North American QSO Party, CW
Call: K8MAD
Operator(s): K8CC, KK8I
Station: K8CC
Class: M/2 LP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 298 52
80: 284 54
40: 240 53
20: 227 44
15: 105 24
10: 5 2
-------------------
Total: 1159 229 Total Score = 265,411
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Team:
Comments:
Rigs: FT-1000D and FT-1000MP
Antennas:
160 - Shunt Fed Tower and K9AY Loop array
80 - Dipole @ 65', four-square
40 - 3L @ 120', N/S dipole @ 80', E/W dipole @ 40'
20 - 5L/5L @ 120'/60', 4L SE @ 80'
15 - 5L/5L/5L @ 141'/94'/47', 4L SE @ 60'
10 - 5L/5L/5L @ 90'/60'/30'
We used the Mad River Radio Club call (K8MAD) as part of a club effort to log
QSOs for the ARRL WAS Triple Play award. K8SIA used it last weekend in the
ARRL RTTY roundup and got us 46 states on RTTY. This weekend we got 49 states
(never found North Dakota) on CW so we're off to a decent start. We'll be on
phone next weekend in NAQP SSB to further the effort.
Our team, as well as most of the other MRRC/NCC NAQPers used the name "Val" to
honor MRRC/NCC founding member Robert "Val" Valentine, W8KIC who passed away
last month due to cancer.
Conditions from here in MI were not very good. We could work people on 20M
through the daylight hours, but 15M and 10M were empty. We'd chase 15M West
Coast packet spots with nary a hint of signal. 40M had good signals during the
day, and late in the afternoon 15M started producing answers to CQs.
Unfortunately our skip zone on the high bands beaming west is a lot less
densely populated than for stations out west beaming east :-(
20M died with the sunset, and 40M became unusable shortly thereafter. So we
were down on 80M and 160M shortly after 0000Z. However, we saw a spot for N2NT
on 160M in the 00Z hour, so we knew were weren't alone.
Our experience in NAQP usually is that the low bands are where we can make up
some ground. However, this time 80M was the worst we've ever seen it. The
band was very quiet, but we knew we were in trouble when three out of the first
four QSOs were WA, ID and OR and W6s were easier to work than W3s! The proble
appeared to be latitude-related, as we could hear stations to the south having
better success. For the 00Z and 01Z hours we could not get answers to CQs on
80M no matter what we did, so it was all S&P to keep the rate from being zero.
Eventually 80M improved to the point where CQs were answered, but even then it
was a struggle to work stations within 500 miles (which is a LOT of stations).
160M was decent during the night-time hours, and it eventually caught and
passed 80M for our best band QSO-wise.
Still, the contest was a lot of fun. Depressing to be 1000 QSOs behind the
leaders, but still fun.
Dave/K8CC
Uli/KK8I
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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