[3830] SAC CW F6IRF SOAB QRP

[f6irf at free.fr]

                    Scandinavian Activity Contest, CW

Call: F6IRF
Operator(s): F6IRF
Station: F6IRF

Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: JN35AU
Operating Time (hrs): 20:13

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   80:   37    22
   40:   78    28
   20:  114    36
   15:  112    31
   10:   56    17
-------------------
Total:  397   134  Total Score = 53,198

Club: Yota Sawe DX group

Comments:

Rig: IC706 set to 5W - Timewave DSP 
Antennas :  
Newly installed Optibeam OB6-3M  trapless tribander @12m  
Inverted V Dipole 40/80 @17m (re-oriented N/S for the contest).
R7 vertical @6m (did not use it, as it was constantly several points below the
a/m antennas)

Comments:
Who said that life is too short for QRP?  I don't know, but I did enjoy it...
As central Scandinavia is at ideal 1F hop distance from here, and as I have
always had good performance in the North sector (sloping terrain going down to
the "Fier valley" 200m lower  -very good take-off with view on the "Chablais
mountains" 50kms away), I thought that QRP would be more fun... (not many
stations to contact, only S&P(*), therefore a lot of time to spend trying to get
through). Furthermore it would make my neighbors happy, and it would be a good
test for my new antenna setup. Had just a few worries about low bands, still
very noisy at this period of the year, but eveything worked better than
expected... (only a few stations could never copy me, and many (most of?) "Big
guns" were contacted on the 5 bands)
Between us, the big advantage with QRP is that you don't have to look for
signals burried in the noise - they won't hear you anyway - if the guy calling
is not "loud and clear", no need for a try, so even the 80m looked comfortable
with the attenuator and the DSP set for "minimum background  noise"... Anyway,
congratulations to the operators who managed to copy my tiny signal  especialy
on the noisy 40 and 80 saturday evening. Fortunately the low bands were a lot
quiter early in the morning (but low activity on 40/80 anyway- or still had too
high noise to copy "standard" LP stations? - we had thunderstorms in the
evening).
Good "high bands" with strong signals (a few stations full scale on 706 bargraph
-without preamp, unusable below 18Mhz anyway-) but the skip remained long on
10/15 limiting the QSO's with stations at more than 1800/2000 kms (no OZ on 10
and very few on 15, but I did not hear many on the lower bands either...  Mainly
an OH/SM contest - isn't it ?).  
In short, I am happy about this first participation ! Honnestly I don't think I
could have done a lot higher score with LP or even HP (95% of the stations heard
were contacted anyway, and the last hours it became really difficult to find new
ones ). For sure I'll join next year... (For some reason, I love the contests
where the stations to contact are in the north sector... I.E. SPDX! ;-) 
73's & CUAGN next year.

(*) Spent some time reading the previous year comments on 3830... 

PS Question: Am I the only one (in europe?) hearing this strange strong noise
around 3525 (several KHZ wide)? Anybody knows where it comes from ?


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