Topband: The Stew

[Gary Smith]

Hi all,

I decided again to be a masochist and run 
another contest QRP when there is a 
perfectly fine Alpha War horse 18" away. I 
have to say not being able to contact 
stations you hear clearly is a significant 
irritant. Yes, the joy of being the 
underdog is at times over-rated. Still, I 
had a whole lot of fun.

I was surprised the DX wasn't more obvious 
at this QTH than in earlier years. I heard 
no loud Eu at all (I am 400' from the 
Atlantic on the coast of CT), Herb, KV4FZ, 
was clear as a bell but he couldn't hear 
me, same for the P4/ station & for that 
matter, I worked zero DX but as QRP, that 
is part of the game.

One of the things I found a bug about is 
with S&P & being QRP, the person calling 
CQ struggles to get my call and then has 
to struggle with the section. Often I hear 
them calling CQ right after sending the 
report again and I don't know if they just 
decided to bail out on the QSO and look 
for a stronger signal to get in the log 
or, did they get the info and just 
immediately go back to CQing? If they 
bailed and I submit my log, then I get 
penalized for a Q that doesn't show up in 
their log. People should send an 
acknowledgment when they are satisfied 
they have received the proper data. 

I use the word I above but this same issue 
applies to anyone who is in a contest and 
has the same experience.

My AMTRAK power line noise 75' away is 
always a joy to listen through and 
especially when it's the dusk/dawn hours 
when the commuter trains are in full 
swing. There must be 40 of them that pass 
by in the rush hours and each one disrupts 
20+ over for up to a minute. & yeah, there 
is intermittent arcing that I hear all the 
time. 

With all that I had a great time and 
thought the band was pretty well filled. I 
just looked at a photo of my P3 screen I 
sent to the YL at 22:53Z. It was set to 
5KHz so there was 10KHZ viewed and I count 
27 CQers, not bad & not so many there was 
constant splatter.

Thanks to all who pulled my signal out. 
N6DZ gets the Golden ears as my farthest Q 
and K7CA & W7RH are tied for 2nd farthest.

73,

Gary
KA1J

---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
http://www.avast.com