[3830] NA Sprint CW W6YX(N7MH) HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    NA Sprint CW Contest - February

Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Op Time
---------------------
   80:   83        
   40:  105        
   20:  137        
---------------------
Total:  325    Mults = 44  Total Score = 14,300

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Team: NCCC #1

Comments:

On Saturday morning I got an alert from W6LD that the 40M Yagi might be missing
a driven element due to the storms of the past few days.  As I drove up to the
W6YX shack I saw that half of one of the driven elements of the M2 Yagi was
dangling below the antenna, hanging from the strut cable.

Low power to the antenna showed an SWR of 1.7:1 and with no arcing as power was
increased I decided that the Yagi with 1.5 driven elements would probably still
outperform the alternatives, an inverted vee and Pro67A.

The Micro-2R box that we'd been using for CW keying (and SO2R) had been
reclaimed so I scrounged around the shack to find a CW interface for the radio
I'd be using on 20 and 80.  I finally located a parallel port interface 5
minutes before the start but it took a few more minutes to find a cable to
connect it to the radio.  Reconfiguring the software for LPT keying didn't seem
to work so I started the contest sending with a paddle.  Then miraculously when
I reflexively hit F1 my CQ message was transmitted.  What a relief!  But I had
wasted the first 2 minutes of Sprint and was already several Q's behind
everyone.

I briefly tried listening to the second radio on 40 but decided that it was
slowing me down more than helping the rate so I stuck with one radio while
focusing on 20 meters.  Later I realized that it was my usual SO2R problem -
all of the W6YX members who'd been trying to work K1N had left the monitor
tones much louder than is practical for SO2R.  After moving to 40 I made an
effort to use the other radio on 20 and likewise with 80/40 but only made a
total of 13 second-radio Qs.

I had occasional rain static that made for more repeat requests than normal and
probably more errors.  Had more dupes call than in previous sprints and also had
some Qs where the other station just disappeared.  K9YC's signal faded so much
that I missed the number and then he went away completely during his repeat. 
As usual, many lost jump balls on 80 calling midwest and east coast stations.

I never heard NP4G and not sure which other mults I missed that were on.  Did
work 2 VE9s, VE1 and KH6 so the SSB mult rules would have given 2 more mults.

Congrats to the usual high scorers.  I'll be heading to Aruba to join W6LD and
W0YK for ARRL DX CW at P40L.

73,
-Mike, N7MH


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/