[3830] IARU K5NA SO Mixed HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

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

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:    53     2      9       4
   80:   185    59     13       7
   40:   576    84     33      25
   20:   480   574     28      30
   15:   240   202     17      16
   10:    50     0      8       0
-------------------------------------
Total:  1584   921    108      82  Total Score = 1,397,830

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

This is the first time I have done mixed mode in this contest. My preferences
are to operate CW only or do a multi-op where I am the CW operator and the
other guy does the phone operating. But I used to do serious phone contests
over 30 years ago.

I found that I could still do fairly well on phone and maybe I didn't embarass
myself too badly. My target was to try for a 50-50 balance of CW to Phone QSOs.
But my CW tendencies pulled me towards CW by a ratio of 63% to 37%. I don't know
if a better balance might have helped my score or not.

I tried Skimmer here with a haywire lash up that allowed me to hook some of the
lower antennas or beverages into the SDR receiver. There were times when it did
a good job of populating the band map. But like Packet, a lot of the calls were
wrong or not there when I listened.

I haven't figured out yet if it helped me or just distracted me. I spent a lot
of time looking for Skimmer spots instead of doing what I should have been
doing, CQing. My laptop for Skimmer was a slower machine and it fell behind
decoding when the band was heavly populated. But I was just learning the
process and probably have a lot to do in order to use this tool effectively.

I do think that with better antennas and the right hardware, Skimmer will be a
contesting force. There were times when it was exactly like having packet spot
data available anytime you needed it. 

My opinion is that Skimmer should NOT be allowed for the single-op category in
the future. But it is new and interesting technology and will be fine for
assisted or multi-op categories.

Congratulations to N5DX for a fine mixed-mode effort from the mid-west.

73, Richard - K5NA


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