N0AH
Paul
Wyoming
missed AK, NE and WY????? humph- no excuses for WY and NE....I just ignored
40 meters and I should have been more aggresive looking there- but I was
flustered by the downtimes due to wx- blah-
I worked Quebec, BC, ON, Manatoba, Alberta, and had three DX stations call
including Z3, PA and G.......but no other NA stations........an XE would have
been nice-
Band Mults QSO's
10 1 1 6 ele log P
15 2 2 6 ele log P
20 39 287 6 ele Log P
40 16 23 Butternut V and wire quad at dirt
level, hi
80 31 81 4 square
160 19 28 Inv L
totals 108 422 45,576
Tried to give WY out but only operated 6.6 hours due to dumb mistakes and
wx-.
Thunderstorms really tainted the entire contest including two lighting hits
"darn" close- I sat out a few hours and just sulked- When on, I had some run
rates at 120 an hour on 20 meters for a bit, I was smoking! - was fun while
it lasted-
I guess I was one of those rare western states that didnt always move to
other bands when requested.....but I really wanted to take advantage of the
wx breaks and test out my new 4 square on 80 meters- trying to operate while
monitoring color radar was a bummer- so please excuse my excuses-(Huh??)
A few interesting notes:
I worked 49 CA on 20 meters but only found 1 contact with CA on 40, 80 and
160- wierd but true-
MFJ continues to frustrate me- my most recent piece of garbage from them, a
MFJ-432 memory keyer with a whomping 8 hours of operating time on it- , puts
out a great audio signal with ample RF feedback to distroy what ever is being
said- well, at least they got the memory problems fixed- but they still
can't seem to make anything that works- curse em! Har!
Talk about timing.......I had a chance to get more Q's on 10 and 15 meters
early on but decided to sit out the first 2 hours so I could operate the last
10 hours to take advantage of the lowbands- ....at noon, sky's were clear,
by 2 pm., it was lightning and thunderstorms and 10 and 15 were
dead.....smart move, eh?
N2IC came up around 2 p.m. and stayed throughout the rain...we both got a
good education on static noise effects on my various antenna's......Steve
came up to see the 4 square and by the time he left, sky's were clear and the
birds were singing and 10 and 15 were even more dead- but we enjoyed
discussing TV VHF DX and Steve got our tv working to finally pick up UHF-
Awsome man! We can now watch the Bronco's.......Peggy is baking him a pie-
Once I finally got started, my plans for a big score seemed possibleafter an
hour making good runs on 20 meters, but then Zues decideds to throw a party
for all his friends- static crashes heard with radio off- you get the idea-
4 Square worked great ... it heard better than the beverages and that was a
surprise considering the wx-
N4VI was the only station I worked on 10 meters, backscatter, on 10 meters-
thx Chris! worked Chris on 15, and he moved us to 10......got him later 80
too-
W0AH and I ran into each other and had a nice QSO on 80 meters for a bit-
thats the nice thing about a contest....you run into people you have been
wanting to talk too but just can't seem to hook up with-
The 80 meter 4 square tested out pretty good and 160 meters was a lot busier
than any recent ARRL sweepstakes contests- I really enjoyed the NAQ and hope
that I can be better prepared for next year's......like having software that
has the NAQ, having a computer that does not generate S-9 noise, having all
my bevg's working, and having a real voice keyer that
works.......etc......but all things considered, this was a fun contest!
Lots to do before the season starts- 73 paul N0AH
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