First, here’s the bottom line, ten hours operating:

Band     QSOs     Pts  Sec  Mt2  Pt/Q

   1.8       35       35   19    0   1.0

   3.5     180     180   36    0   1.0

     7      249     249   42    1   1.0

    14      95        95   29    1   1.0

    21        1           1     1    0   1.0

    28        1           1     1    0   1.0

Total     561     561  128    2   1.0

            Score : 72,930

This was my first full time effort in at least 6 years and I had a steep learning curve.  My gear has been sitting in the basement collecting dust and it is ironic that I got back on the air in part because last September I had a busted hot water heater and a flooded basement.  We hauled everything upstairs and finished putting the basement back together about two months ago.  Thankfully, after hauling everything back downstairs I was able to figure out what was supposed to be connected to what.  Also, six years ago we put a new roof on our house, so my A3s and rooftop tower have been in my back yard since then.  When we had trees removed from our front yard a month ago, one of the workers helped me put the tower back up. 

I have dipoles for 80 and 40, and in addition to the A3s I have beams hanging from pine trees for 20, 15 and 10.  Unfortunately my 20 meter beam, after 6+ years of neglect, is missing some element tips and some of those that are still on the beam are pointing to the sky.  That was one thing I had not fixed before NAQP, so the 20M antenna was on the ground at the contest start. 

I began the contest with the A3s trying S&P on 10, then on 15 but the A3 was not performing.  So I went in the back yard and hoisted the 20M beam to a height of 5 feet and proceeded to have some decent runs with it and contacts with AK and HI.  Amazing.  I later discovered that one of the coax leads was disconnected from the A3. 

This is all more than anyone wanted to know, but hopefully I’ll be doing more contesting in the future.  It was great hearing quite a few callsigns from years ago, including N4UJ, who as K4UJS administered my Novice exam in 1959, K4BAI, KU8E and my almost neighbor K2UFT. 

73,

Jay/K4OGG