[SCCC] N6OO CQP 100 watts & a wire

[N6OO - Tony]

                  California QSO Party 
 
Call: N6OO 
Operator(s): N6OO 
Station: N6OO 
 
Class: SOFixed LP 
QTH: ALta Loma, CA 
Operating Time (hrs): 11 
 
Summary: 
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs 
-------------------- 
   40:    117        4 
   20:    117    104 
   15:      37      16 
-------------------- 
Total:  241    124  Mults = 48  Total Score = 46,608 
 
Club: Southern California Contest Club 
 
Comments: 
 
This was my first California QSO Party. Last year, I made a couple of calls but 
quickly found that using my ex-K1USC call sign was oftentimes confusing on the 
other end.  This time around, N6OO was QRV & calling CQ for much of my 
operating time. Lots of fun. I worked just about 11 hours here and there over 
the weekend, usually in the mornings as I took my lovely XYL out on Saturday 
evening (date night with the wife) & again on Sunday afternoon.   
 
What time I was on, it was pretty good fun. Calling CQ, I enjoyed some steady 
runs on 20M both SSB & CW. It was valuable experience for me, as I've never 
had that many other stations coming back to me before.  My listening skills 
were enhanced as I struggled to catch many weak stations down in the noise. I 
figured that is usually how I sound in a contest so I was glad to try and work 
everyone nice enough to respond to my CQ'ing.  This really is a good contest 
for "regular Ops" with "regular stations" to get some good operating 
experience as there is an abundance of stations who are trying to work 
"little ol' me" here in Southern California. 
 
My basic "little pistol" station (100Watts & a wire) worked without a hitch 
the entire time. I did notice the 857D got warm & it's internal fan turned on 
after a long period of calling CQ & working a good CW run. (that's the first 
time I heard that fan noise! So, I separated the front panel of the radio to 
help the air flow & that keep things cool. I had a G5RV up inverted-V style: 
the center up about 26 ft & the ends at 16ft. The LDG AT100 Pro auto-tuner kept 
the radio & G5RV talking well to each other. 
 
I know I must have asked for repeats about a hundred zillion times & everyone 
was nice enough to repeat their exchange enough times till it finally sank into 
my thick head.  Sending "SBER" went smooth as I had very few requests for 
repeats. One highlight of Sunday morning was working Charlie W6KK (also in 
SBER) on 15M CW.  "What a hoot" I thought upon hearing his serial number in 
the low 80's and being able to send my number back up in the lower 300's. 
Though I had to pull the plug shortly afterwards and I figured with him still 
going, he must have passed me up with ease with only a couple more hours of 
work. 
 
K6GEP emailed me saying I was spotted on Cluster several times while operating.  He also found out afterwards that he too was spotted. That explains some of those good runs. Along the same line, I looked at my QRZ info before the contest & saw 198 visits.  Today the Monday after the contest, I see that total is now up to 386. I must have had a lot of visits during the weekend!  All in all, a fun outing for the weekend. 
 
73, 
 
de N6OO Tony