[3830] AA4LR NAQP CW

[Bill Coleman AA4LR]

North American QSO Party 1999

Date: 1/9/1999   Call: AA4LR   QTH: GA
Mode: CW   Class: Single Op

 Band        QSOs       mults
 160CW          3          2
  80CW         69         27
  40CW         47         24
  20CW         64         27
  15CW         25         12
  10CW          9          6

Total:        217         98      Score:     21,266

Hours: 5.9

Team: South East Contest Club Bedsprings

Equipment:
Kenwood TS430S running 30-90 watts out
125 foot doublet at 15 feet, open wire feeders and Murch UT-2000 tuner
Cushcraft R7000 at 8 feet
20 year old CMOS keyer

Comments:

NAQP is, I think, my favorite contest. My operating time was somewhat 
limited because of poor planning. Five years ago, my wife gave birth to 
our daughter Katharine on this date. This mandated a late start, plus a 
few long times off.

This is a personal best for NAQP, improving on last years score by about 
10%. More Qs, but 10 fewer mults in a similar amount of operating time. 
For some reason, the mults weren't there on either 15m or 160m as 
compared to last year.

Had some equipment problems. Battery supply voltage was a bit low at the 
start, and the radio would drop out when keyed much more than 50 watts 
out. So, I ran most of the contest at around 50 watts, dropping down to 
35 watts on the low end of 40m.

160m didn't do so well this year. I again tried to use my "secret" 160m 
antenna, where I load about 80 watts into the R7000. I discovered this by 
accident last year. Unfortunately, fewer ops could hear me this time, but 
I managed to get a few Qs for my effort.

Although the SECC had 5 teams active, I worked very few of them. Worked 
W4OC, K9AY, N4YO, and WA4ILO. Also, on my own team "Bedsprings" (which 
refers to the quality of antennas we're using) I worked NJ8J and K4TW.

I'm getting better at this contest CW receiving and sending. I got to the 
point where I could send CW without having to think about it overly much.




Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr@radio.org
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901


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