[3830] NAQP CW K9ZO Single Op LP

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                    North American QSO Party, CW - August

Call: K9ZO
Operator(s): K9ZO
Station: K9ZO

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Illinois
Operating Time (hrs): 10

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  106    29
   80:  221    39
   40:  256    42
   20:  319    39
   15:   72    20
   10:    5     2
-------------------
Total:  979   171  Total Score = 167,409

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Team: 

Comments:

I haven't done many serious NAQP efforts, so there is plenty to learn.  I had a
quick listen on 10 meters, but there was no propagation.  Luckily there were
some other central Illinois stations on to catch a quick and uncommon
multiplier.  15 was similar with limited propagation, so no good runs, but
necessary to pick up the multipliers.  20 was solid, but not big runs and
likewise 40 was good, but I could not attract enough attention for a fast run. 
The weather cooled down, and as expected, the SteppIR did not work on 40.  Too
bad, because I can usually pick up some nice west coast a couple hours before
sunset when the signal is good and stands out well. I used to have 3 phased
slopers on 80 and it would be tremendous to try that on 40. I need a hook and
pulley up about 50 feet, perhaps in a tree. 

I was pretty exhausted after just a couple hours.  My medications are helping
nicely, but I need a lot of rest.  My wife brought a nice diner to the shack
between rain showers. I wanted to put in a solid effort so I could quantify the
results.  I was keeping up pretty well until my first break at about 8pm.
Afterwards I could see the score/ranking slipping.  

I was really hampered by not having SO2R and not being able to search for mults
and pick up easy loud extra contacts on the second VFO.  It might have been
possible to slowly run on two bands also.  I still need a really good 40 meter
antenna to be able to run there.  It poured heavy rain for a while, but not much
extra noise.  Prop was good on 80/160, but still summer time band noise compared
to the quiet of winter.  I would benefit from having an E-W beverage up all
year.  Maybe even a short one would help.  There were a number of well-outfitted
W9 stations just above my score that were using SO2R.

Overall, it was not much fun because of the obvious shortcomings in my station. 
I so wish there was a tower crew and individual to help with another tower and
some simple antenna improvements.

The related improvements for this upcoming week are an on-site visit by the
Sprint technician.  He was able to improve the marginal connection at my son's
house to 50MBPS by cleverly connecting to the Bloomington tower about 6 miles
away instead of the Stanford tower which is about 3 miles away.  My speed is
16MBPS, but often am disconnected. I tried to get my "magic box" (cell
signal repeater) to connect and provision, but it did not work, hence the
service call.  Still weak and marginal cell and data in the shack. We'll see. 
Also, due to COVID, some electronics are hard to acquire. I got a faster
computer, but have had to wait on the video adapters. I have not been able to
decode RTTY reliably, and sometimes wait for N1MM to digest a call sign after I
hit the "enter" key.  I have been waiting for gutter company since
February, and they may show this week. IT is the final big project for this
estate.  Also, the window repair in the shack may happen too.  SteppIR did not
respond to my email, so it is time to call again.


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