[SECC] NAQP CW AA4LR SOAB LP

[Bill Coleman]

                     North America QSO Party - CW
                    
Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 10
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs  Mults
----------------------
  160:     36     20
   80:     43     24
   40:     77     31
   20:    169     47
   15:    104     38
   10:     71     32
----------------------
Total:    500    192  =  96,000

Club/Team: SECC #1

Comments:

Equipment:
TS-430S running 100 watts
20-year-old homebrew CMOS keyer
Hastily made serial CW keying adapter
AE6Y CQPWIN Software

Antennas:
A3S @ 49 feet (10m, 15m, 20m)
1/4 wave sloper @ 40 feet (40m)
125 foot doublet @ 35 feet (80m, 160m)

Comments:

Wow.

That's my summary. Wow.

Conditions were really great. 10 stayed open for hours, and both 80m and 
160m were really quiet. 

I started off with a goal of 400 Qs, perhaps 150 multiplers, and an 
overal score goal of 60k. I'd have been satisfied to break 50k, since my 
previous best score in the NAQP CW was 34k points. 

Having real antennas really helps. I spent lots of time on the upper 
bands, since I had a gain antenna there, and felt loud. This is the first 
CW contest I've done from home where I felt I could actually run 
stations. I had excellent runs on 15m and 20m, sometimes getting the rate 
meter over 100/hr.

Since I put almost 7 hours on the higher bands, that left little time on 
the lower bands. My best overall band rate came on 160m, where a bit over 
a half an hour netted 35 contacts, with 80m a close second. 

In looking at my results, I've decided the 40m sloper just doesn't cut 
the mustard. I got through on the first call on every other band, but 
struggled on 40m. In retrospect, I probably should have spent more time 
on 80m, where I had a brief run before I went to 160m before the clock 
ran out.

Worked a number of SECCers. K9AY moved me through 6 bands. Worked the 
W4AN M/2 on 5 bands (just missed them on 10m). Also worked AE4Y, WA4TT, 
W4NTI, K4NO, W4OC, and there's probably a couple more I missed. May have 
worked more if I had spent more time on the low bands.

I QSYed for every station who asked, THAT I UNDERSTOOD. Ok, my CW isn't 
the greatest, but it's getting better. I did get peeved at guys who would 
send something after our QSO, but then gave up when I asked for a repeat. 
Come on, it's worth the move if you'd just send it again. Be patient.

But my biggest peeve were guys who gave up when I asked them for a second 
repeat of the exchange. There were a couple who just went back to calling 
CQ. I'd have to call them again, and then we'd go  through the whole 
business again. Waste of time. Just giving the repeat would have been 
faster.

Thanks for tolerating my somewhat oddly sent CW. Seems the AE6Y software 
is sensitive to disk page faults, and at times my wife's 
memory-constrained laptop would page like crazy, which messed up the CW 
timing. It was really nice to have the computer send just about 
everything for me, although I did revert to the paddles a few times. (I 
found the AE6Y keyboard mode to be buggy -- if you switched out before it 
stopped sending, it would crash the software. Ouch)

This was a great contest, I can't wait for the Phone portion.


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: 
http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/



Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr@arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901


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