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

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                    North American QSO Party, CW - August

Call: NC4KW
Operator(s): N4YDU N3ND AA4FU N1LN
Station: N1LN

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  155    34
   80:  424    55
   40:  596    62
   20:  461    57
   15:   43    22
   10:           
-------------------
Total: 1679   230  Total Score = 386,170

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Team: 

Comments:

The August running of NAQP CW turned out to be MUCH better than I originally
anticipated. The first unexpected but appreciated positive influence was the
weather. All week the weather forecast called for almost a total bust on
Saturday. Thunder and lightening all day, then occasional, then spotty then
finally NOTHING. The second and more of a headache series of events was caused
by ME! For some reason I had a series of Bruce induced issues that took several
hours to overcome. Fortunately, Nate, N4YDU, was quite understanding with me
taking over the keyboard and mouse at his operating position to diagnose and
repair several issues. He kept on going making Qs with the paddle and pen and
paper.   

The issues started with being unable to login to the VA2WA Contest Score Board.
I am sure it was something that I either did or did not do correctly but we
eventually got connected, about 1 minute before the starting gun, and it was
fun. Then the dedicated laptop that we were using to monitor the scores died. 
Quick swap to another laptop and that was FIXED. On that note, congratulations
to both the W2FU and K5RM M2 teams for their excellent scores. They scores were
fun to watch but impossible to catch. The next issue was pointed out by Dan,
N3ND. For some reason our Skimmer spots were not showing. We were receiving
spots for all other stations but not our own. We like to use these to track how
our signal is being heard around the country. Surprise....ME AGAIN! The SELF box
under the settings drop down in the CC User application was not checked.   OK,
let’s not stop there. We only run with 2 rigs that need to do double duty,
both RUN and SP. The Alt Q command in N1MM really helps with the JUMP BACK TO
RUN FREQUENCY macro after grabbing a needed mult. Well, that assumes it works!
Ours did not work on either station. After every mult QSO the return to RUN
frequency was totally manual and time consuming. This was not fixed during the
contest but I did find the issue this morning. I had one extra command in the SP
F4 macro line. The command was removed and the ALT Q command is now FIXED. 
Finally, an issue popped up that was not caused by me. We were using the AE5E
node for our Skimmer. Unfortunately, it went down at one point and all our spots
stopped. Not sure exactly why but it took some time and repeated attempts to
switch to the VE7CC node. Once again, thanks to Nate for his outstanding paddle
and pad QSO Running skills. After getting the new node to connect the Skimmer
spots started to populate and it was time for me to rest until the next
self-induced issue arose. Fortunately, that was the last one!

Through all of this our team was excellent and VERY patient. Alan, Dan and Nate
were able to laugh with me or at me, either is fine, and we were able to
increase our score from last August. The low bands were excellent and we were
able to make up for lost Qs on 10 and 15 but not the lost mults.  160 to the
west was very frustrating. California and even Colorado CQd in our face on 160
and we could not be heard. We missed call area 6 and 7 totally and only logged
MO and MN in the 0 area on 160.  LOST MULTS.

All in all, we had a fun NAQP CW. Thanks to the event organizers and thanks to
everyone that participated and we were able to get in our logs.  

73 from the NC4KW gang,

Nate N4YDU
Dan N3ND
Alan AA4FU
Bruce N1LN


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