[3830] NAQP CW NC4KW(@N1LN) M/2 LP

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                    North American QSO Party, CW - August

Call: NC4KW
Operator(s): W0UCE, N4YDU, AA4FU, N1LN
Station: N1LN

Class: M/2 LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   71    27
   80:  220    45
   40:  457    59
   20:  441    57
   15:  289    55
   10:   81    34
-------------------
Total: 1559   277  Total Score = 431,843

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Team: 

Comments:

This is the contest that we never thought would start.  The weather forecast for
NC was 60 - 70 percent of thunderstorms from 18:00 UTC until sometime on Sunday.
 Well, we never had the storms here so a shut down did not happen but WOW did we
have the QRN.  Having read some of the postings that seems to be a common report
from all around the country.  So much for the almost bad news and on to the good
news.

This time we decided to start on 20 and 15, as always, but have the 20 meter
station move back and forth to 10.  That seemed to work as our 15 Qs and mults
were pretty good.  That gave us more flexibility for 10 and did not really hurt
20 as it stayed open and the action was pretty good up to about 00:00 UTC.  When
we moved to 40 the QRN levels jumped up to well over S9.  Unfortunately, that
forced us to use the beverages.  When the 20 meter station moved to  80 the RX
antenna contention issues started.   It seems  the station owner (me) has not
yet installed the second set of beverages.  So, to keep the rate up on 40 the
80 meter Op got the K9AY loop.  This was OK, but they just don’t compare to
the beverages.  As you can see by the stats our mults were down on 80 and way
down on 160.  Both bands suffered from a lack of call area 7 and VE mults.  For
160 the only mults we worked west of the Mississippi were TX, OK, IA, KS, and
AR.   Lots of opportunity left on the table due to the QRN.   I called two
stations in CO on 160 and never got a response.   I could copy them fine, but
no joy.   This is when a central US location would have been nice with each
coast equal distant and probably workable.   Should find that out when the
Central US M2 stations postings arrive.

When the clock struck 06:00 UTC it was time to check the scores.  Even with the
bad conditions our score improved by 30 percent over last year.  The Qs were up
by 222 and the mults were up by 29.  Now we wait to see how we did.   

There are eight stations in the log for Qs on all 6 bands.   W9RE, W0BH, K5TR,
K5GO, N0NT, N9CK, NA8V, and W1JU.   Thanks for being there and pulling us out
on 160.

As with every outing here we had a visit from Chef Archie.  NAQP would not be
an exception.  This time he treated us to his home made Caesar salad, spaghetti
with his own meat and mushroom sauce recipe, outstanding garlic bread and of
course we had a nice bottle of red wine to make it complete.

Thanks to everyone that QSYd for us.  Thanks to all that were patient with our
numerous requests for repeats.  And a BIG THANKS to Mother Nature for keeping
the lightening storms in the distance.  It was even nice to hear the static
crashes as that meant the radios were still on!

73 from the NC4KW crew - 

Jack - W0UCE
Nate - N4YDU
Alan - AA4FU
Bruce - N1LN


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