W4KAZ

On a ‘better late than never’ note:

I made just a few QSO’s(only 33) in the Stew Perry contest, but it was interesting SWL’ing the run stations. I heard several EU stations on the K9AY that were inaudible on the transmit antenna. The noise on the transmit antenna was high enough to make using the K9AY on receive preferable.

Sometimes listening is more educational than transmitting, and I wasn’t being heard very well anyway.

The 2007 IOTA provisional scores have been posted and it looks like the N4A expedition to the South Core Banks did well in the low power category. The scores for low power expeditions shows that N4A (N4YDU & W4KAZ) placed 24th worldwide, 13th worldwide for mixed mode, and #1 in North America for low power expeditions.

The mast pictured in the photo on the right is 1.785 (45mm) military surplus mast obtained from K4TMC, The Mast Company. The N4A website has more photos of the gear used. Continue reading IOTA 2007 – N4A Draws Wood

This was a really interesting contest. Propagation was curious in unexpected ways, as it had been for several days leading into the contest. I had set myself a couple of goals, reaching 75,000 points and 600 QSO’s. I was able to meet the first goal, but fell a few shy of the second. But late Sunday I didn’t expect to hit either, until I found a decent frequency. Someone must have spotted me a couple of times, because I closed out with a 44 QSO hour.

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
160:    0
80:  339
40:  198
20:   44
15:    4
10:    0
------------
Total:  585  Sections = 69  Total Score = 80,730

The following feverish rambling is a saga of ‘Low Power No Tower’ contesting.

Tailz of ‘Whoa!’: This SS was yet another case where my ‘best laid plan’ failed in its first contact with the enemy. Adaptability skills were needed right out of the gates. I was hoping to beat the crowd by starting out running on 80 meters. After listening around a bit in the evenings leading into the contest, it seemed like 40m was tending to be really long very early, 20m was dead early, and I was hearing Q5 QSO’s from west of the Mississippi on 80m as early as 7:00pm. So rather than fight it out on 20m with the Գtacked monoband/jigawatt amplifierԠcrowd , I planned to start out on 80m at the beginning of the contest, and save 40m and 20m for Saturday. Surely everyone else will reach the same conclusion, and there will be QSO’s-a-plenty right? Continue reading Sweeps SSB 2007 – TailZ of wHoa frOm the cHeap seaTz, Low Powa No Towa, and Gorillaz in the Midst

This was both my best ever CW Sweeps and best number of CW Q’s in any contest from the home QTH.

A !Big Thanks! to all of the ops who take the time to slow down to match my 20 wpm rate for the exchange. This is a tremendous help, and I really appreciate the extra effort and consideration. (and it seldom happens in any DX contest!.) You guys are great.

It was hard. It was a challenge. I had to force myself. But despite
the pain, I did it.

No, not the CW SS contest…..I forced myself to watch the entire
LSU-Alabama football game before I operated. I’m just getting too old
to be an LSU football fan, all of these last minute wins are
gonna kill me yet. But despite the SIXTEEN sloppy LSU penalties, and blowing an initial 17 point lead, the Tigas won. Final: LSU 41, ‘Bama 34. Geaux Tigas!

By contrast CW SS was easy and I didn’t lose anything by missing the first few hours of SS. I can’t keep up with you guys right out of the starting gates!

Once I did finally infiltrate the Continuous Wave, I followed my normal
SS CW strategy of sweeping through the bands S&P. I picked a few
cherries on 20, then a few more on 40 where I was working the NCCC guys
in the mid afternoon(unusual for this station). I spent most of Saturday night on 80 meters. Continue reading Sweeps CW 2007