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

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                    North American QSO Party, CW

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

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 7:25
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   15     7
   80:   29    17
   40:  166    43
   20:  345    48
   15:  111    27
   10:    3     1
-------------------
Total:  669   143  Total Score = 95,667

Club: 

Team: NCCC Team 3

Comments:

My original plan for this NAQP CW was to help out in the first 7 hours of a W6YX
M2 since I had a conflict for most of the rest of the contest.  On Friday
evening it became clear that no one else was available for the M2 so I signed
up as a single-op on an NCCC team and resolved to put in as much time as I
could.

Last minute babysitting duty for my 5-month-old grandson delayed my arrival at
the W6YX shack until 25 minutes before the contest start.  Most of the 25
minutes was spent turning on equipment, then finding and hooking up everything
I needed to convert the station from RTTY Roundup use to CW.

I finally had it all hooked up (or so I thought) at 1802Z - only 2 minutes
late.  I CQed on 10 meters hoping to pick up a local for at least one mult
there, or more if the band was open.  With no answers on 10 I prepared to
switch that radio to 15, but then N6NF began CQing on my frequency so I worked
Tom for my first Q.  That's when I discovered that I had forgotten to link the
two computers together.  Another couple minutes fiddling with settings and I
finally made my second Q at 1806 after finding a run frequency on 20.

Running on 20 was productive early so I kept one radio on 20 until just before
I was forced to leave at 0100.  After about 10 minutes of running on 20 I
started to alternate CQs on 15 and 20.  I think I missed a bunch of mults on 15
because I wasn't there for the first 15 minutes and waited a bit too long before
I started to S&P there.

My SO2R set-up was primitive.  In the past I've used loaner SO2R boxes or a
Radio Shack audio switch to switch left/right/both into either ear.  The cables
on the Radio Shack switch had been cannibalized for other uses and I didn't have
time to find and reconstruct the cabling.  So I had two Heil headsets on top of
my head, crossing so that I heard one radio in each ear.  I know I missed
several calling stations that I normally would have copied by just switching
both ears to the same radio.  By the time I'd turned down the volume on the
other radio these weak stations would be uncopiable.  Sorry if I missed some of
you because of this.

I switched the second radio from 15 to 40 meters at 2246 and probably should
have gone to 40 earlier as I could work all stations heard, although CQing
wasn't productive then.  Before leaving at 0100Z I managed to work 3 mults on
80.

I returned for the final 25 minutes of the contest and focused on getting mults
on 80 and 160.  The FT1000MP tuner managed to load into the second 80M inverted
vee on 160 since it appeared the 160 antenna was unavailable.  CQing was
getting a high rate on both bands, but not many mults so I did a bit of S&P. 
In the end I worked another 21 mults in the last 25 minutes.

NAQP is one of my favorite contests, either as M2 or SO.  I wish I would have
been able to operate the full 10 hours and choose my off-times.  Having more
time to set up and check everything out would also have helped.

-Mike, N7MH


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