K1TO - FL High Power
Band QSOs
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80 72 Inverted vee @ 85'
40 139 40-2CD @ 87'
20 147 204BAS @ 93'
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TOTAL 358 X 46 multipliers = 16,468
Team Name: Florida Contest Group
Hours - 107-81-88-82
FT-1000MP + Commander HF2500
TS-930S + Ameritron AL-1200
Saturday was a long day that began with a 6:30 AM wake-up
call, after going to bed after 2 AM setting up the station. The
amplifiers had literally not been turned on all year to date and
there was plenty of wiring needed after ripping the station
apart to bring pieces of it to Slovenia.
Spent the day driving to and from the Melbourne hamfest
where we had a terrific FCG meeting with record attendance
and commitments to fill a full 10-person Sprint team for the
first time ever. Hope everyone is noticing the increase in
FL activity! Caught a few winks in K4LQ's back seat, but
not enough to compensate for the sleep deficit. Stopped
to borrow a few last minute items from Vic, N4TO and
raced home to finish the set-up...
Started somewhat lethargically on 20 and found many
others keeping pace or ahead of me. Heard tons of guys
on 40 at the start, as usual, but resisted the urge to call
and get beat out there. My fatigue led to leaving the
bandswitch on the AL-1200 on the wrong band and
hence no amplification on 40 at the start. The AL-1200
is so forgiving that it didn't arc and this appliance opr.
couldn't figure out why it wasn't working!
Stayed on 20 perhaps a bit longer than necessary and
got to 40 with a deficit to make up against several others.
40 went pretty steadily, with 20 in the background. Even
thought the rate was steady, but not extraordinary, I still
managed to make up ground, as others struggled more
during the middle 2 hours. Arrived on 80 for the last hour,
taking a deep breath first, since I always get crushed in
the last hour, being just weak enough and far away enough.
This year was better, as more guys heard me the first time.
Still got beat out often, but filled in with some 40M QSOs.
Heard NP4Z once on 40, but never again. KG5RM called
in, I gave the report, nothing in response, slowed down and
gave the report a second time, nothing, and went on. Did
not realize until reading the 10M Contest results the next
day that he was in AR which I missed otherwise. Also
heard a piece of a WL7 call on 20, but never again. Not
sure if he was truly in AK. K4BAM gave a low # from KY,
but the rest of my 46 mults seemed to be readily available
this time. Mults are a bit of luck in this affair - I felt like last
year's victory was a bit hollow as the QSO total was not
tops, but the mults were fantastic. This year, in essentially
a dead heat with N5TJ, the shoe might end up on the other foot.
Used NA again, but encountered a few unexpected things.
The ALT/F6 window produced no data, and even after keying
in a callsign, it would not show as a dupe, so I ended up
calling more dupes than normal. Perhaps I inadvertently
set a flag such that those were the results. Sorry to all
those that I called and tuned away from...
It is blatantly obvious that many of the top scorers are
TR users, as it allows for CQing on the second band
while receiving an exchange on the primary band. I'm
still light years away from that, with neither rig even
computer controlled yet...
See y'all in the fall contests.
73, Dan, K1TO/4
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