[SECC] WPX CW WH6YH SOAB LP

Wed Jun 1 00:03:26 EDT 2016

Hi Jere,

As you know I am not the contester, but I wanted to increase my proficiency with CW, as I am not where I want to be; trying to get over 30wpm - though I'd be really happy at a solid 40-45. I was comfortable at 32-34 for contest exchange this past weekend, but want regular rag-chew speed. So anything I can do to get better at it,  I'll give it a shot. For the past few months I played in the weekly CWops CWT, which we have tomorrow and started in on NS Thursdays week before last, which is a blistering pace for me. I am a fish out of water during that 30 min. I like the challenge though.

Still pretty dumb as far as the station integration and computer programs, looking for a panadapter - maybe SDRplay, a receive antenna, and something to link everything (just bought a DXE RTR-1 receive antenna switch), etc...Plus I cant hear worth a darn and I am looking for an outboard audio amp to boost levels up a bit and something to record both sides of the exchanges, which would be a good learning tool. I had to narrow down filters a lot on some weak stations and that caused ringing, which I had to further reduce Audio gain. I normally run low RF gain as there is a sweet spot that makes CW pop, so I had difficulty there. Lots of lessons learned this weekend.

In long run I want a K3 and K500, as IC-7410 is new to me and my first Icom but it had 2 antenna connections where the supposed replacement IC-7300 had one? Just have to put the time in to learn everything. I also had a computer crash during WPX and I was using paper to attempt to stay on top of everything. Not pretty - I am certain this caused some busted QSOs (no excuse but at least it was on my 1st test), so I'll look for an UPS system and better yet possibly a laptop if the power goes, it'll continue to run for a little while on battery. I think I am using 1% of N1MM right now, just turn the dial with my left hand and key with my right; stop to type in info in the window....probably more of what they did 30 years ago. Maybe there is a picture of me in the dictionary under Luddite Hi Hi. Can only go up from here :^))

I'll let you know if I get bit.

Take care Jere

73 Mike

On May 31, 2016, at 10:50 PM, kt4zb at aol.com wrote:

Nice job Mike - glad to see you on the air. Be careful, that contesting bug can really bite.

Best - Jere, KT4ZB 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Zolno <luv.myipad3 at me.com>
To: secc <secc at contesting.com>
Sent: Tue, May 31, 2016 6:37 pm
Subject: [SECC] WPX CW WH6YH SOAB LP

CQWW WPX Contest, CW WH6YH SOAB LP

Call: WH6YH
Operator(s): WH6YH
Station: WH6YH

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 15

Summary:
Band    QSOs
------------
160:    0
80:    10
40:    105
20:    184
15:    43
10:    10
------------
Total: 352 Prefixes = 236 Total Score = 317,656

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:
IC-7410, 100w, OCF dipole at 40ft as Inverted V.

This was a fun event for me that generated lots of lessons learned. I need a better chair! My Sony-MDR NC-7 on-ear headphones (great for music) have too much tension and cause pain on the cartilage. I will look for a good set of comfortable over the ear headphones. If you can recommend one that function for long hours, I would be very grateful. I need to get better station integration and automation; every almost
everything was hand keyed which caused some serious issues with my CTS, arthritis and a pinched cubital nerve in my right elbow, and I am right handed. Naturally toward the end I was noticeably inaccurate - my sincere apologies to the distant end OPs. Not all, but a good number of OPs had difficultly copying my call, lots of WS6YS, W56YS, W5YH. Maybe a shorter call is in order? Propagation was excellent Friday night into Saturday as I managed to work several VK, ZS, ZL, ZM, KH and well into SA and AF. Back pain forced a long
sabbatical Saturday noon until Sunday as I did not start back up until the remaining 4 hours on Sunday. Sadly, propagation was nowhere near as good as it was Friday and Saturday and did not open back up to Eastern Europe/Western Asia until well into Sunday. Lots of very strong signals coming from EU but a short
band allowed only working US stations and prevented EU QSO until later in the day. After 23 years hamming, this was my very first long event "test" as I dip my feet in to this aspect of our great hobby. Thank you for the QSO, I truly had a lot of fun.
_______________________________________________
SECC mailing list
SECC at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/secc
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/secc/attachments/20160601/1420584d/attachment.html>