[3830] NAQP CW K6LA Single Op LP

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                    North American QSO Party, CW

Call: K6LA
Operator(s): K6LA
Station: K6LA

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   28    11
   80:  127    39
   40:  306    55
   20:  275    53
   15:  138    24
   10:    1     1
-------------------
Total:  875   183  Total Score = 160,125

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Team: SCCC #1

Comments:

Murphy paid a visit to the home shack for the first time in a while. About 50
minutes into the contest, Writelog lost frequency tracking on one radio. I
thought it might be a com port problem as there has been some discussion about
that on the Writelog reflector. I could get it back for a few seconds by opening
the Setup Ports window, but then it would go away. It was annoying enough that I
rebooted the computer. That didn't work so I reinstalled the software. That
didn't work, so I did it all again to no avail. Then the W5XD Multi-keyer
stopped sending CW. I couldn't even send CW with the paddles. Then the
Multi-keyer's parallel output to the band decoders went crazy. They would step
through band by band on one radio and then the next without my changing the
frequency on either radio. I figured the Multi-keyer had died and I was done for
the day. After a while I pushed on the connectors to the Multi-keyer and nothing
happened. So I did it again. Low and behold, it started working. It never gave
me another problem the rest of the day. Unfortunately, I lost 90 minutes of West
Coast high band, mult moving prime time. 

Even so, I was averaging 100+ QSOs/hour through 6 hours of operation. 40 meters
was hot at 2:30PM local time here. Amazing. I don't remember ever being able to
work the East Coast with low power in the middle of the afternoon on 40 meters
before. Then I went to 80 meters. I've got a 2 element shortened yagi at 70'. I
could hear stations coast to coast. But nobody East of the Mississippi was
coming back to me. Arrrggghhh. 80m got better the last 1/2 hour of the contest.
I even heard VP5NA, but he didn't hear me. The same was true on 160 m. I shunt
feed my tower and live in the middle of Los Angeles and I could hear the Midwest
and a few East Coast stations, but they couldn't hear me. So much for a vertical
being noisy. I wish it could get out as well as it can hear. It is SO
aggravating to see band breakdowns with 100's of QSOs and 40+ mults on 160m and
50+ mults on 80m.

I kept checking 10m and not a peep was heard all day. N6HC was loud when I moved
him there in the evening, but I didn't try other moves to 10 meters. 

73, Ken, K6LA


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