[3830] NA Sprint CW K0DXC LP

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                    NA Sprint CW Contest

Call: K0DXC
Operator(s): K0DXC
Station: K0DXC

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Jackson, OH
Operating Time (hrs): 3.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Op Time
---------------------
   80:  101        
   40:   31        
   20:    3        
---------------------
Total:  135    Mults = 41  Total Score = 5,535

Club: North Coast Contesters

Team: MRRC/NCC

Comments:

Rig: IC-756PROIII
Antennas: 6BTV vertical, DX-B sloper @ 35 feet, SBOG RX antenna
Software: DOS NA1059 

The week leading up to the NA sprint was an interesting one for me. Mid-terms
at school are coming up so I have been frantically working on papers to raise
my Science grade back up to its normal "A". Thankfully it's almost there; I
just need to turn in one more paper.....

I also had last minute computer/software issues for the sprint. I was planning
on running the latest version of Win-Test, but last week my computer locked up
and I haven't been able to "un-lock" it yet. Hopefully it is fixed by next
weekend. I ended up having to boot up an old laptop and run DOS with K8CC's
NA1059 logging program. It is a FB program but ever since I tried windows N1MM
and WT I haven't wanted to look back.

There was an ice storm here in southern Ohio about a week ago, I thought that I
would loose my sloper and possibly even my vertical; thankfully they toughed it
out. Before the contest started I had to go outside (in the now 65 degrees F
weather!) and raise my sloper back up into the air from its sagging position.

When the contest started I opened up on 20 meters. I was hoping to work most of
the Western multipliers because I normally can't work them on 80 and I wasn't
sure how my vertical would perform on 40. (It's erratic.)

Surprisingly, 20 was fairly quiet here in SE Ohio. I was about to go the 40 but
then I was interrupted; mom yelled upstairs and said I HAD to come down and eat
dinner with everyone tonight. Ahh!

I did my best and tried to eat everything quickly while at the same trying not
to make it seem like I just wanted to get back to the contest, (my parents
aren't to fond of them) and thankfully was able to get back to the radio fairly
quickly. I thought about going back to 20 but I decided against it because most
of my Q's generally come from 40 and 80.

When I got to 40 meters I was surprised that I didn't hear very many loud
signals. I heard a few but not nearly as many as I usually do. Hopefully that
ice didn't do anything to my vertical.... I made about 30 Q's on 40 and then
was delighted to have a very LOUD KL7WV drop his call in after I finished a
QSO! That normally doesn't happen! 40 meters seemed to be in good shape to the
west coast.

Soon after that I decided that I wasn't going to get much more out of 40, so I
went to 80 meters. I was VERY surprised with 80! I could work the west coast
like I normally work 4 land! Amazing! I was hearing W6 stations coming in 20
over 9! Normally I have to work to get any California/7 land QSO's on 80 but
during the sprint they were calling in endlessly. (Not literally, I only had
135 QSOs!)

I missed the W9/W0 opening on 80 from Ohio. I did NOT work Indiana. (I heard
W9RE and one other IN station but they couldn't pull me out.) I did work a few
W0/W9 stations but not nearly as many as I normally do. 

Anyways, it was very nice working a ton of familiar calls during the SPRINT.
Contesting is becoming more and more fun for me. I would like to thank everyone
who has worked hard putting this year's SPRINT together, I'll be back again next
year!

73,
Cal (KID), K0DXC


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