[SCCC] K0XP 2023 CQWW VHF

[Steve Harrison]

On 7/17/2023 7:36 AM, Terry Baxter wrote:
> Steve,
>
> I feel your pain. And you beat my score by 1 point.
That's what I scored in January. But neither the ARRL nor 3830 would 
accept my log of zero QSOs  8-D
> I was in and out during the contest. I have my Flex set up so I can 
> continuously monitor the frequencies between 50.000 and 50.350. I 
> never saw any beacons or any CW/SSB activity. I called many CW CQ's 
> but never got an answer.

I never heard an opening on Saturday. Sunday mid-morning, N0LL/b-EM09 
was in for an hour-plus very strong at times, and WB0RMO/b in EN10 was 
in and out for half an hour, mostly out and never too strong. About in 
the middle of the RMO opening, I actually worked AE0Q in EN10; however, 
I never got an acknowledgement of him receiving my report, so I didn't 
count him. A bit later, he was spotted on SSB but I couldn't hear 
anything from him. Those three were the extent of any sporadic E that I 
heard.

OTOH, all I have for antlers on 6m right now are my 40m inv vee at 38.5 
ft, and my 160m inv L at 39 ft. I found the inv L was usually an S-unit 
or so stronger on N0LL/b and WB0RMO/b. Obviously, I can't rotate either 
to peak schtuff up  8-D

On 144, OTOH, I have a 13B2 up 15 ft on a rotator. Not nearly high 
enough, nor is my 50W from my FT-991A strong enough, to make me a 
nuisance when CQing on 144.2 and there's SSBers also on freq, obviously.

I would love to sked some folks on 144 just to find out what they can 
hear from me; I'm starting to think I'm not really getting out very 
well, although I did manage to work my old buddy over in Tempe in the 
June test, N1AV. He and I go back to the mid-90s when I built him a set 
of AM-6154/6155s for 144/220/432, and he lived in Maine in FN54 while I 
was in Mass-FN32 raising my family. In June, I heard and called KA6KEN 
when he got on CW to try to work me, but he couldn't hear me. He was 
never much stronger than S1 - S2 out here, and IIRC, he was running some 
serious goo on 144.

It took a few hours and a random spot before I finally figured out the 
strong Arizona station I was hearing all the time was WO1S in 
Wickenburg; until then, I could never figure out his call nor understand 
his grid when he worked others that I could hear from time to time. He 
never denigrated himself to call me on CW, however, more's the pity. I 
guess he already had DM24 from FMers over in Quartzsite in the various 
RV parks around there.

 From time to time, I could hear bursts from K5AM over in Las Cruces, 
both on 144.2 as well as on 50.095 CW. But just weak bursts, never 
sustained long enough to call him. He runs 1500W output on both bands; 
so if he's not strong, he probably isn't going to hear anyone calling 
him with less goo.

> One local was on FT8 or FT4, I dont know which, and occasionally he 
> would work someone that I could see on the screen. I dont have the 
> WSJT program on my computer so I dont know who he was or who he was 
> working. At times I would call CQ on 50.095 during his listening time 
> hoping he would see me on his monitor and drop down and make a Q. Not.
Could have been either N6CA or N6RV, I dunno. I never heard anybody on 
50.303 - 50.313 - 50.323, myself. Might have even been one of our local 
rovers.
> Digital has killed CW and SSB. And DXCC.
Certainly has. The recent 9Q1AA/9Q1ZZ expedition that concluded today is 
a prime example, although those guys were clearly biased toward working 
anything but W/K/Ns. However, their biggest failing is they never seemed 
to understand what bands to work when they were open to us; that's why 
I'm convinced they were biased. They always favored EU, especially on 
80/40m. The earlier DXpedition by 9Q5AA, however, was great (then again, 
that was winter-time propagation).
> Perhaps in contests, especially VHF, the scoring could have CW and SSB 
> count 10 times the digital points.

THAT could be very inneresting... Never happen, however; the Just Trash 
modes have taken over. If anything, they'll do the mode multiplier the 
other way around.

Steve, K0XP

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