[3830] NA Sprint CW N4DW QRP

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                    NA Sprint CW Contest - February

Call: N4DW
Operator(s): N4DW
Station: N4DW

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): !:20

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Op Time
---------------------
   80:             
   40:  32     1:20
   20:             
---------------------
Total:  32     Mults = 16  Total Score = 512

Club: 

Team: 

Comments:

Wow.  After how many years starting the NA at 00z, it got changed.
Not to worry, this was only my second attempt at contesting from an RV site.
At 0030z I started assembling the radio, laptop & accy's on the picnic table
outside.  By 0050z I had the Buddy Pole back in place & guyed to three water
jugs(no wind).  I pushed the pole up another 3 feet from where I'd had it
Thursday evening for NS.  Connected the coax to the TS2000 and hit the tune
button, SWR beeped at me indicating high SWR.  I could hear some activity, but
signals were almost non-existent.  Hmm, looked at the antenna (slightly after
sunset & kinda dark already) and noted that the end of the coax was laying
on the ground.  Hmm, lay the Buddy Pole down, reconnect the coax, put the Buddy
Pole back up, hit the tune button again and everything seems OK.
Apparently when I added the 3 feet to the pole height, the coax pulled out
because at 25 ft long the coax was short, so I added another piece to reduce the
stress.
By golly, it's now 0140z and the loud stations are all sending NR's greater than
200, wow!
My most receent experiences with the TS2000 have not been good when running over
50 watts that I'm distorted or something, so I'm gonna hit the NA as QRP and see
what happens.
Everything seems to be working good now so off I go.
Pretty slow as QRP gives me a very weak signal, but I have patience and I end up
with 32 contacts from RI to ZF to AK and 13 other places in between.
I called CQ and had someone call me and somehow I fat fingered the laptop and
ended up way off that frequency, realized something was amiss and tuned around
to find him calling and calling me.  We did make the Q, finally! (thanks Ward)
I worked as many of the loud guys as I could and a few average signals.  Think I
sensed one or two super super weak callers that I couldn't get a single letter
out of, sorry guys.
We will be here in Tucson till mid March, but I don't think I'll mess with radio
much till we get back home.
Thanks Ya'll for the Q's.  We will do it again sometime, who knows where I'll
be!


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