[SECC] IARU AA5JF results

[Andrew Goss]

Call: AA5JF
Operator(s): AA5JF
Station: AA5JF

Class: SOAB(A)CW HP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 7
Location: USA




| Summary:   Compare Scores |
| Band | CW Qs | Ph Qs | Zones | HQ Mults |
| 160: | 5 | 
 | 3 | 
 |
| 80: | 9 | 
 | 8 | 
 |
| 40: | 108 | 
 | 23 | 25 |
| 20: | 128 | 
 | 19 | 22 |
| 15: | 30 | 
 | 9 | 12 |
| 10: | 
 | 
 | 
 | 
 |
| Total: | 280 | 0 | 62 | 59 | Total Score | 100,188 |


 
Club: South East Contest ClubI planned to operate continuously the first five or six hours of the contest, coinciding with modest family obligations on a Saturday morning. But 20M was a slog with weak signals from Europe, and although I made a few contacts on 15M with Europe, it was clearly only the very big guns who could hear me. It was hard to get interested in trying to pick up just NA contacts. And by the time the band improved, I was committed to some family time and chores. Did cook some tasty ribs on the grill though. Had little time on the radio until about 10pm, but caught some of the great conditions to Europe on 20M in-between other things. After 10PM, 40M was in good shape with most stations I could hear answering me, and although I didn't try too hard on 80M, it was quiet and might have been worth the effort. All contacts were S&P, except for a stray CQ here and there, including one that resulted in K4AB calling me on 160M as I was trying to meet the 10 minute rule (thank you!). Went to bed well before midnight. Got up at 6 and worked at it for another hour, making two JA contacts (and one VK plus ZM1A) on 40M. 
The big change for me this time was really using all the assisted tools that N1MM+ offered. Previously I had done it basically manually by looking at spots on various websites, but this time, I set up all the windows, and had the reverse beacon feed streaming into the bandmap, and was watching the multipliers -- I've figured out how to import call history, especially nice with all those HQ exchanges. Makes a difference! For a part-time effort in an international contest, with conditions to Europe so-so, and with a basic FT450 rig (but 500 W) and a tribander at 20 feet, it seems like the way to go for me. What I did was: standard S&P through the band, going after any station I thought would hear me, and then after doing one pass through the band, I checked the needed-multipliers window and went back to get the multipliers that I thought I had a chance at. Using this technique, I had one hour with 56 contacts, all S&P--chasing the multipliers made it more fun. I can't win this way, but running seemed fruitless. I probably could have run late Saturday evening on 40M (where my inverted L on 160 doubles as a pretty good 40M vertical), but there just didn't seem like that much casual activity.  
I saw John's Bonaire station spotted on 15M and 10M, but 15M skip was long to the south, and I never heard him there. The few times I checked 10M, the only one or two signals seemed not worth it spending 10 minutes there. The quality of operators was phenomenal -- although I guess the exchange is not that complicated (with the ITU zone prefilling), I was impressed by how many operators got my call immediately, and we completed the QSO within seconds. I recently got a glimpse of why: although I was away from radiosport for three decades, I really was keen when I was a teenager, with my tiny little 40 watt station in New Mexico. I taught myself to send code with me left hand, so I could write down the contact info with my right hand--the keyboard makes this superfluous, but I'm still sending with my left hand. I tried my hand at many CW contests, including the CW sprint, even though it was difficult and the speeds were very fast. Recently I got on eQSL (mostly so I can see if I'm in someone else's log before sending a QSL card to Indonesia) and although I don't have the logs from 30 years ago, there were about 7 eQSLs from AA3B waiting, from the late 1980s. This past weekend, I made a contact with one of my mentors from then, Bruce AA5B. They were already phenomenal operators then, and didn't take 30 years off. I likely have contacts with many of you. Long way to go here!This was a long post! After a year back trying CW contesting, I'm hooked again. Looking forward to better conditions, but even then, my tower limitation will be a challenge. With the kids about to enter college, this is probably not the time to build a remote station, but I'm starting plans in my head. 
Andrew AA5JF

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