North American QSO Party, SSB - January
Call: WX3B
Operator(s): WX3B K3AJ WA3AER W3DF
Station: WX3B
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 30 16
80: 395 47
40: 689 60
20: 479 39
15: 85 19
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 1678 181 Total Score = 303,718
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Team:
Comments:
This was truly a tale of two contests. The start: GREAT!!! Out of the gate
with good rates on 20 that only seemed to get better....while 15 was a total
THUD (and truthfully was kind of ignored in favor of power line noise RFI
hunting. We checked 10 a few times but decided to declare it DOA.
I want to first thank Bryan N3ST for coming over and volunteering to noise hunt
while we were contesting. This was his second lap around my area, this time we
extended the search to over a mile from WX3B, utilized Bryan's radio and a
hamstick mag-mounted mobile antenna until we got close enough to the source to
hear the (LOUD) buzz on a lossy whip antenna. We are fairly confident we found
the problem - if so it IS indeed power line noise 1.1 miles north of my
property....on an off the charts noisy pole.
And thanks to my wife Elizabeth for furnishing the Spaghetti Casserole we
enjoyed for dinner!
Dan W3DF and Theresa made up our 'couples contesting' in this even as they
shared the prime time 40 meter run for several hours. I can vouch for
Theresa's ears as there were several occasions where she had to supply old man
DAN with a correct name.
This may have been Ted WA3AER's first time he was NOT the primary 40 meter
operator, and of course 40 turned out to be the band that just kept giving.
Ted did an excellent job on 20 & 80.
Tom enjoyed the 40m runs extensively and also took turns on the other bands.
The contest could have ended at about 9:00pm and we would have all been happy,
because after that time, it seemed everyone turned their radios off and our
static QRN was off the charts, particularly on 40 meters. It's a good thing we
had RX beverages working well because we used them extensively - on the high
bands, too.
The beverages, while in the near field of the TX antennas, work remarkably well
to hear the loud stations through the run station's CQing. This was even true
on 80 meters.
I also enjoyed the use of one interlocked position with Brian N3OC's two radio
boxes. Perhaps upon reading these notes in the future I will remember that the
PTT inputs ARE important even if no amplifier is in use (this is how the
switching is accomplished).
I have to commend Tom and Ted for toughing it out until the very end of the
contest....and the conditions seemed to be improving a bit....however the
caller density was low and the static crashes were high.
We enjoyed the company with team KD4D and took turns spotting each other. The
packet chat during those last few hours of the contest made things fun.
Thanks to the many PVRCers that got on and toughed out these conditions. It
truly sounded more like an August event than January.
Thanks to my team K3AJ, WA3AER, W3DF (and Bryan N3ST) for your enthusiasm and
support!
73,
Jim Nitzberg WX3B
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