[3830] 7QP NK7U Multi-Op HP

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                    7th Area QSO Party

Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, KL9A, W7ZRC, N7ZG
Station: NK7U

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: Oregon-Baker Cty
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:    0       2
   80:  124     139
   40:  205     489
   20:  366    1002
   15:    3       1
   10:    0       0
    6:    0       0
    2:    0       0
--------------------
Total:  698    1633  Mults = 68  Total Score = 364,480

Club: 

Comments:

The goal of the NK7U team for the 2007 Edition of the W7 QSO party was simple
– to win back the multi-op crown from the talented K7ZSD team who took it to
us last year. We had two key strategies to achieve this goal. One was to
assemble a top notch crew of operators capable of both CW and SSB operating. By
recruiting from the NK7U regulars we ended up with a team of: NK7U, KL9A, W7ZRC,
N7ZG, and K7ZO. Our second strategy was to configure the NK7U station to be able
to run CW and SSB on the same band and at the same time. We didn’t do this
last year and it was the main reason why K7ZSD came out on top. We managed to
do this by putting up a couple of multiband verticals in the back of the NK7U
property away from the big beams and running only 300-400 watts instead of the
usual full bore operation. This did the trick and we increased our QSO’s by
about 23% from last year and importantly the increase was in the high point CW
category.

Now as it turned out K7ZSD did not field a team to defend their title. (Though
they still have the record multi-op score based on the old multiplier model. We
fell about 10,000 points short of their score last year without counting our 10
DX mults.) And, the K5RC team who had a strong set of operators, a great
station, and probably a better QTH inexplicably decided to submit two separate
multi-op instead of one. So, it looks like we did achieve our goal. But, we
really did not have a major head-to-head competitor. Anyone want to take us on
next year? We will be there. 

Let the record show though that NK7U put every ounce of energy we had into the
QSO Party. And what a tough day on the bands it was. One of the hardest any of
the NK7U crew could remember. On one end we were constrained by the limits of
being at the bottom of the solar cycle -- evidenced by Zero 10M QSO’s and
only four 15M QSO’s. On the other end was the battle with the incredible
atmospheric noise generated by the storms in the Midwest. 160M was essentially
unusable, 80M noise was well over S9 and on 40M approached S9. And, we imagine
the storm knocked off the air many stations who would have otherwise been on,
especially into the evening as we counted on them for 40 and 80M QSO’s. At
one point Saturday night we brought up the national weather radar map to see
storms covering essentially the whole US between the eastern Colorado border
all the way to the Appalachians. None of us had ever remembered seeing anything
like this. 

Still through this all the gang at NK7U powered on and managed to put almost
2300 QSO’s in the log. This is an increase of about 430 QSO’s over last
year. Our success is totally attributed to our ability to run CW and SSB on the
same band and the same time, as well as rounding up some top notch CW operators
this year. Out SSB QSO total was actually down 8 QSO’s from last year due to
the above mentioned propagation factors. Our CW QSO count was up 437 from last
year. 

To echo K7RL’s comment we were pleased to see the number on new 2X3 calls on
the air making some contest QSO’s. As one measure we had a total of 33 KI4---
calls in the log.

During the contest NK7U set what was probably our all time record for holding
down a run frequency. From 16:30 until the end of the contest at 06:00 the next
day we were camped out on 7179. During the day we managed the usual 15-20
QSOs/hour and didn’t have any local competition. If propagation had been
normal we are sure it would have been much harder to hold the frequency as the
band went long into the darkness hours. But, with the storms in the midwest
acting as an effective wall, we never were challenged for the frequency. Of
course, we also did not work nearly the number of east coast stations we should
have.

Finally, the bands were not all bad news. During the day our CW station with
300 watts into a R5 vertical on 20M was rewarded with a satisfying number of
European contacts. As KL9A noted: “This goes to show you an elevated
vertical, with a good ground, over terrain sloping off 400 feet in a couple of
miles can be a darn good dx antenna!” Also of note was the outrageous 20M
European opening we had as the band was closing down to stateside Saturday
night. We had been running stations on 20M SSB trying to hit our goal of 1,000
QSOs on this band and mode. As we crossed 990 things started to slow down. As
we crossed 995 a full blow drought was in place. As we hit 999 the band was
closed tight. In desperation we tuned across the band to see if we could find
one last station to work. To our surprise IR4T was blasting in at 59+30 on
NK7U’s 5/5/5/5 20M Europe stack. When we gave him his real signal report he
was quite pleased. Tuning down a bit further found ES5TV blasting in at 59+40
– the loudest 20M signal out of Europe anyone had ever heard. When we gave
him his real signal report we heard a very satisfied chuckle and could imagine
a contester on the receiving end with the biggest smile ever found on a human
being. There were several other big guns scattered through the band. They
seemed to be in a strip from I up to ES and over to UA3 with the path favoring
the northern stations. They sure had a pipline over the pole and into the west
coast.

That’s it for this year. Thanks again to K4XU, K5RC, and the rest of the
organizers for having the vision to get this qso party going. It is becoming
one of the best. 

Thanks everyone for the QSO’s and see everyone next year.

K7ZO for NK7U and the rest of the team.


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