Started Friday night when the two lines of thunderstorms tangled the
main dipole here into the trees. Got it somewhat untangled by Sat
morning and did a little listening for the SP opening to JA (Keyman's
contest). Heard no JAs - not a good sign.
Heard a few Russians, the big guns, weak, working the RDA test so I
jumped into that. Made 6 Qs with 6 mults in an hour - with the amp on.
Also a bad sign.
Most of NAQP was spent at a birthday party per plan. Finally got to the
rig late and found 28 and 21 dead, 20 fair/poor, 40 okay, 80 and 160
really noisy. After an hour of head-banging I turned on the amp and
decided I was 'not in the contest - just having a good time.' Did 147
Qs in 4 hours and went to bed. If I was loud, its because I was QRO -
so I won't be submitting a score. It was more fun with the amp on -
worked quite a few SECC'ers.
Low power SSB in the summer on dipoles is really for the brave.
Hal
N4GG
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