[SCCC] W4EF CQ WW CW SOHP(A)

[Michael Tope]

     CallSign Used : W4EF
       Operator(s) : W4EF

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP-ASSISTED
              Band : ALL
             Power : HIGH
              Mode : CW

         Club/Team : Southern California Contest Club
          Software : N1MM Logger V12.2.0

         Band    QSOs    Pts  ZN    Cty
          1.8      80     219   13   13
          3.5      75     196   19   36
            7     134     371   31   77
           14     121     333   34   87
           21     286     821   33   97
           28     179     514   30   62
------------------------------------------
        Total     875    2454  160  372


             Score : 1,305,528

               Rig : FT1000MP MK-V, Drake L-7

          Antennas : 160/80/40M ground mounted verticals (common feedpoint)
                     40M Inverted-V at 37ft
                     20/15/10M Spiderbeam at 45ft

                     160/80M RX 4-square

I did the first 3 hours of the contest unassisted, but the DXer in me 
won out over the contester, so I turned on the cluster feed so I could 
keep an eye out for a couple stations that I wanted to work on 160 
meters. I did feel like I was cheating with the point and click feature 
on the N1MM bandmap. It was fun in a "guilty pleasure" sort of way, but 
not as satisfying as getting a good mult total the hard way. I also had 
to remind myself to actually tune between cluster spots to try to find 
stuff on my own (and to verify the spotted callsigns by actually copying 
them).

Low band conditions seemed marginal except for a really good run of JAs 
on 160 meters on Saturday morning. That morning I also worked my first 
KH0 on topband after many years of chasing it in vein. In contrast, I 
was having trouble working Caribbean and Central American stations on 
Saturday night (my other 160M DXCC target - VP2V/AA7V couldn't hear me 
and got away). Eighty meters was only slightly better.

The computer says I operated 27 hours which sounds about right. I had 
intended to quit on Sunday morning and return home from the remote 
station, but I found working new multipliers too intoxicating to stop so 
after a long midday nap I kept at it until the end of the contest. As an 
interesting aside, I was by chance on ZD8W's 20M QRG when his amplifier 
failed late Sunday afternoon. He continued on running low-power, but 
what a difference in terms of copying him through the mountain of loud 
Ws calling him. In between the operating, the long naps, and listening 
to amps explode on Ascension Island I even had time to drive a couple of 
ground rods (figured it was about time for me to properly ground the 
station and antennas). Thank god for sandy desert soil (sure beats the 
rocky soil back in Tujunga).

Great fun!

73, Mike W4EF..........


   I