BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Mults Zones
_______________________________________________________
80SSB 82 82 158 10 14
40SSB 122 121 315 12 20
20SSB 722 700 2586 20 29
15SSB 56 56 152 8 12
_______________________________________________________
Totals 982 959 3211 50 75
Final Score = 401375 points.
Equipment: Ten-Tec Omni-D
Collins 30L-1
A3S at 40'
Butternut HF6V vertical
HC-4 in Telex headset
Well my first contest with a beam is over and the verdict is...WOW! My pts/Q
ratio on 20m increased from 2.22 last year to 3.69. My best hour ended at
0325Z with 101. 15m opened early Sunday morning for a few good HQ mults. I
missed a free 3212 points by forgetting to go to 10m and make a local contact
for a zone 08 multiplier. I called on 10m for a a few minutes a couple of
times with no success. I never turned the beam south to try 10m. Things seemed
to be going too well on 20m. I still have to accumulate experience with a
beam, but I was pleased with the results none the less.
Thank goodness at least the HQ stations were listening above 7.150 this year
(except the VERON folks). Heard one US station oops with LY0P at around 7.069
(been there done that...was on 75m called CQ and wondered what was up with my
SWR. The reflected power was 200W...calling at 3.653 will do that with a short
vertical tuned at 3.790!!)
The 30L-1 brought me out of the noise on 80m and 40m. My Q totals are way up
from last year on those bands...from 13 to 82 on 80m and from 54 to 121 on 40m.
I worked DJ0MW who was calling CQ right at KC8DIGs calling freq. I don't know
who was there first or if they even heard each other, but they both heard me!
I was a dupe with kc8dig from hours ago...5 points is 5 points (thanks Joe).
MAJOR HIGHLIGHT: working ZL1ANJ on 80m!! (as well as 40m and 20m)
Lowlight: I was attacked by a QRM machine! Maybe that is spelled quarm. White
noise transmissions, buzz saw noises, a belch or two, etc. I remember one of
the
other reflectorites complaining of something similar previously. This was 20m
right at the beginning of my best hour...I didn't let it get to me and pretty
much pretended it was like working folks on 40m broadcast heaven. Believe it
or not I never even got upset at this cretin. It went away after about 30
minutes.
I would really have liked a second radio to test 15m and 10m for openings with
the vertical...always more improvement ideas to implement. I can S&P with the
external VFO on the same band just fine. I can even switch receive to another
band to give it a cursory check well enough with out losing much. But it would
really be nice to PUT A SIGNAL on the other band. At least most of the HQ
stations were there as beacons of sorts.
--
73 de KK1L ex N1PBT...ron (rrossi@btv.ibm.com) <><
Ron Rossi H/P SRAM Engineering -- IBM Microelectronics
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