California QSO Party
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX
Class: SOSchool HP
QTH: Stanford
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160:
80: 138 69
40: 251 156
20: 462 596
15: 263 190
10: 2 0
6:
2:
--------------------
Total: 1116 1011 Mults = 57 Total Score = 306,090
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
With needed repairs to antennas and rotators not getting done before CQP I
proposed that we do a M/S instead of a M/M as we've done for the past 10 years.
With the other M/S ops bowing out due to illness and other commitments I ended
up single-op in CQP for the first time since 1978.
When I finally had time to set up the station late on Friday night I noticed
that our EME contesters were in the nearby EME shelter and that the 40 and 80
meter inverted vees that normally overhang the 2-meter EME array were down and
ended up unusable for all of CQP. The non-rotating C31XR that has been been
beaming to the east coast US with a broken rotator was now pointing due south
as it is on top of the pole that also holds the 2-meter EME array. Scratch 3
more antennas that I was planning to use...
I installed the last few coax jumpers shortly before the contest started and
discovered that one amp wouldn't key and the other radio had no signals. After
swapping out the amp and a bad jumper I started 18 minutes late.
The rate was high enough on one radio that I didn't get started on the second
radio until almost the end of the hour with 86 CW Qs made in 42 minutes. The
second hour was my best with 144 Qs, largely due to being new on 20 phone.
I periodically checked 10 meters but completely missed the opening on Saturday
afternoon. There was no rotatable antenna for 15 so I couldn't work JA or
anyone in the Oceania contest.
I missed AK. I CQed in that direction a few times when I was on 20 and 40 CW
but I was mostly beaming to the US on phone. What a disappointment when I was
called by a KL7 on Sunday but he was in NV.
I must apologize to WQ6X as I think his complaint about SO2R operators not
responding was directed at me. Unfortunately this was a "deer in the
headlights" moment for me. I am still not used to 1x1 callsigns, other
than the ones that are repeatedly activated, like N6O.
3 minutes earlier I had just moved to 80 CW for the first time and immediately
had a small packet/RBN pileup. There may have been other stations calling and
when I heard K6T I assumed that someone's keying was interrupted and waited for
him to send the rest of the call. Instead I heard K6T repeated and was in
somewhat of a daze wondering if it was K6TD, K6TU, etc. I hadn't worked anybody
on the other radio for several QSOs so my full attention was on this frequency.
I don't have a QRL/YES response in my CW messages so I had to send by paddle
which likely went out on the other radio.
Usually if I copy a partial callsign I will send whatever I've copied plus a ?
but for US 1x1 callsigns I freeze and think that there was a problem sending
the call and wait for a repeat. Again, apologies for my reaction to the CQ
which was about the time I had my eureka! moment and figured out it was K6T
calling.
I didn't get enough sleep on Friday night and was getting sleepy so I quit very
early for the night just after 0600. When I returned just under 6 hours later I
was greeted by Dave, AA6XV, operating using his callsign, logging on paper. I
let Dave continue operating until my full 6 hours of off-time had been used up.
This was a mistake since Dave had adjusted some settings that took me several
minutes to get working the way I preferred.
On Saturday I was mostly happy with my rates but on Sunday I felt that it was
hard to maintain decent rates. My serial numbers had been close to K6XX and
WC6H on Saturday evening but my early departure put me behind both of them by a
large margin on Sunday and I never caught up.
I worked a couple of locals on 10 on Sunday and heard a weak N2MM calling N6O,
but wasn't able to get anyone outside CA to answer my CQs. This was around 2115
which must have been near the end of the 10m opening we had on Sunday.
I was surprised when AB1XX mentioned to me he had been W6YX president. Even
more surprised to learn he was my immediate predecessor as president. We had
known each other well back when Pete was WB6ZUO but hadn't reconnected in 40
years.
As always, thanks for all the Qs.
73,
-Mike, N7MH
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