North America QSO Party - SSB
Call: W6AQ
Operator(s): N6ED
Station: W6AQ
Class: SO
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160: 6 5
80: 47 14
40: 105 37
20: 236 52
15: 82 46
10: 398 40
----------------------
Total: 874 194 = 169,556
Club/Team: SCCC #1
Comments:
In my effort to find a station in the Southern California area that had less
QRM/N, Dave W6AQ offered me the chance to operate from his beautiful hilltop
QTH. Dave's site offers less noise on the low bands which was sure to be the
recipe for success.
Starting off the contest, I was sure that my score was going to be great with
big 100+ rates for the first 3 hours on 10m. Moving mults was a breeze! I was
doing great till I tried to move KL9A to 15 and upon turning the 15m antenna, I
found that the prop-pitch dial was stuck. No problem, I just step out of the
shack and look up. Well, this is where I made a huge mistake. After fiddling
with the control box, (and not working KL9A on 15) I stepped outside to make
sure I had set the antennas back to NE. Force12 antennas have lots of elements
:-) I went onto 15 and tried to run, but the signals were sure weak....what
could that be all about. I took an offtime to cool off and hoped that 15 would
kick in. Returning to the radio, 15 was still a crawl, so onto 20m. Most of
the guys on 20 were weak and some didn't hear me. Weird I thought so S&P for a
few quick mults while I pondered between solar flare or just nobody on these
bands. Finally after some 3 hours, I decided that there had to be something
wrong. I took a stroll outside and started counting elements. (kinda like the
perverbial checking to see if the antenna was still in the air) I soon found
the root of my problem, I had sighted the antennas 180 degrees off! This was a
real bummer! I fixed the problem and went directly back to 20m and wow what a
difference! Everyone was loud. I finished off the low-bands working everybody
I could. Dave's QTH is great on the low bands! If only I hadn't.............
Believe me, I won't point the antennas in the wrong direction again!
Thanks to Dave and his family for the warm hospitality and the use of a great
station.
See you all in the sprints,
Craig, N6ED
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