Ben, I remember high QRN around the same time, to me the conditions seemed to go in and out on 15m and 20m

Charlie

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 17, 2014, at 5:14 PM, Ben Coleman <nj8j@benshome.net> wrote:
>
>                    North American QSO Party, SSB - August
>
> Call: NJ8J
> Operator(s): NJ8J
> Station: NJ8J
>
> Class: Single Op LP
> QTH: GA
> Operating Time (hrs): 9:34
>
> Summary:
> Band  QSOs  Mults
> -------------------
>  160:    1     1
>   80:   57    21
>   40:  114    38
>   20:   25    14
>   15:   37     6
>   10:
> -------------------
> Total:  234    80  Total Score = 18,720
>
> Club: South East Contest Club
>
> Team: SECC
>
> Comments:
> Equipment:
> Alinco DX-77T
> LDG AT-11MP Automatic Antenna tuner
>
> Antennas:
> 100' OCF Dipole fed with ladder-line
>
> Logger: N1MM
>
> Probably my best August NAQP SSB, mainly because I haven't done that
> many of them.  I didn't realize how many I had missed until I looked it
> up to compare.  Still far from my Jan NAQP SSB 2001 entry, and not
> nearly as fun as the recent NAQP CW.
>
> Never heard anything on 10.  15 and 20 weren't that great.  Main
> difference between 15 and 20 was that on 15 you could hear plenty of
> loud signals (just not enough of them), while on 20 just about everyone
> was down in the mud.  The contest didn't become fun until I dropped down
> to 40.  I had rates above 60 on the initial sweep through 40, and even
> managed to run for a short while.  Ditto on 80.  80 seemed to die in the
> last hour.  I wasted a half hour in the last hour on 80 when I should
> have jumped back to 40.
>
> Did this with the rig's standard hand mike, which means a lot of setting
> it down to type on the keyboard and picking it back up to transmit,
> which can get clumsy at times.  At one point, I thought W100AW/4 had
> taken my run frequency on 40.  Realized shortly after that apparently I
> had accidently hit the UP button on the hand mike, moving me up 100Khz
> and right onto *his* frequency. Managed to work him, though I had to ask
> for his call (which must have been amusing).  After that I made sure
> that I didn't leave the select marker in the 100KHz position.  I've got
> a headset/mike with a foot-pedal switch, but the cable has a break in
> it.  I need to fix that before my next serious SSB
> contest.
>
> Around 2130Z I started getting an S9 noise level.  That's dinner time,
> so I figured it was probably a neighbor running a mixer or something
> similar while making dinner.  I took a break at that point, and was out
> a bit long, which is why I didn't quite make it to 10 hours.
>
> Ben
> --
> Ben Coleman nj8j@benshome.net
> "I love the way Microsoft follows standards.  In much the
> same manner that fish follow migrating caribou."
>                                            Paul Tomblin
> _______________________________________________
> SECC mailing list
> SECC@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/secc
_______________________________________________
SECC mailing list
SECC@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/secc