CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: N2FF
Operator(s): N2FF
Station: N2FF
Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: East Williston,NY
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 9 7 7
80: 31 8 23
40: 154 17 74
20: 302 27 100
15: 181 23 94
10: 40 11 25
------------------------------
Total: 717 93 323 Total Score = 847,808
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This was a 27 hourtr solo effort. I am not sure when, if ever,I have spent that
much time in the chair. Friday morning I determined that I had a router
problem. I had been losing my telnet server despite changing nodes and then I
started getting disconnect from the Internet. TV and VOIP were not affected. It
was not going to be a good contest if I was going toahve to keep re-setting
boxes. Understand,I am not a shopper. The thougt of going to the local
MicroCenter in Westbury on Black Friday was not something I was looked forward
to. In the rain Friday morning I set off with my son-in-law to get a new
router so he could use his Mac lap top and my daughter and granddaughters would
have I pad and I pod access. They had allcome down from Woodstock,Ny to be with
us for Thanksgiving. A fifteen minute drive in the rain brought us to the local
MicroC. The parking lot was already full and people were parking in other lots.
It was a few minutes past 8 AM and there was a line around the building of Black
Friday buyers without umbrellas. I made a quick decision to abort the target
and return to base.
That afternoon I returned to MicroC and the crowds for the most part had
slimmed down or gone home for more turkey. I found the router section and
decided to pick up a recondition LyincSys N device at $49 which was about the
price I paid about five years ago for the original G series. Then out of the
corner of my eye I noticed a card on the shelf to my right about a Black Friday
Special - a D-Link router, version N, usually $49 for only $19.99. Wow! I put
it under my arm and headed for the check out. Less tha 15minutes total store
time and was I headed home with my prize and saved some $30 in the process. I
must report that in the 27 hours I spent in the contest I had to reconnect
telnet only five times. More impoortantly I did not ahve to do any hardware
reset as I had been doing.
I msut also note that this my first and hopefully last experience with Black
Fiday shopping. I'm a catalog and fleamarket guy at heart. But it was fun to
discover Friday afternoon when relatives showed up for a visit,that I was the
only one whow had been involved in Black Friday shopping adn ai had saved
money. Where do I apply for good shopper award?
On to the contest - Friday night was a bummer. I went to bed after midnight
and still had under 50 QSOs in the log. This was a real Black Friday! It did
not look good and my spirits were lagging. Up before 7 AM with only six hours
sleep to start the long day and I found conditions not much better, but I hung
in there. No one asked me to go shopping or to fix anything. They had been
warned. All the company left Friday night a few hours before the contest
start.
I am not a great CW op. I never learned how to use a paddle and do not even
have a key connected to my radio. I am a die in the wool RTTY/keyboard guy.
So there I was oprating low power assisted with 100 watts, with all wire
antennas including a three element quad. It's a wire beam isn't it? No antenna
above 50 feet. Saturday, about mid day, conditions started to improve. Fifteen
was open, sort of, and there were a few stations to be had on 10 and 20 was
less noisy. By Saturday night at 9 PM I had about 425 QSO's in the log. I saw
little gain in staying on 160 and 80 with only 100 watts. Sleep was inviting.
I was up at 6:30 without an alarm and readey to go after a shower. There were
loads of stations to pounce on on both 20 and 15. It was fun moving around the
band map and picking off mults. I am constandly amazed at the guys who can hear
my weak signal once and have the call correc the first time through the din.
It's a skill I don't have and I am in awe of those who do. But then with low
power your sense of "agressive timing" is hightened. It's a bit like the skills
that sightless people develop. Without an amp (yes, I did use one for years and
may again revert badk to the easy way) it's a magical event when some station
acrossthe Pacific or Atlantic picks your call out of the noise and answers. I
took few breaks and no naps.
Sunday afternoon about 5PM I realized I had reached 100 contries on 20 meters.
The last time that happened the SFI was well over 100 and I had a 1500 watts
ampt at my disposal. Wow! I was so involved with working them I had only a
vague notion that I had over 90 countries unitl I noticed the 100 on the
screen. when the contest ended I had 94 on 15 and 74 on 40 where I ended the
contest. I still had not run out of stations to work. At some point Sunday
afternoon I realized that conditions seemed better than a 75 SFI. I spent the
last hour on 40 and in the last 15 minutes I managed to pounce on on four new
countries and one zone. You must remember, I'm from Brooklyn, NY, and we
learned to pounce on people at very young age.
Hey, it was fun thanks to the guys amd gals around the world with the high
antennas and the good ears!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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