North American QSO Party, SSB - January
Call: K4HQK
Operator(s): K4HQK
Station: K4HQK
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Alexandria, VA
Operating Time (hrs): 6:15
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 46 20
40: 28 21
20: 23 17
15: 14 11
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 111 69 Total Score = 7,659
Club: Portage County Amateur Radio Service
Team:
Comments:
Operation was 100% S&P with 100w output (Icom 7410) into dipoles on 80m and
40m plus a Cushcraft vertical on 20m and 15m.
I opened on 15m and worked seven stations on the western side of the continent
plus ZF5PG, despite a long, slow QSB. After breaking for lunch 1345-1445 EST, I
returned to 15m to work another seven more out west plus V31XX and KP2RUM.
By 1515 I gave up on 15 meters. I was no longer hearing enough readable signals
to justify remaining so I switched to 20m. Even on 20m it was not especially
easy to hear stations. Most required a struggle thanks to that slow QSB that was
almost as bad as on 15m. Only a few—and I do mean a few—were strong. On top
of that, the band suffered from S9 line noise. The skip was long, of course,
enabling me to collect more Midwestern and western QSOs, including VE4GV and
VE5UO but also KP2RUM again and TI2CC. I struggled on 20m until 1705, took a
15-minute break to clear my head, then returned to the band. By 1740, however,
the band was trending toward empty so I switched to 40m.
On 40m I was now on a low-SWR dipole and easily worked 21 stations in 50
minutes, a fairly-good S&P rate for me. By 1830, however, it was getting
harder to find stations I had not already worked so I took my dinner break.
Back at the 40m shouting contest at 1945, I found it had become quite long,
hearing only Midwestern states and a few weak ones on the west coast—with lots
of space between signals. Managed to work some but not many of those distant
stations, who were enjoying pileups lined up around the block one after another
(e.g. N6ZT). I could not penetrate the wall of Midwest and western stations
calling him.
So, at 2045 I changed bands to less-crowded 80m and enjoyed a little peace
working lots of Eastern U.S. stations, mainly in the 3700-3800 kHz segment.
Above 3800, however, there were as many ragchewers as contesters, maybe more. At
2200 I ended my struggle by going QRT to watch NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
A note about Canadian participation: Every time I participate in an NAQP contest
I find myself head-scratching over their scarcity. This time I worked only eight
(ON, MB, SK) out of 111 QSOs (7% of the total). Canada’s population, however,
is 11.5% as large as the U.S. population. On a random basis, I should have
worked (111 QSOs x 11.5%) == 13. Maybe they were too busy keeping warm . . .
John K4HQK
Alexandria, Virginia
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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