[3830] NAQP CW WF7T Single Op LP

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                    North American QSO Party, CW - August

Call: WF7T
Operator(s): WF7T
Station: WF7T

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: TN
Operating Time (hrs): ~8
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    8     8
   80:   95    33
   40:  194    45
   20:   77    36
   15:   29    20
   10:   11     7
-------------------
Total:  414   147  Total Score = 60,858

Club: Tennessee Contest Group

Team: TCG #4

Comments:

Almost didn't make this one!

Thanks to all for the Qs.  I really enjoy this format...my hat off to NCJ for
putting on a great contest series.

I had the whole place torn apart due to a minor lightning event and general
discontent with my whole arrangement. Lost the on-board Ethernet connection on
my main computer motherboard, along with my network hardware and my media
server. I did not notice any issues with my radio equipment since I keep it
physically disconnected when not in use.

I decided last minute on Saturday morning to connect everything back up. Not a
problem: computer off-net but otherwise controlling everything.  Station was
back up a half hour before the contest start. My antennas did not seem to work.
While this is never really a surprise here since I am notorious for shabby and
questionable antenna construction, I did an eye-roll once or twice dreading the
antenna debugging.

To abbreviate my long saga: I found the current balun for my doublet was blown
and an auto-tuner at the base of my inverted L would not power. So, my trusty
G5RV was put back up and I decided to use my 40 bi-square as my second antenna.
I sat down at the radio two hours after the starting bell sweaty and slightly
annoyed.

Played between 15 and 20M for the first couple hours. Nice to work a very brief
opening on 10M around 2200z but it fizzled pretty quickly. Decided to get to 40M
early as it is typically my best band (especially with the G5RV). I didn't have
any other antenna options for the second radio so my productivity was pretty
low. Was wanting to sweep 10/15 and stay more active on 20M with just didn't
have the setup.

All the bands were pretty short with marginal signals, and it wasn't until the
last hour or two of the contest that 80 & 40 stretched out to the West. 40M got
quiet around 0200z and stayed quiet until an hour before the contest end. With
the regional storm activity 80M was brutal--said in my best Nathan Explosion
voice--and 160M was near impossible. I had a bad antenna on Topband: I loaded
up the G5RV and hoped for anything.

In retrospect, my rate was 10 Qs per hour better than my typical average.

So, that's my report.  Looking forward to SSB in a couple weeks...see you
then!

73 Brad WF7T
Nashville, TN

---

IC-7600, FT-857D at 100W
G5RV at 35', 40M Bi-square pointed NE/SW
N1MM, YCCC SO2R+


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