Hi all,
I decided again to be a masochist and run
another contest QRP when there is a
perfectly fine Alpha War horse 18" away. I
have to say not being able to contact
stations you hear clearly is a significant
irritant. Yes, the joy of being the
underdog is at times over-rated. Still, I
had a whole lot of fun.
I was surprised the DX wasn't more obvious
at this QTH than in earlier years. I heard
no loud Eu at all (I am 400' from the
Atlantic on the coast of CT), Herb, KV4FZ,
was clear as a bell but he couldn't hear
me, same for the P4/ station & for that
matter, I worked zero DX but as QRP, that
is part of the game.
One of the things I found a bug about is
with S&P & being QRP, the person calling
CQ struggles to get my call and then has
to struggle with the section. Often I hear
them calling CQ right after sending the
report again and I don't know if they just
decided to bail out on the QSO and look
for a stronger signal to get in the log
or, did they get the info and just
immediately go back to CQing? If they
bailed and I submit my log, then I get
penalized for a Q that doesn't show up in
their log. People should send an
acknowledgment when they are satisfied
they have received the proper data.
I use the word I above but this same issue
applies to anyone who is in a contest and
has the same experience.
My AMTRAK power line noise 75' away is
always a joy to listen through and
especially when it's the dusk/dawn hours
when the commuter trains are in full
swing. There must be 40 of them that pass
by in the rush hours and each one disrupts
20+ over for up to a minute. & yeah, there
is intermittent arcing that I hear all the
time.
With all that I had a great time and
thought the band was pretty well filled. I
just looked at a photo of my P3 screen I
sent to the YL at 22:53Z. It was set to
5KHz so there was 10KHZ viewed and I count
27 CQers, not bad & not so many there was
constant splatter.
Thanks to all who pulled my signal out.
N6DZ gets the Golden ears as my farthest Q
and K7CA & W7RH are tied for 2nd farthest.
73,
Gary
KA1J
---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com
_________________
Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband
|