[3830] NAQP CW AA8IA Single Op LP

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                    North American QSO Party, CW - August

Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Toronto OH
Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:  119    29
   40:   90    34
   20:   82    26
   15:   36    14
   10:   30    11
-------------------
Total:  357   114  Total Score = 40,698

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Team: MRRC/NCC Team #2

Comments:

FT-950, 100w, Alpha Delta DX-EE shortened 40-10 parallel dipole, 80m inverted V

Until yesterday, the only wire up was a shortened 40m dipole.   It never
performed well in the past on 80m and I didn't expect it to.  Hal W1NN from Mad
River Radio Club encouraged me to try to make some Qs on 80/160 anyway.  I knew
that really was going to be pointless.  But, it motivated me to spend 3 hours
putting up an 80m inverted V yesterday night.  In the end I had major L4-L5
pain in the back and was wondering if the 80m wire was worth it.  I couldn't
tune up on it on most bands (fed with ladderline to a balun and 8 feet of
coax).  I was in pain and wondering what in the world I did... how did I con
myself into putting up an 80m dipole, knowing I was going to pay for it later.

Move on to the contest... It was nonstop action.   I had a blast.   I did some
more CQing during this contest, trying to overcome the stage fright.   When it
came time for 80m, I switched to antenna 2, tuned up, and parked on a frequency
and started CQing.  Needless to say, I spent an hour and a half or more
successfully CQing and many stations.  It was great to work a significant
number of MRRC guys for once.  The simple vee performed pretty damned good.  I
had no trouble making a lot of contacts on 80m.

It wasn't until the last minute that I realized I was just about to go over the
10-hour limit, so I shut things down.  But prior to that I attempted to tune up
160m on both wires to no avail.   What a shame.  There was a lot of activity on
160, and it was absolutely quiet here.   Had I been able to tune up on 160 I
probably would have nailed another 30-40 ops and gotten quite a few more
mults.

WX was great this weekend.  Much lower humidity, no storms (which afforded me
the opportunity to raise the 80m vee's mast).

Great contest.   I pushed myself, and I'm glad.  Although I'm hoping the
Vicodin kicks in shortly.

Thanks to all who participated and who provided me with a contact.  And a
special thanks to Hal, W1NN - whether he new it or not, his brief words to me
motivated me to give 80m everything I had, and it worked out great.


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