[3830] NAQP CW W6YX(N7MH) Single Op LP

[n7mh@arrl.net]

                    North American QSO Party, CW

Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    2     2
   80:  186    46
   40:  175    47
   20:  257    51
   15:  240    48
   10:  253    47
-------------------
Total: 1113   241  Total Score = 268,233

Club: 

Team: 

Comments:

I had hoped we could put together a M/2 effort for this one but didn't have time
to organize it.  I found out Saturday morning that the conflict I thought might
prevent me from operating at all was only in the early morning and I managed to
get to the shack exactly at 1800Z.

Then it took 45 minutes to get everything set up to actually begin operating in
the contest.  I logged my first QSO at 1845Z and 10 meters was hot, producing a
150 first hour.  I tried listening to the second radio for a while but couldn't
get into any sort of rhythm with it.  After a half hour I started making a few
second radio Q's and then remembered to turn down the sidetone monitor volumes,
which was probably why it was so hard to focus on the second radio.

I took another 45 minutes off starting at 2124Z with 331 Q's in the log from
only 2:39 operating time, a 125/hour average rate.  Things seemed to be going
quite well, much better than the only other single-op NAQP I'd tried where I
ended up with under 800 Q's total.

Since I got to 10 meters late, I was worried that I would miss mults if I didn't
spend extra time there.  Of course this also meant staying late on 15 and then
on 20 for the same reason.  I tried moving several mults but only succeeded
about 1/3 of the time.  Thanks to the stations that tried to move with me.

I took my final half-hour break at 2248Z, planning to use the final two hours to
work mults on 80 and 160.  This plan worked to an extent, but when I moved to
160 I discovered that the inverted vee had a very high SWR.  Using a tuner got
it down to about 1.5:1, but virtually nobody heard me.  I worked a grand total
of 2 stations on 160, in spite of the fact I spent quite a bit of my second
radio time trying to call stations there.

A daylight viewing reveals that one leg of the inverted vee is touching the
tower that it's mounted on.  This is probably not the best way to load a
tower...  Apparently the inverted vee got blown around in the big windstorm over
10-meter contest weekend and ended up in this position.  In retrospect, I should
have tried loading one of our other antennas on 160.  We got over 15 mults on
160 in NAQP a couple of years ago by loading a Mosley Pro67A, but I just assumed
that the inverted vee would work best.

The M2 4-element 40 meter beam that we recently installed ended up with a
dangling reflector and director from the same storm.  These were removed so now
all that's left are the dual driven elements, which must behave somewhat like a
rotatable dipole.  It worked, but was clearly not as effective as when all the
elements are mounted.

The biggest surprise was 80 meters where I had more Q's than on 40.  Even with
my problems on 160 and the late start this was always a very fast-paced and
enjoyable contest.  There were even times when SO2R seemed easy and natural, but
also many times where I lost concentration and had to temporarily go to one
radio.

-Mike, N7MH


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