[3830] CQ160 SSB AJ6L Single Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB

Call: AJ6L
Operator(s): AJ6L
Station: AJ6L

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: ARIZONA
Operating Time (hrs): 6

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 80  State/Prov = 27  Countries = 2  Total Score = 5,481

Club: CYANIDE SPRINGS

Comments:

As expected, several sections were worked during my first two hours, but rates
were very low. Afterwards multipliers were harder to achieve. My time was
limited, and my equipment was modest. A Beverage would have been useful!

QXQ - SOME LAME EXCUSES (No, I did not oversleep!):
Startup was late and finish was early. I arrived home from work after the
contest had already been underway for nearly two hours. In poor light the
inverted VEE was hastily lowered and each end shortened two inches (moved
resonance from the customary CW-mode bottom of the band).

Like significant mountain peaks within a field of view, a few western stations
calling “CQ” with enormous signals and outstanding audio served as my landmarks.
There’s no need to look at the frequency readout … If you can’t hear them, then
you’re listening in the valleys between them!:

WESTERN STATES: Great operators, Great signals, Thanks Guys!:
N7GP, K6GNX, W6AQ, W6FRH, K6SE, K0TO (To name a few)

WELL REPRESENTED SECTIONS:
CA, WA, XE

SPECIAL EVENT STATION IN WEST VIRGINIA (?):
K8V

UNITED KINGDOM?
G3ODO GA
Imagine the excitement when I heard William, only to be disappointed when I
realized his QTH was Georgia!

SPECTRUM HOGS!
As the evening wore on, the contesters spread out, encroached into the normal CW
spectrum, then spread completely to the band edges.
For a moment I considered listening for strays within the AM Broadcast Band.

2 FOR 1:
A cooperative technique by one pair of contesters was noteworthy: They shared
the frequency (calling “CQ”), and subsequently each alternately worked the
visiting Search and Pouncers.

THESE USUALLY DIFFICULT SECTIONS WERE VERY EASY:
	Nd	W0ZTL, NT0V
	Ne	NE0DX
Mt	N7VR
	Id	K0TO, KE7RT
	Tn	W4PV
	Ny	N2ZX

HOWEVER, A GENERALLY VERY EASY SECTION WAS DIFFICULT:
	Mo	K0LIR, KU1CW

By comparison, (years ago) it was easier working W5LFL aboard the spacecraft
Columbia! So many stations were calling K0LIR you would have thought it was a DX
pile-up! One-way propagation is a mystery, and can lead to frustration; and at
one point I began to think he was either SO2R and listening to the wrong radio,
or using a directional Beverage because so many replies from stations in Western
States were unanswered (hello N7NN, K6NO, etc.)

Those who have already made comparisons between SSB and CW contests, appreciate
the differences. The magnitude of those differences has astonished me. If a
choice was to be made between the two modes, and the score represented money, CW
would be the clear choice.

However, despite added difficulty and slow exchanges of SSB, it is very
interesting to hear and associate a voice with a particular callsign …
particularly so if recognized from prior CW contests.

Twenty-eight years ago my non-vanity 2x1 callsign was extraordinary and was
helpful because it drew attention. Now it just creates confusion. Currently,
many contesters have 2x1 callsigns and reside outside their expected call areas.
Many vanity calls sound alike (only the number differs); which leads to the
realization that contesters may handicap themselves with vanity callsigns: The
price is paid in the time required for additional requested fills: “AGAIN”,
“REPEAT”.

Thanks for the QSO’s, thanks for your patience; and in the future look for me as
N7NNJ.

73, Tom – AJ6L


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