CQP WA7BNM/6

[Bruce Horn]

California QSO Party - 1996

Call: WA7BNM/6
Location: LAX
Category: Single Op (Low Power)
Operating Time: 15:32

          CW    D    SSB    D
---------------------------------
  160      0    0      0    0
   80    120    2      0    0
   40    105    2      0    0
   20    307    1      0    0
   15     77    0      0    0
   10      0    0      0    0
---------------------------------
         609    5      0    0

    Multipliers: 51   Score: 93,177

Equipment: (one radio/one op)
  Yaesu FT-1000D
  Tower down
    Tribander at 50 ft, pointed North
    Tribander at 73 ft, pointed 60 deg
    3-el 40m yagi at 58 ft
    80m rotatable dipole at 68 ft

Comments:
Didn't plan on making a serious effort in this contest because of other
commitments, so I decided to do CW only for the much needed code practice.
Started 30 minutes late and logged on paper for the first 3 hours of
operating time (20/hr). Finally decided that my sending was worse than my
receiving so I got the computer hooked up to the transceiver to handle the
sending chores. Got much more enjoyable after that!

20 was crowded so went to 15m early. (When you're not serious, you can
waste some time CQing into a "dead" band.) Both days 15m seemed to be more
limited by lack of activity than propagation -- good signals from up and
down the East coast and VE3. On Saturday in the 1700 hour heard a D6 CQing
and an EA trying to work it. Strange.

80m was a pleasant surprise Saturday evening. I could hear very well with
very little noise.

Also experienced extremely low noise levels on Sunday on 20m. Was surpised
to have a lot of Europeans answering my CQs.

All in all a fun contest.


Editorial:
Although the NCCC does a great job of organizing this contest and gives out
nice prizes for top 20 finishers, it would be nice to have some recognition
of low power contestants. According to the results from the 1995 CQP posted
on N6IP's web page, 89 of 164 entries from California were low power. I
don't think there needs to be a complete duplication of awards for low
power, but at least some recognition. I think this would result in more
serious efforts by those who like to run low power or are limited by
circumstances to low power.

73 de Bruce, WA7BNM   (bhorn at netcom.com)




--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
Submissions:              3830 at contesting.com
Administrative requests:  3830-REQUEST at contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-3830 at contesting.com
Sponsored by:             Akorn Access, Inc & KM9P