
This was the first "serious" operation at W4MYA?s new shack. A fun 15D
effort in Field Day was the first shakedown to find the kinks. It must have
worked as all of our problems were external to the shack setup. A very
comfortable and well laid out setup complete with sound absorbing material
on the walls, in a brand new 24?x30? building attached off the house. A
big thanks to Bob for allowing us the pleasure of operating there.
I would be remiss by not mentioning the newest contester to join our ranks,
having recently moved to Virginia from Yankee land. Bill, K4WMS (better
known in contesting circles as K2WS, NF2L, & WA2DPU), certainly brings some
great skills and experience to the table. It was my personal pleasure to
operate with him. Thank you for your contributions to the effort Bill !
That?s not to belittle the other players; each brought their "specialties"
to the plate to make it a true team effort. Thank you all. A special
thanks to Bob?s wife Lilly for the great food. As they say in the
commercial: "It don?t get no better than this!"
Thanks also to everyone for the Q?s. Best of luck in the final results.
73
Ronnie WU4G
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