North American QSO Party, CW
Call: W0ETT/M
Operator(s): W0ETT
Station: W0ETT
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WY
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40: 101 35
20: 149 44
15: 37 13
10: 5 2
-------------------
Total: 292 94 Total Score = 27,448
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Team: GM Rockies #2
Comments:
8/12/04
Enjoyed operating CW rom the mobile in the NAQP.
When Alan KO7X mentioned he couldn't make it for the CW NAQP, I drove 2 and a
half hours north to Curt Gowdy State Park, west of Cheyenee to put out the
multiplier. The state park rangers told me of the highest point overlooking the
dam to operate from.
I used my FT100D, a 40m wire fed with ladderline and a Dentron tuner. The
antenna tuning setup was with mixed results. After I would finally get a good
low swr, the first time I changed bands I had to go thru a major retuning
effort. When returning to the previous band, the old settings didn't always
work. That hasn't happened to me with previous wire/ladder line antennas. I
did wonder if the builtin tuner in the FT100D was working against the Dentron
tho I didn't press the "tune" button. Couldn't find a way to "turn it" off in
the rig's book at least not without a lengthy study. BTW, the antenna was about
30' high on a portapole push up mast and it did tune up a little better when I
raised the ends an extra five feet (from about 5').
Oh well, when things finally got tuned up I did pretty well on the bands and I
rec'd decent signal reports occasionallly. But, it was awfully tough when
someone asked for a QSY to another band. Finally, just had to say no to a QSY
after being frustrated tuning the setup. It was nice to hear 10m open a little
to the south.. missed a few 4s and 6s who were quite readable on 10m but
couldn't hear me. 20m was the big band for me with 40m doing second best.
Heard two other CW mobiles one in NE and one back east working someone else but
connected with only one of them. Maybe we'll start a trend of going mobile in
the NAQP...makes you appreciate your home station more!
Glad to have worked GM Rockies 1 and 2 team members: W7UT, W0TM, and K0FX.
Also wkd friends of GMCC Wa7LNW in UT, W0UA and W0ZP in Colorado and Steve N2IC
in NM. Sorry I couldn't QSY Geo and Steve. Towards the end, Geo W0UA asked
about 80m and I said I'd give a try. But the rig hated the swr presented from
trying to load the 40m wire via the Dentron and I couldn't get anything out.
So, I grabbed some wire and tried to add to each side but the rig wasn't buying
it. At least I gave it a try, George. Gave up, took the antenna down, and
headed home.
By the way, one could really see the Milky Way up there. Something we can't see
from the Denver area much due to the light pollution. It would have been a
great location to watch the Perseids Meteor Shower from - you'd know when to key
up the 2m rig to "work some meteor scatter".
73 Ken, W0ETT/m
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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