North American QSO Party, SSB
Call: KH6VV
Operator(s): KH6DV
Station: KH6DV
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: hi
Operating Time (hrs): 9.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
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160:
80: 11 6
40: 90 30
20: 360 48
15: 315 51
10: 141 22
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Total: 917 157 Total Score = 143,969
Club:
Team:
Comments:
This was a shakedown run for all new antenas. The band conditions during summer
NAQP are never good and this one was no exception. Most of the new antennas are
not yet ready for primetime but it was worth the effort to see just what worked
and what didnt. The 10 meter stand alone wide spaced yagi was done early and the
final adjustments worked out great so it went up to its final operating height
at 71 feet. The final adjustments on the new interlaced 20/15 are not yet
complete so it was at its tuning height (61 feet) and I could sense the
deteriation in performance. The 15 meter is resonant in the low portion of the
cw band and needs to come up in resonance a bit. The 20 meter antenna is at
13850 and I can notice a pronounced difference in performance between the cw
portion of the band and the low part of ssb. The swr is bad enough in the 20
meter phone band to require use of an antenna tuner. The plan is to have half a
station by SS. The theory here is that half a station plus half an operator
produces lots of contest fun. I used a paper log this time due to the fact that
I still need to solve a computer generated noise problem. The above numbers will
suffer a bit with removal of some additional dupes. One run through a paper log
never gets all the dupes.
The bands did no cooperate at all. Ten meters had very selective propagation to
mostly one region during the first opening and to another region during the
second opening. Neither opening lasted more than 40 minutes. From here we need
15 meter propagation to last long enough for 20 to establish its self, that
didnt happen. The signals were interesting on 15, stations were either 20 over
or S-2, the switch was either on or off to any given area. Once 15 gave out I
had some time to kill before 20 would support anything other than frustration. I
spent the time having a catch up on life qso with Danny (K7SS) and a run to the
store. I had allready taken the full 2 hours off but I wasnt up for beating my
head against the propagation wall. Once 20 meters established itself it proved
to be a bit strange propagation wise. East coast stations from W1-W4 were loud
and solid while anyone west of the muddy Miss was down, some west coast stations
even had that hollow-signal European quality. The biggest problem on 20 was
convincing Europeans that this was a North American contest. I finally gave up
and gave each one a signal report and moved on. I probably went to 40 too early
but I wanted to test the 2 element 40 under fire. Like the rest of the new
antennas this one is not really ready yet. The resonant frequency is a bit too
high (7350) and needed the tuner. Unlike the 20/15 its up at operational height
(91 feet) and played through the summer static pretty well. The big secret with
antena performance from here is the fact that Im locvated next to the salt water
of Kaneohe Bay. My theory is that if I can throw a rock into the water from any
location on the property than that a gool location for an antena. So far the
theory is working well in practice. The second contact on 40 gave me my answer
as to the performance of this antenna, K4BA came through like a VOA relay
station, this with the Pacific ocean path in broad daylight. I cut my 40 meter
test short for some cheap mults on 80. This contest ends too early for any
serious activity on 80, however, a half dozen mults are always worth the effort.
Thanks to everyone for all the fun. Its great to be contest active again after
such a long period off. More activity from the "not ready for primetime station"
follows.
Aloha
Ron KH6DV (KH6VV)
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