[RTTY] K4GMH WAERTTY

[Mike]

K4GMH

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts  QTCs  Mults
------------------------------
  80:  275         40    54
  40:  571        379    85
  20:  540        719    80
  15:  206        240    57
  10:    0          0     0
------------------------------
Total: 1592   1   1378   276  Total Score = 2,211,160

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

That was fun!
Thanks to all who were kind enough to work me
and pass or receive QTCs.  Messed up several times
at the beginning due to my forgetting the Contest
starts an hour earlier (local time) due to the shift
last weekend from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time.
Decided to take a nap before the start and when
I woke up thinking I still had an hour to get things
ready, etc.  By the time I realized my mistake, only
two minutes remained before the Start of the Contest.
So that is my excuse for messing up so much for the
first hour or longer of the Contest:>)
The QTC aspect of the Contest adds an extra bit
of strategy.  Should you pass QTCs early, or save
until later?  Are band conditions good enough to
efficiently pass QTCs?  Will the other station even
know what is meant by passing QTC or is he
just passing out some points?  And a number of
other considerations that have to be mixed with
trying to work as many different stations, etc.
The Solar numbers were as they have been since
the beginning of the year.  The first night (East
Coast USA time) found 80 meters as quite as I
have heard it for a long time.  Forty QTCs were
readily passed (UW8I, OK1KSL, DL3TD, DL8SCG -
thanks).  Eighty meters the second night seemed
a bit more noisy.
Forty produced a couple of firsts for me - VU2NKS
my first India station on 40 RTTY and passing
QTCs with VK5NPR.
Twenty did give a nice run of stations including
propagation good enough to pass QTCs with
JR3NSC, JA6ZPR and 7N2UQC.
Fifteen meters had openings to Europe each of
the mornings for several hours.
Heard 9K2HN with a very nice QSO number (over 2K)
towards the end of the Contest.  Also, thanks
to 9K2HN for the four band contacts.
Tried 10 meters a couple of times without any
success (no contacts).
One caution, please make sure of the call of the
station you are working.  Several times I was
identified as "K4GM" instead of "K4GMH".  I know
George, K4GM, was active in the Contest so it is
easy to just grab the first call that comes up on the
Super Check Partial that seems like one you may have
seen on the screen.  If you did by mistake put K4GM
in your log instead of K4GMH you may loose credit for
the QSO.  Fortunately, this shouldn't impact my score
At least in scoring of some contests this is the case.
Again, thanks to all who made this a very nice way to
spend the weekend.

-- 
  73,
  Mike, K4GMH