[3830] WVQP N8II Single OpMixed LP

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                    West Virginia QSO Party - 2021

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: Single OpMixed LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 9.3

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Dig Qs
----------------------------
   80:   31     44       
   40:  106    254       
   20:   63    427       
   15:    4      5       
   10:    3      3       
----------------------------
Total:  207    733      0  Mults = 96  Total Score = 110,988

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

First off I have to thank the 4 mobiles who were active providing a lot of rare
WV counties to those seeking them. I was surprised to not hear W6OAT, a chaser,
at all. The roads in WV are absolutely no fun for mobile operators, very hilly
and curvy!!! The terrain in WV is more consistently rugged than any other US
state with one large hill after the other west of the Appalachians, and the
roads were mostly built in the 1920's when speed was not a big issue. Even the
interstates are crooked. Ed, N8OYY/M on SSB made a Herculean drive from the
northern panhandle right down to SW most Mingo county and back north to central
WV passing through many rare counties. Unfortunately, he was skipping over me
the majority of the time on 40 and despite attempts to catch him on 75M, few
succeeded. W8OP covered the eastern panhandle. Steve, WB8III (love that call, my
original was WN8IJW) covered north central WV. AA4TI/M visited from FL and spent
most of his time on 20, but was in there well into the evening. I would guess
there were about 50 counties activated, but no one so far reporting did very
well catching the possible total due to long skip. The SFI was only 76 and
without much sporadic E from 1900-0045Z, it was tough sledding for almost all
ops. We still need more and larger sunspots!

Thunderstorms were forecast with an 80% chance for several evening hours. I was
expecting an interruption by 21Z, but mercifully no storms ever came close
enough to notice increased static crashes. I started off on 40 CW with very
short skip to the NE; Ray, K9RS from DE called in and was loud only about 135
miles away. I had worked down CW Q's on 40 and 20 by 1645Z and went to town on
20 SSB. There was some intense sporadic E in nearly all directions as close as
NJ, NY, CT and farther NE, KY, SC, TN, and MI. I was too busy to call CQ's on
15/10, but my rate was disappointing considering the conditions. A boatload of
New England stations called, but it was a while until RI and VT went into my
log. I repaid some contest friends by offering to move to 15 and 10. I worked
Bob,W0BH in KS and Con,K5CM in OK on both bands/modes and worked John,K4BAI on
15. Also N4OX followed us around to both bands/modes. I did lose some steam on
20 when I QSY'ed; an inaudible WV station took my spot once or twice. I had j
328 Q's in the log the first 3 clock hours with 20 minutes off for lunch. After
not being able to start much back up on 20, it was 40 phone time at 1842Z. The
QRN was low and range was good, just no stations closer than about NY, NC, or
western OH. I worked a far as MN, IA, MO, and KS. My 40M run dried up at 1917Z,
>From then until 2113Z back on 40 it was a struggle to run stations on any band
or mode. I was very thankful for the automated CW and phone CQ's, a life saver.
After dinner at 2215Z, I was unhappy with the mult total, so I chased DX towards
EU and called some CQ's that direction on 20 SSB.
I worked TA, OD, XE(several others later), LA, RL3 and several other EU
countries. My rate improved at 2230Z to the west on 20M followed by a decent
rate on 40 SSB, then at 2315Z 40 CW. As I was struggling to copy weak CA ops at
2239Z, WA6QDQ/KH6 called in with a S9+10db signal for first HI and state #49! ID
was #48 at 2215Z, and I more or less gave up on catching WY for WAS. I ended up
with many ID Q's. Down to 80 CW at 0008Z, activity was disappointing and 75M was
even worse, but I found several WV counties and N8OYY/M on 75. I had made
several failed attempts to run 40 SSB earlier starting 2307Z; finally 0054Z skip
had shortened to maybe 70 miles in some directions and a high rate run was under
way with lots of PA, OH, 2's, and 1's going into the log. My rates were 81 00Z,
95 01Z with break, 82 02Z. I kept running on 40 SSB until 0157 then a few more
on 40 CW. The QRN on 40 and 80 was fairly high; I had to dig out quite a few
calls. At 0233Z, I tried 20 one last time and despite the also high S7 crashes,
there were plenty of callers west of the MS river and into AL and LA.
At 0240Z KA7VMA called in from WY to complete my WAS. The strange thing was, I
ran 3 other WY stations on 20 SSB after that! VK2WWV called in as well for my
last mult. I worked VE1-9 except VE4 and 8. 21 WV counties were worked and 18
DXCC countries. 

Summer starts today, far from the best time for a QP due to thunderstorm QRN and
less activity. The pandemic, though far from over now, brought in some extra ops
last year who this year were out enjoying life. It was a challenge to keep
finding new Q's; maybe I should have moved more ops. With the evening QRN and
some weak signals, running was far from fun at times. Several late 20M Q's took
over 30 seconds to complete waiting for the signal to peak out of or even with
with noise. Many thanks for the calls and persistence in some cases. The new
FTDX-101D did help a bit. I may be HP next time around. It was nice hearing old
friends. 

73, Jeff


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