[3830] ARRL 160 N6WG Single Op QRP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: N6WG
Operator(s): N6WG
Station: N6WG

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: Newark CA
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 179  Sections = 31  Countries = 1  Total Score = 11,552

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

Boy, this was brutal this year.  I really enjoy contesting when the fish are
 biting, but this year I felt as if I had to get out of the boat and beat them
 onto the hook.  Propagation seemed much poorer than last year, comparing my
 records from then and now.
 At least Friday night the noise level was low, and I was able to receive on
 my big vertical.  Normally I need to use the Flag loop to hear anything
 below about S5.  Saturday night I had pouring rain, drowning out my counter-
 poise wires which just lay on the house roof.  No lightning crashes, though,
so
 it was still a good evening to operate.  I was able to take advantage of the
 remote-operated tuning capacitor I had just installed at the base of the
 vertical to drag the antenna back into tune.
 Last year I worked 169 QSOs, so my goal was to beat that number.  It took
 some doing, but I finally squeezed out 179 QSOs.  Not a big improvement
 but at least I made my goal.  Still fell a bit short of last year by four
 sections, one country and about 900 points.  Multipliers were very hard to
 come by this year, probably a side effect of lower propagation.  Only heard
 two east coast stations, N4PN and W8JI, and worked them, fortunately. 
 Otherwise, the east coast had gone missing for contest purposes.  I'm amazed
 and envious at the reports by others of all the stations they were hearing.
 Now I'm preparing for the 10m contest, and then on to Stew Perry at year end.
 See you in the contests.
 73, Bob N6WG


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