North American QSO Party, SSB - August
Call: K4HQK
Operator(s): K4HQK
Station: K4HQK
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Alexandria, VA
Operating Time (hrs): 6.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80: 31 10
40: 41 21
20: 18 14
15: 10 8
10: 18 11
-------------------
Total: 118 64 Total Score = 7,552
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Team:
Comments:
I spent less time and made more contacts than I had in NAQP-SSB one year ago (8
hours, 106 QSOs), but not by much. Frankly, modest antennas and weak band
conditions still made it a slog.
That said, the contest had begun with a pleasant surprise: sporadic E openings
on 10 and 15 meters, which provided 28 QSOs (and multipliers) I would not have
otherwise had. They were only single-skip, though; all my QSOs on those bands
were limited to the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada. Many beacons, also from
those areas, were audible below 28.200 mHz.
For most amateurs the 20 meter band was their most productive, but not in my
case. Because my vertical’s SWR is too high above 14.225 I was limited to
whatever QSOs I could scrape together in the 75 kHz between that upper limit and
14150. And activity heard was thinner than last year’s. This time only 18
20-meter QSOs went in the log, and I had to queue up in a long line for even
those.
The 40m band was light in the afternoon until almost dark, by which time the
skip had moved to the Midwest. Working East Coast and southern stations had
become difficult to impossible, so I tried 75 meters at 2015 EDT with QRN
peaking on that band at S9+10db. I worked the only four I could hear calling CQ
NAQP; the rest were ragchewers. After 10 minutes of this I switched back to 40
meters, which now had more activity but also plenty of competition from other
callers. Making contacts proved easier above 7.200 mHz because competition was
lighter.
Shortly after 2100 EDT I switched back to 75 meters and worked all I could find,
27 in all, between 3.700 and 3.850 mHz. At 2200 EDT I’d had enough and pulled
the plug.
John K4HQK
Alexandria, Virginia
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|