7th Call Area QSO Party - 2023
Call: NN7SS
Operator(s): WD6T
Station: NN7SS
Class: SOMixed LP
QTH: WAKNG
Operating Time (hrs): 18
OpMode: 2BSIQ
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160: 0 0 0
80: 78 17 0
40: 236 69 0
20: 307 183 0
15: 98 0 0
10: 0 0 0
6: 0 0 0
2: 0 0 0
----------------------------
Total: 719 269 0 Mults = 63 Total Score = 988
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Many thanks to the organizers of this contest for another great running of 7QP.
Thanks especially to K6UFO, who graciously invited me to use his terrific
station in WA (remotely) to play as "in-state."
This time we set it up for SO2R, which limited me to low power. I hoped that
conditions would allow me to do well with that configuration. But the sun had
other plans... With the MUF down around 14... ouch! Much of the time, I had
only one good band at a time. Add to that the QRN and QSB, making LP phone
challenging. All in all, the SO2R/2BSIQ kept me busy and engaged, but I might
have made more QSOs with SO1R HP, given the conditions.
Congrats to KM7W, W7RN, KO6M and the other high-scorers!
Here's how it went for me:
20m started anemic. 15 finally opened after a very long wait, with the first
QSO at 1746z and the opening was short. My last QSO on 15m was TG9AFX at 2116z,
though most activity was done by 20z. I couldn't achieve decent LP rates on
phone until late in the afternoon on 20m, when conditions improved. I ran
cross-mode 2BSIQ between 20m SSB and 40m CW for hours, with many non-contesters
calling in. I did take advantage of the rule change allowing self-spotting on
phone. My last 20m phone contact was at 0242z with RA3RCL. I used call sign
voicing part of the time, but nobody seemed to mind (in fact, it often worked
better than the tired human!) On 40m, it took forever for the INQP/NEQP'ers to
hear me; rate there finally improved in the 02z hour. 80m was mostly West.
Thanks to NA8V for moving 40 -> 80. No successful Qs on 160m.
Max rates:
1348Z - 4.0 per minute (1 minute(s)), 240 per hour
1418Z - 2.5 per minute (10 minute(s)), 150 per hour
1427Z - 1.9 per minute (60 minute(s)), 112 per hour
Mults missed: SK, PE, NB, NL, NS, NU, NT, YT. (A VE1 was CQ'ing on 40, but he
didn't hear me.) With the poor conditions, I missed 2 of the 10 allowed DX
mults. I never even heard a JA! On the other hand, I was pleasantly surprised to
be called by QSO party stalwart OM2VL, as well as DL3DXX on 20m CW. DX on phone
included CE, I, KP4, OA, TG and UA. I noticed some spots for DX on RTTY, but
none were copyable.
The NN7SS radio is a Flex 6600 and the antenna farm includes:
160m – wire 4 Square Array, coil loaded wires hanging from trees
80m – Full size 4 Square, wires hanging from trees
40m – GXP 2 element yagi at 72′
20m, 15m,10: GXP 3 element tribander yagi at 72 ft
20m, 15m, 10m: Force 12 C3 tribander, 2el, 2el, 3el element yagi at 48
ft
The set-up at home consisted of a Flex Maestro, SmartLink, and N1MM. The
latency was fairly high (as measured with a metronome at 100bpm, i.e. 0.6 sec.),
but 2BSIQ was still possible (did a dry run on the last two 0300z CWTs.)
I did have two issues: First, when changing modes, the Flex would lose the
connection between the microphone and the transmitter; it would show signal, but
no power would be generated. After wasting some time on this, I discovered that
reconnecting to the radio solved the problem; this work-around made it a minor
annoyance instead of a major show-stopper. The other problem: N1MM didn't update
spots unless I clicked the "SH/DX" button in the band map. Need to dig
into both of these issues.
See you in WPX (at NR6O),
Dave WD6T@NN7SS
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