Michigan QSO Party
Call: N1IW/8
Operator(s): N1IW
Station: N1IW/8
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: MTMO
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 66 77
40: 145 210
20: 72 53
15: 9 2
10:
--------------------
Total: 292 342 CW Mults = 68 Ph Mults = 91 Total Score = 147,234
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Another fun one! Reminded again why I love to come back to Michigan and put
Montmorency county on the map for the MIQP. Arrived Thursday afternoon from NH
with temps in the 40s and no evidence of snow. Set up the IC-7000 after
unpacking and stowing the vittles, and soon realized that the 80M off-center
fed dipole needed some work; high VSWR on all bands. Up on Friday at abt 0800,
sunny and 29F. After breakfast I made a quick repair to the OCFD (one end had
become disconnected from the balun) and quickly got on the air and checked out
the bands. I called CQ on 17 CW and SSB and was answered by Europe... Cool!
Connected up the MicroKeyer and PC and set up my CW macros and recorded wave
files. A few ferrites on the cables (paddles, audio, coax) to clean up some RFI
issues and I was ready to rock-and-roll. From 0000Z to 0100Z had a nice round
table chat with friends back in New England on 40M SSB; they also confirmed
that my wav files and audio balance was OK. Conditions were excellent, like
chatting on 2M.
It was raining when I got up on Saturday morning and it eventually turned over
to light snow after dark on Saturday night. (BTW, 2" of snow on ground this
Sunday morning with off and on squalls all day.) Good day to play radio. At
1200Z, I opened up on 20M CW like I usually do trying to build my mult count
from west of the Mississippi, and posted a 57 hour. I soon realized that 20M
probably wasn't going to have the legs it did in the past with the higher solar
numbers making the band a bit long. I had a total of 31 DX QSOs this year down a
bit from past years but OM2VL managed to track me down for 6 band/mode QSOs,
tied with KO7X (WY) for most QSOs in log. Best DX was Z31A on 20CW.
During the next 2 hours I stayed agile between 40M and 20M keeping in sync with
the CW/SSB mode changes recommended in the rules. Picked up Alaska (NL7V) at
1723Z for what I believe was my first AK in the MIQP; still looking for that
first HI. The 1700 and 1800 hours both netted 69 QSOs, at which point I thought
maybe 60 QSOs per hour might be a good rate goal to shoot for. Unfortunately
while grabbing a quick snack during the 1900 hour I got distracted by the Red
Wings game on the tube and only put 13 QSOs in the log that hour. I also spent
some time checking out 10M and 15M. Guess I'll blame NBC for that hour as we
only have off-air TV at the cabin, no cable or satellite. The Wings did win
(the end of the game was a nail biter) and now lead Phoenix in the playoff
series 2-0. OK back to radio...
I was back in the groove in the 20Z hour with 82 QSOs (best hour). 40M remained
most productive until 0100 when I switched my focus to 80/75. My rate was pretty
consistent thru this transition with the last 4 hours netting 57-49-48-51 QSOs.
I blew through last years score (~125k) at around 0230Z and knew then that I
would likely make my 600 QSO goal. Final QSO in the log was with OK1AOV at
2359Z on 40CW. I spent more time running this year and less time chasing the
mobiles; I nabbed K8IR in a couple counties and K8MR in only one county. I
didn't feel the need to go county hunting as I knew my county numbers were up
from the great local conditions on 40M most of the day. I made a point,
especially on SSB, to give our friends up north (Ontario QSO Party) the correct
exchange for their logs too. Was also happy to work my own county this year,
with K8CIT over in Hillman stopping by during one of my 40M CW runs.
Final Stats: 634/159/147,234
2011 634 QSOs, 58 Cty, 45 sta/prov, 10 countries
2010 570 QSOs, 42 Cty, 46 sta/prov, 15 countries
Finally, special thanks to fellow YCCCers back east who searched me out and
likely kept the spots fresh. KB!
Station: One man/one radio/one dipole
IC-7000
Home brew 80M off-center (45'/90') fed dipole at 30'
N1MM Logger w/Dell laptop and Microham Microkeyer
Best 73 and see you all again next year!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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