North American QSO Party, SSB
Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, W7ZRC, K7MK, KL2A, N7WR
Station: NK7U
Class: M/2 LP
QTH: OR
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 135 38
80: 198 48
40: 352 51
20: 688 52
15: 63 16
10: 3 1
-------------------
Total: 1439 206 Total Score = 296,434
Club:
Team:
Comments:
Congrats to Brad K7ZSD and team for edging us out for Oregon multi-op honors. It
is pretty close but I don't see log checking changing the results. We will get
you next time.
Overall this has to be the absolute worst propagation we have ever had for a
January NAQP. I know we keep saying this every year and then next year it just
gets worse. Hopefully it really will be better next year. Right?
10 minutes before the contest there was not a single signal on 15M. We called
CQ and finally raised a few signals from the NJ/DE/MD/NC area. This opening
lasted about 5 minutes into the contest. Then we just had little "spotlights"
of propagation -- 5 QSO's in Alabama, then 4 in Florida, then 2 in Georgia,
etc. This band was pretty much gone by 1900 and we just had a couple more QSO's
after that. Sounds like K7ZSD was able to milk it for a couple more hours after
we threw in the towel and it generated a bunch more mults for them. Good job
guys.
As everyone knows 20M was a zoo. "The whole world was on 20M". Very hard to
find a run frequency. We got pushed out into extended periods of S&P that
probably hurt our QSO total. But when we had a freq runs were great. W7ZRC and
K7MK did most of the 20M duty with KL2A filling in. Our mult total is
disappointingly low not sure what happened. We did miss our own state and
nearby Washington. But we should have been up in the 57-58 range. This band
closed earlier than we could ever remember it about 23:30 or 3:30PM local time.
Not sure if it was closed or if everyone had left for other bands. But there was
no one left to work. It did get much easier to find a run frequency though. :)
We went to 40M when 15M died -- about 11:20 local time. In hindsight we
probably should not have given up on 15M. But we could easily hear the east
coast on Joe's 4 element 40M beam -- but they could not hear us. So, we had the
usual low rates until prop improved and stations moved to 40M. We had grinding
hours of 12, 26, 29, and 35 QSO's in the 1900 to 2200 hours. The band finally
popped in the 0000 hour and we had a 120 hour. Luckily W7ZRC found a great
frequency at 7139 and we held onto that for some time. One of the benefits of
the new license structure is that you can still get great QSO rates in the
Extra and Advanced sub-bands. Some of our best 20M QSO rates were at 15156 by
K7MK.
40M really started to dry up after the 100 hour though it was still wide open.
We made a return visit around 2:30 to work a KH6 mult and found a few signals
that still loud. We called CQ for a while but could not generate many q's.
Those that called were worked easy and qrm levels were well down from earlier.
Seems like herd behavior was in effect and everyone was on 80M.
On 80M Joe now has a 4-square instead of his 3 element beam. We are still
learning its behavior in contests of all types. We did have some trouble
working close in stations. Usually we complement the big gain antenna with a
low dipole beaming N-S to help us work the west coast. We didn't get time to
get this up for this year. NK7U did most of the 80M operating. We would get a
frequency, make a half dozen QSO's, then it would die. Then get another
freqeuncy, have the same thing happen. Repeat endlessly until the end of the
contest. Our mult total was "ok" but we could have done better on QSO's for
sure.
We are learning that at Joe's new QTH his 160M antennas are his competitive
strength. He has an array of 4 sloping dipoles pulled off a 150' tower. They
work awesome. The low part of the band was filled all night with loud CW
signals from Europe. For you guys on the east coast this is no big deal but out
west it does not happen very often. It was all we could do to keep KL2A from
pulling out the key and starting to DX. That contest is next weekend. I need to
check but this might be our best mult total ever for a NAQP SSB. Of course we
also spent more time on the band than usual because all the other bands were
closed. But we were pretty happy. We did run into some intentional QRM which is
always disappointing behavior to experience.
Overall we struggled the whole time. We did have fun though and that was what
matters. It was good to see the gang here at NK7U and to check in with everyone
over the air. Thanks for the QSO's. Brad/K7ZSD we will get you next time.
Scott/K7ZO
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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