California QSO Party -- 1996
Call: AB6FO Country: LAX
Category: SO HP
MODE QSO QSO PTS MULTS
CW 936 2808 0
SSB 977 1954 0
-----------------------------------------
Totals 1913 4762 58 = 276,196
BAND CW PHONE
160 42 17
80 185 120
40 222 116
20 403 689
15 84 33
10 0 0
VHF 0 2
ALL 936 977
Equipment Description:
Kenwood 950SDX, 950SD, SM230, Alpha 87A (2), each station with
DuneStar Bandpass filters and stubs automatically selected with
TopTen Band Decoders. Pentium with CT10.
Antennas:
160 Balloon Vertical, 250' beverage
80 Force 12 EF180S rotating dipole @ 72'
40 Mosley PRO96 @ 80'
15 Mosley PRO96 @ 80'
10 who cares
SOAPBOX:
For the second year in a row I got my chained pulled early in the
contest when I asked a station with a score much bigger than mine
if they were single or multi-op and they told me single when they
were actually multi. That's what I get for asking. Actually,
rather than being very depressed, I only got mildly depressed and
redoubled my efforts and persevered. When I heard that station
CQing into a dead 15 meter band with no responses, I kind of
suspected I was being put on.
With not a peep the whole weekend out of 10 meters and only 20%
of my QSO total from only 2 years ago on 15 meters, the highlight
of the contest, to my delight and surprise was working 167 DX
stations, literally without trying, mostly 20 meters, mostly CW,
mostly Europe. SV, 7X, 5W, YB, EI, HB, YO, GW, TA all called in,
in addition to many DL, G, F, SM, OH, etc. with the capper and
last DX QSO, OD5NJ. If only I have runs like this in CQWW! In
fact, I never remember running Europe like this except in the
ARRL 10 meter contest at the peak of the sunspot cycle. Maybe
raising my Force 12 EF420 10 feet to 53' might have helped,
but...
The DX show really helped the rate, eliminated the Sunday
doldrums and added to my enjoyment of the contest tremendously,
not to mention giving me the points to set a new LAX CQP record.
In order to help sustain this DX activity and make it a trend
(last year I had only 8 DX QSOs,) I hereby offer to sponsor a CQP
trophy for the highest scoring non North American station.
I worked 57 mults in the first 4 hours, but didn't find VY1JA for
the sweep until there was only 2 hours left. In CQP Jay usually finds
me early on. Not this time. But thanks for being there Jay.
All was not peaches and cream however. Murphy struck in the form
of RF getting into my two radio switch for the first time. Some chokes
applied on the fly solved the problem. And I had a buzz on Radio B. After
a while I realized the problem was caused by having the amp's power switch
in the low power position and using too much drive to try to get to 1500
watts out.
Murphy also caused a problem with COM2 which was reading Radio A.
This caused a particularly insidious problem in that when I went
from Radio A to Radio B, when Radio B was in a different mode
from Radio A (ie, SSB on Radio A, CW on Radio B) when I went back
to Radio A I went to a frequency other than my prior run
frequency. That happened about a dozen times before I caught on
and put my run frequency in VFO B and went back to VFO B after
using the 2nd radio on a different mode. I did step on some toes
though, and know I owe NI6T an apology for claiming a run
frequency that wasn't mine. One of the things I love about mixed
mode contests and CT is the usually seamless effort to go from one
mode on one radio to another mode on the other radio.
Murphy also played with my video card. The colors would change
for no reason. I had to pull the computer out and tug on the video
cable a few times to make the screen eye pleasing.
Bottom line is, for the absolute bottom of the sunspot cycle, I
had a blast. The activity for CQP is amazing. Now does anybody know
how AI6V wound up. Last heard he was 6 QSO's ahead of me with a few
hours to go. Hopefully I have more CW QSOs and can claim a 3peat.
73. Ken, AB6FO, KWIDELITZ@DELPHI.COM
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