[3830] N0AH NAQ SSB WY

[Dinsterdog at aol.com]

N0AH
Paul
Wyoming

missed AK, NE and WY????? humph- no excuses for WY and NE....I just ignored 
40 meters and I should have been more aggresive looking there- but I was 
flustered by the downtimes due to wx- blah-

I worked Quebec, BC, ON, Manatoba, Alberta, and had three DX stations call 
including Z3, PA and G.......but no other NA stations........an XE would have 
been nice-

Band        Mults     QSO's
10             1             1          6 ele log P
15              2            2          6 ele log P
20             39         287        6 ele Log P
40             16           23         Butternut V and wire quad at dirt 
level, hi
80              31           81        4 square
160            19           28         Inv L

totals        108           422           45,576

Tried to give WY out but only operated 6.6 hours due to dumb mistakes and 
wx-.  

Thunderstorms really tainted the entire contest including two lighting hits 
"darn" close- I sat out a few hours and just sulked-  When on, I had some run 
rates at 120 an hour on 20 meters for a bit, I was smoking!  - was fun while 
it lasted- 

I guess I was one of those rare western states that didnt always move to 
other bands when requested.....but I really wanted to take advantage of the 
wx breaks and test out my new 4 square on 80 meters-  trying to operate while 
monitoring color radar was a bummer- so please excuse my excuses-(Huh??)

A few interesting notes:

I worked 49 CA on 20 meters but only found 1 contact with CA on 40, 80 and 
160- wierd but true-

MFJ continues to frustrate me- my most recent piece of garbage from them, a 
MFJ-432 memory keyer with a whomping 8 hours of operating time on it- , puts 
out a great audio signal with ample RF feedback to distroy what ever is being 
said-  well, at least they got the memory problems fixed- but they still 
can't seem to make anything that works-  curse em! Har! 

Talk about timing.......I had a chance to get more Q's on 10 and 15 meters 
early on but decided to sit out the first 2 hours so I could operate the last 
10 hours to take advantage of the lowbands-  ....at noon, sky's were clear, 
by 2 pm., it was lightning and thunderstorms and 10 and 15 were 
dead.....smart move, eh?

N2IC came up around 2 p.m. and stayed throughout the rain...we both got a 
good education on static noise effects on my various antenna's......Steve 
came up to see the 4 square and by the time he left, sky's were clear and the 
birds were singing and 10 and 15 were even more dead-  but we enjoyed 
discussing TV VHF DX and Steve got our tv working to finally pick up UHF- 
Awsome man!  We can now watch the Bronco's.......Peggy is baking him a pie-

Once I finally got started, my plans for a big score seemed possibleafter an 
hour making good runs on 20 meters, but then Zues decideds to throw a party 
for all his friends- static crashes heard with radio off- you get the idea- 

4 Square worked great ... it heard better than the beverages and that was a 
surprise considering the wx- 

N4VI was the only station I worked on 10 meters, backscatter, on 10 meters- 
thx Chris!   worked Chris on 15, and he moved us to 10......got him later 80 
too- 

W0AH and I ran into each other and had a nice QSO on 80 meters for a bit- 
thats the nice thing about a contest....you run into people you have been 
wanting to talk too but just can't seem to hook up with- 

The 80 meter 4 square tested out pretty good and 160 meters was a lot busier 
than any recent ARRL sweepstakes contests- I really enjoyed the NAQ and hope 
that I can be better prepared for next year's......like having software that 
has the NAQ, having a computer that does not generate S-9 noise,  having all 
my bevg's working, and having a real voice keyer that 
works.......etc......but all things considered, this was a fun contest!

Lots to do before the season starts-   73  paul   N0AH   

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