[3830] NAQP SSB NK7U M/2 LP

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                    North American QSO Party, SSB - January

Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, K7MK, W7ZRC
Station: NK7U

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   81    17
   80:  173    43
   40:  391    55
   20:  506    52
   15:  548    44
   10:   12     5
-------------------
Total: 1711   216  Total Score = 369,576

Club: Willamette Valley DX Club

Team: 

Comments:

Based on conditions in the CW version we had great hopes for our SSB effort but
it was just not to be. Score was down 10% from last year and we just barely
beat KL9A's Single Op CW effort from NK7U last weekend -- as a M/2 this week!
Thanks as well for Brad and his K7ZSD team to push us to be as competitive as
we could be to win M/2 Oregon honors. It sounds like their operation was
effected by heavy local rain whereas at NK7U we had light rain the whole
contest . Looks like we will come out on top this year. A few thoughts:

* 10M: As often seems to be the case was open as the contest start approached
as we were chanting "hold on, hold on you can make it". Unlike the CW weekend
though things died up pretty quick we made only a handful of QSO's before it
closed. We did greatly improve from last year's 1 X 1 with this years 12 X 5
though so at least the trend is in the right direction.

*15M: On the other hand was just awesome with a 169 first hour powered by
W7ZRC. This was followed up with three more over 100. We improved greatly over
last year's 418 X 36 with our 548 X 44 this year. 

* 20M: Was kind of "punky" with our performance being down from last year. We
just didn't feel loud on 20M which is also something echo'd by KL9A last
weekend. Some study of logs will be needed to see if this a general trend
across all stations or something local to NK7U. Last year we had 714 X 57
compared to this year 506 X 52 -- so a really noticeable change. We should have
been much closer. (Looks like K7ZSD also had a drop on 20M this year as well,
though not as great.)

*40M: K7MK was our 40M star this year. As 15M closed down he went to 40 and
laid claim to 7158. After grinding it out for a couple hours he was rewarded in
the 0100 hour when the band activity exploded and he turned in a 159 hour. This
has to be the top 40M hour at any NK7U SSB contest.  Things slowed down from
there though the band stayed open nicely all the way to the end of the contest.
Everyone had already moved on to 80 and 160. Still though we had a nice increase
in performance with our 391 X 55 compared to last year's 287 X 49.

* 80M: Was more than its usual struggle this year. We all took turns trying to
get something going on the band but like 20M we just could not and also fell
far short of last year's performance by 50%. Our 173 X 43 compares to last
year's 350 X 53. We did sense that our noise level was high but it always is. 

*160M: Is always tough for out west as the population is so spread out compared
to back east. To maximize our score we have to aggressively pass from 80M and
with our 80M performance down so was our 160M score. Last year was 98 X 24
compared to this year's 81 X 17.

Thanks everyone for the QSO's and QSY's. Look for us during NAQP RTTY in
several weeks.

Scott/K7ZO


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