ss

[FOXG at WCSUB.CTSTATEU.EDU]

This is a tough contest... and the family wasn't too thrilled either!
100 watts and a solitary G5RV at 65 feet.

This contest showed me a lot about how my station plays.  Great signal on
80... in many ways dominating for my power.  Terrible signal on 15.  I
assume a gradual fall off between each.  I made 244 QSOs on 80 and 60 on
15 (nothing doing on 10).

No Yukon!  I'm probably qualified if there are any cups with a chip missing.

It is sad to note that even after 27 years as a ham, I'm nothing near an
oldtimer.  Look at the dates in your log.  Almost nothing from the last
10 years.  I'll analyze later, but wouldn't be surprised to find more 
pre-WW2 hams than post Vietnam.  Are we really a dying breed?  

Why does an activity that's so much fun draw so little new blood?  Maybe
contests need better pr?

529 Q's x 76 sections = 80,408 in about 16 or 17 hours.

My wife, daughter and I had a picnic dinner of pizza Sunday evening on
the shack floor.

73, Geoff Fox WA1U

>From k2mm at MasPar.COM (John Zapisek)  Mon Nov  8 08:13:55 1993
From: k2mm at MasPar.COM (John Zapisek) (John Zapisek)
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 93 00:13:55 PST
Subject: K2MM SS/CW -- First Sweep!
Message-ID: <9311080813.AA07699 at greylock.local>

First serious SS since taking Vermont twice (WA1MUG) in the early 70's.  Got
a feeling competition here in Santa Clara Valley is a little bit stiffer!

First sweep ever -- without VY1JA, no less!  First time over 1000 Qs.  Great
fun operating from the Los Altos QTH of Terry Smith, K7YNO.  Great beams on
15 and 20, and a mostly-working beam on 40.  And no neighbor-trouble when
running power.  Sure is nice to be able to hold a frequency.  Also liked
QRO QSK very much with Terry's FT-1000D and Alpha-77.

    K2MM:  159,852-1038-77-22-B    80m=68 40m=186 20m=504 15m=108 10m=94

Still a long way to go to make the big leagues!

First contest using Tree/N6TR's LOG software.  The learning curve was not as
bad as I feared.  Managed to spend some (not much) time with it Thursday and
Friday evenings.  Started the contest OK plain-vanilla-wise, but kept having
to work around what I thought were bugs.  By SS end, though, its advantages
over CT were obvious, and I had trouble remembering what I thought the bugs
were!  (Well, that's a CW man's perspective, anyway.  Probably wouldn't use
it in the SS/Ph Social Event coming soon.)

So, I hear the mugs are red this year!  73.  --John/K2MM

>From alan at dsd.es.com (Alan Brubaker)  Mon Nov  8 14:58:03 1993
From: alan at dsd.es.com (Alan Brubaker) (Alan Brubaker)
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 93 07:58:03 -0700
Subject: ss
Message-ID: <9311081458.AA24887 at dsd.ES.COM>

I am with you, Geoff...the SS is a tough contest, whether you are running high
power and beams, or running QRP, it is a challenge to do well. In fact, I cannot
think of a radio contest that is "easy". I did not have very much time to spend
on the SS this year, and missed two sections as a result. Also did a multi-op
for the first time in many years with Bob, K7RW. Unfortunately, contests can be
extremely frustrating for those who are running low power and a dipole. It is
unrealistic to expect to win with a modest station these days unless you trek to
a rare section.

I think that contesting has been getting a bad rap lately. Whenever there is a
major phone contest, those who are not participating tend to get very irritated
at us. Most of these people probably have little use for CW, or they would retreat
to the CW bands. I have suggested many times to some of these people that 17 meters
is open and has plenty of room and no contest QRM, but they do not seem to be
interested in that. I also think that many of the newer hams do not have a way to
erect competitive antenna systems for the HF bands, and for that reason, stay away
from contests thinking that they cannot have a good time at it.

With that out of the way, here is our score:

K6XO/7  Multiop (K7RW)  B   549 QSOs,  75 Sections <WY, VE6>, 82,350  ~10 hours.

Alan

alan at dsd.es.com

"Life's too short to run QRP."  -  N6TU

>From Skelton, Tom" <TSkelton at engineer.clemsonsc.NCR.COM  Mon Nov  8 18:49:00 1993
From: Skelton, Tom" <TSkelton at engineer.clemsonsc.NCR.COM (Skelton, Tom)
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 93 10:49:00 PST
Subject: FW: ss
Message-ID: <2CDE950C at admin.ClemsonSC.NCR.COM>



 ----------
From: FOXG
To: cq-contest
Subject: ss
Date: Monday, November 08, 1993 12:00AM
<<deleted>>
My wife, daughter and I had a picnic dinner of pizza Sunday evening on
the shack floor.

73, Geoff Fox WA1U

At least your wife speaks to you if you want to operate a contest during
the weekend! 73, Tom WB4IUX