[3830] OhQP K8MAD(W1NN) Single Op LP

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                    Ohio QSO Party

Call: K8MAD
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: W1NN

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: MEDI`
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
   80:  162    124
   40:  188    149
   20:   88     59
   15:   18      4
   10:            
--------------------
Total:  456    336  CW Mults = 91  Ph Mults = 91  Total Score = 227,136

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

The above score is an estimate based on a manual count of multipliers and an
estimate of dupes.  Read on and you’ll understand why.

I don’t operate much phone and I don’t operate assisted so I don’t have a
decent mic, a DVK, or internet in the shack.  I have never used packet spots or
other assistance in my own shack and I don’t even know how to set this up. 
And my regular logging software is Win-Test which does not support this
contest.  But I wanted to take aim at the 2009 record set by K2KW from K8O
(244,530 points) and I thought I would need to make some big changes in order
to be competitive in this contest, so my plan was to set all this stuff up
during the week before the contest.

However, this plan was thwarted by a last-minute visit by relatives, preventing
me from doing anything until Saturday morning.  This was not enough time!  I
have a separate computer on which resides N1MM plus but it is not set up for
SO2R, so on Saturday morning I began to set this up as my first priority.  To
make a long story short, I could not make this work.  The instructions for SO2R
in the N1MM manual don’t cover SO2R setup very well and I couldn’t figure
out several settings.  It seemed to be working for a while but I kept losing
radio control and then the computer crashed and froze up several times.  At 11
AM I had to abandon using N1MM and of course there was no time to figure out
how to set up a sound card or packet assistance.  I returned to my reliable
Win-Test which is set up for SO2R and I chose to operate the contest using the
Texas QSO Party module.  The exchange is similar but of course the rules and
scoring are different so I had no idea how I was doing with multipliers or
score during the contest.  (But I think the Cabrillo log will be good enough to
submit.)  I operated the entire contest using a handheld mic so when on SSB I
had to enter all information with my right hand while I held the mic with my
left.  

Despite these setbacks, I still thought I could do okay provided conditions
were okay.  Well, I don’t have to tell you how that went.  40 was long from
the start and never did shorten up enough to work anything but the extreme
southern Ohio counties (and a few nearby ones).  The high bands were rough most
of the time for a low power station and I think the poor conditions affected the
level of activity.  

When 80 opened around dinner time things got better and the second half of the
contest was better than the first (360 contacts in the first half, 440 in the
second half), but early on I realized that this probably was not going to be
the year that many records were broken.

Overall I had very few contacts with the mobiles and all but one or two were on
80.  I think my first contact with K8O was around 0100Z.  The mobile sigs never
did get as strong as they usually are.  

Despite the many problems, things turned out fairly good and my score ended up
a lot better than I thought it would a couple of hours into the contest.

One highlight was working Uli, DM5EE (formerly DL2HBX) several times, including
on 80 meters.  Uli is a former Michigan resident and member of the Mad River
Radio Club and holds the US call KK8I but is now back in his home country of
Germany.  Thanks for getting on Uli.

It was fun to use the club’s call and thanks to Dave, K8CC, trustee of the
call and president of MRRC, for allowing me to use it.

Thanks for the contacts!

73, Hal W1NN, op of K8MAD


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