Colorado QSO Party
Call: K0EU
Operator(s): K0EU
Station: K0EU
Class: Single Op PortMixed LP
QTH: GIL/CLC
Operating Time (hrs): 14.5
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
6:
2:
222:
432:
----------------------------
Total: 148 542 0 CW Mults = 61 Ph Mults = 54 Dig Mults = 0 Total
Score = 191,295
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
Final score should be pretty close to actual. Just finished entering my paper
logs into excel. Includes the 2X advantage of operating from two counties at
once plus the 2000 bonus points.
A new rule this year prompted me at the last minute to enter as a portable
instead of a mobile. On Friday, I ginned up a 40M inverted L which consisted of
a 33 foot wire supported by a 20 foot fiberglass mast which lashed to the side
of my Pathfinder. The new antenna showed promise vs the hamstick, and I thought
it could be a "secret weapon" to garnish additional county multipliers
from the mobiles (W0ZA, W0ETT, KO7X) on 40M during the day. As it turns out, I
didn't get very many multipliers on 40M. Most came from QSO's on 20M CW and
there were zero QSO's with any SSB mobiles. Probably my fault for not checking
often enough.
I operated from a location on a 9400 foot high ridge between Idaho Springs and
Blackhawk, Colorado on the county line of Gilpin and Clear Creek. Operating as
a portable allowed me to give out two counties for the price of one QSO, which
is a huge advantage score wise. The site has a nice view of the Colorado plains
to the east, and a clear shot to the west. Seemed like at least half of the Q's
were from AZ/CA/OR/WA/BC so the QTH was a good choice.
I planned to get to the site just after 6 AM, and figured maybe 10 minutes to
get the 40M L up. In reality, I arrived at just before 7 AM. Although I had
pruned and tested the L at my home the day before, the antenna was resonating
at about 7500 Khz. I figured it was due to differences in ground effects. I
ended up adding about 3 feet of extra wire to get it resonant. I then
discovered that the 20M hamstick was getting detuned by the 40M L. I finally
had to move it to the hood so it was broadbanded enough to do CW and SSB. All
of the retuning took a lot more time than I had planned on. I was burning BIC
time!
Finally got going at 7:30 AM local time, which is 90 minutes after the official
start of the contest. Things started out slow. Prop appeared to be down compared
to last year. I think it was W7GKF that told me in an SSB QSO that the A index
was 21 and the K was 3. Not a good sign. I plugged away, though. I did quite a
bit of passing mults from CW to SSB and vice-versa. Many thanks to all the ops
that cooperated, especially the one phone op that pulled his dusty key out of a
drawer!
Maybe the altitude affected me. I forgot the fact that CW QSO's are worth twice
the points of SSB QSO's. CW seemed slow, and I concentrated on working numerous
2 by 3 callsigns KB6aaa through KK6zzz. Phone rates were decent at around 50-60
per hour. When I switched to CW, there was an initial burst of QSO's followed by
the inevitable slowdown. In all, I spent about 5 hours on CW and 9.5 hours on
phone. Only breaks were to "water" the aspen grove nearby. I bested
my mobile score from last year (which was for operation from two different
county lines) by about 1.5 percent.
Had several storm fronts move through, with heavy rain and wind. Thankfully,
there wasn't any lightning and I didn't have to shut down. By 9:30 PM, with 30
minutes to go in the contest, the rate slowed to a crawl. I decided to throw in
the towel. In pitch black darkness and the temp down to about 40 degrees, I
disassemble the 40M antenna and packed up for the drive home.
Thanks to all the Colorado ops that turned out for this one, especially the
mobiles, and thanks also to the hundreds of casual ops that stopped in for a
contact.
A funny side note: I used the voice recorder of the K-3 *A LOT* and it was a
real life saver. My CQ mentioned "all I need is your name and state".
At least a half dozen times during the contest, someone would come back and say
"This is Joe in California". No callsign, just their name and state.
I about busted a gut every time this happened!
73
Randy(Ken) K0EU
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