As expected, SSB was much harder than CW with this all-band vertical. "Rate"
was about half what it was on CW. Could only manage 30+/hour on SSB, whereas
it was 70+ on CW for a while. My hunch is that condx were much better for
CW, though.
75 - 21/14 40 - 46/28 20 - 85/37 15 - 15/10 total - 167/89 = 14,863
5 hours
FCG #2 (I think)
Did not work a Florida station on any band! Heard N4BP several times and
heard a few others being worked, but it was weird to miss it on all bands.
Encountered an NA anomaly - also did not work CT on any band, yet the
ALT-Wanted window did not show CT as needed on any band.
Signing /4 was a big help on SSB. Many guys only heard that part the first
time, then got part of the call and figured out who I was. One guy on 75
really couldn't hear me, but his CheckPartial came thru and we had a QSO!
Unlike CW, I did not hear a single station on 10 M. 15 was only open to CA
and W7, with the exception of KB0IHM in MN and VE5SF. K5TR and KS9K
repeatedly announced their 15M listening freqs, but nothing heard here.
I could tell that 20M was OK for the guys with decent antennas. Many times,
I would try to CQ on a freq that sounded clear, only to have someone either
answer the other guy who REALLY has the freq or to have someone tell me that
the freq is in use. Had a couple of fun bursts, but mostly tedium. Got a
chuckle out of Dave, K6LL who CQed down around 14.220. A bunch of guys would
call on his freq, then ignore his exchange. Heard Dave say "What is going on
here??!!", then he realized that he was part of the VK0 pileup!
Thanks to N2IC for confirming that I am "still puny". K4AB got me excited by
announcing on both 40 & 75 that I was strong. Of course, he is just across
the Gulf of Mexico in AL and happened to be the loudest station I heard on
either band...
40 & 75 seemed to work better on SSB than on CW. The last hour I was on
(0015 - 0115) produced the highest S & P rates, all on 40 & 75. Then I heard
KW8N work more guys in one minute than I was working in 10 minutes and
decided that this really was torture after all... At that point, with almost
5 hours to go, 40 was so long that it was almost dead for me. Couldn't stand
the thought of S&Ping on 75 (the vertical's worst band by far) that long, so
I packed it in.
Did anyone else notice a ton of VT stations? I may not have worked many, but
heard more of them than the rest of W1 combined!
It was a balmy 42 degrees here during the contest. Nonetheless, the weather
will improve soon and I hope to be breaking ground for the towers soon.
73, Dan, K1TO/4
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