[3830] NAQP CW K5NA Single Op LP

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Sun Jan 14 15:21:43 EST 2007


                    North American QSO Party, CW

Call: K5NA
Operator(s): K5NA
Station: K5NA

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   93    38
   80:  106    38
   40:  387    53
   20:  340    49
   15:  120    36
   10:    1     1
-------------------
Total: 1047   215  Total Score = 225,105

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Team: Austin Powers Tamales

Comments:

A storm front with lots of rain and lightning come through Saturday morning
before the NAQP Contest. Our power went out about 1500Z and didn't come back
until after 1700Z. I was starting to get really worried and thought I might end
up doing the contest with a generator. But the power came back on and the
thunderstorms atayed away during the contest.

I felt I used my time poorly during this contest. My first mistake was the
first two hours when I really tried to make something work on 10 and 15 meters.
10M was non-existent and 15 meters turned out to be poor. But I was afraid not
to focus on these bands at the beginning because I might miss something. And
there certainly wasn't going to be a second chance to get productivity on those
bands later in the day. So the QSO rate for my first two hours was really poor.

By the time I dropped to 20M, that band was hot as a pistol and loaded with
signals. I established a running frequency and started a series of some very
good runs. Mayabe I was fresh meat being late to go to 20M. The same thing
happened on 40M after 2300Z. There seemed to be no end to the QSOs.

I think this contest has achieved enough activity that you can no longer run
out of QSOs on an open band. There are always going to be more QSOs to be
made.

This led to my second mistake. The QSO rates were so good on 20M and 40M that I
didn't take as much time off as I should have during the daylight hours. At
0100Z I had taken only 30 minutes off and I forced myself to stop on a hot 40M
band to take another 30 minutes off.

When I returned, 40M was still providing an excellent QSO rate and I continued
on while making a few second radio QSOs on 80M.

Now for my third mistake. At 0300Z I only had a few QSOs on 80M and ZERO QSOs
on 160M. And I still had to take another hour off with only 3 hours to go in
the contest. So I spent an hour on 80M and a hour on 160M to finish out the
contest. That's why my 80M and 160M QSO totals are about the same. I was really
there just to get as many mults on those bands as I could.

The NAQP is a great contest and loads of fun. It is just long enough to be a
challenge but not so long it kills you and the entire weekend. I really enjoy
it.

Thanks for all the QSOs.

73, Richard - K5NA


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