W4KAZ

IARU is a contest that gets better participation outside of the US. Its early summer time frame gives it a different twist for radio propagation, and it is only a 24 hour contest. The time frame means that you may only get one chance to work certain regions, so if you snooze you lose. But unlike a DX contest based on country borders and continents, it also allows for the US stations to work each other. Another thing that makes it enjoyable is the dual mode nature. It is a little bit of everything. Unique.

This is normally a favorite contest to work from the shack, although I seldom press it as hard as I might in others. I was not really looking forward to it this year because of continuing poor propagation, but I brightened up when N1LN and N1YXU decided to host a Multi-Single at their QTH. (and many thanks to N1YXU and N1LN for hosting the event!)

I needed to split my time for last Saturday anyway, so I asked Bruce to put me on the graveyard shift, which he did. He had rounded up quite a few people for staffing the active station. As it turns out, the crew was a good mix of CW and SSB talent. AA4XX and EA5DFV both joined in to the fun. Paul, AA4XX is a local ham who enjoys QRP operation. Our friend Jose’, EA5DFV is contest op for Spain who is vacationing in the area visiting his family. It was really good to get to know both gents better.

Jose’ also pulled the graveyard shift. He and I were up for the duration of the evening. W0UCE covered the first part of the evening for CW, and N1LN got up in the early morning to finish up the contest with us.

My own head was mostly “in a box” for the evening, so I had a great deal of difficulty concentrating. That made for less running and more S&P. Conditions were very noisy, which is a situation I usually struggle with when I am alert. I’m afraid my performance probably was an overall drag on the team.

On the positive side, I gained the benefit of being mentored by an experienced EA op. Jose’s insight into the thought processes he would be using if he had been at his home QTH were very enlightening. We began searching for multipliers as morning approached. This probably was a good choice for the score, as the run rates we were getting were low enough tha even a single mult was worth the 10 to 15 minutes on the other band.

The early am hours(0700z) were fun for me because of the openings to the Pacific area. This is somethig I don’t get much of with the LP/wires set up at home. At N1LN’s I began hearing VK’s on the middle 20m antenna. Later in the morning(1000z) the JA’s were coming in on the top antenna. But there was also some sort opening to the VK’s on the compass heading for the JA’s at that time. When I switched to the lower antenna pointed directly at them NOTHING was heard.

As always, the social aspect of the evening was just fantastic. Bruce and Laurie are wonderful folks. I made sure to put in a reservation for Chef Archie’s(W0UCE) dinner. We made wise cracks at UCE’s expense all evening, but the meal he prepared for the group was one of the best I have had in ages. Chef Archie gets four stars from el Escribano Inexacto.

The N1LN 3830 write-up.

The FD results for the 2008 FD were put online back in February. But as we bear down on FD 2009, time to review. The N4PY crew managed to win the Roanoake Division in class 3A. We finished in 10th place overall of class 3A., and 63rd for all entries regardless of class.

Not too shabby for seven guys in a completely new and untried location.

We were beat out locally by the OCRA crew, who put up a really good score operating in the 5 watt battery class. Also K4QPL squeaked by us with about 50 more QSO’s in class 2A, although we had more points.

But on a “QSO per Peep” basis we did rather well. There are only a handful of other stations that managed to lay out as many QSO’s per person with as few people as we did. Most of those were two man set-ups. Sweet.

Maybe if we find a BBQ staff N4YDU will be able to add another 1000 Q’s to the total.

• 1st of 8 and of 21 ,class 3A, in the NC section andRoanoke division
• 4th of 73 overall in the NC section
• 11th of 188 overallin the Roanoke Division
• 10th of 303 in class 3A nationwide

cqfd cqfd cqfd…..

No goals to acheive for this one, just some fun spinning around the bands.

I am sorry I missed operating on Friday night. Saturday night turned up a lot of EU countries on 80m. I’m sure there are a few new ones, since I’ve seldom really worked 80m as seriously as I did Saturday. The side effect was neglecting 40m, as well as missing out on Friday evening.

Started in the late afternoon Saturday on 20m. After the first 15 or so S&P Q’s, I found the NY4A ops and parked to read their mail around 19:50z. It’s probably the easiest way to get a good idea about propagagtion, because Howie has a great signal into EU. Normally, I hear only every third or fourth station, sometimes less.

But Saturday was different. The 100w EU stations had good signal strength, and over a 10 to 15 minute period I was hearing almost everything the NY4A op was working. Hmmmmm.

Sliding up the band, I found a hole around 14081 to try running. I had a nice 40 minute run, then the floor seemed to drop out. The run rate wasn’t fantastic, but it was better than S&P, and it was good run practice. Logged 35 Q’s, mostly northern EU. Later on, there was a JA on 14023 who was about 559 here in central NC. He had a huge pileup, and could not hear the tin whistle from the KazShack. Seemed to be working the Left coast and stations in the Black Hole. I never found any AK stations. A quick spin across 20m at 0100Z turned up KH7S. At that time, he was the only station I was hearing, but he was solid copy. It seems likely that his copy on W4KAZ was somewhat less robust.

Getting a run going on 40m and 80m was just not accomplished. QSB was a problem on 80m. A G4 that called in on a run gave up on it. The QSB got the suffix of his call every time. But for the time I had available, the S&P was fun. I didn’t turn on the packet, so it was fun hunting the pearls. I don’t know how conditions seemed to the big guns, but it was quiet here. Propagation seemed pretty good on 20/40/80. 160m was quiet too, and I was able to work several of the Carribean stations. Did not stay up late enough to try to get the EU sunrise.

The Good: 20m condtions seemed slightly better than they have been, but still nothing fantastic. Working KH7. New DX on 80m. 160m antenna seems to get enough signal out to at least be heard.

The Bad: Missed operating on Friday night. Unable to establish a run on 80m. Insufficient patience for running at a slow rate.

The Ugly: Flubbed exchanges.

To Fix: Mostly the lid operator. 😮

Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
 160:    5     5
  80:   53    34
  40:   40    22
  20:   95    39
  15:   13     8
  10:    0     0
-------------------
Total:  207   108  Total Score = 66,744

Station:

• Elecraft K2, WriteLog logging
• 80m dipole @ 50 ft, N/S
• 40m dipole @ 45ft, NE/SW
• 20m dipole @ 50ft, E/W
• 160m Inv-L with 20 very short radials
• K9AY RX antenna

First, many thanks to N1LN and N1YXU for the invite, the great company, and the hospitality. The station and the setting are wonderful, and I can’t think of a better way to spend an afternoon of radiosport.

The contest operation itself did not hit the goals I had in my head for us. I really expected to beat our own score from August, but we did not. We actually came up quite short.

The 20m band was really abysmal. I started out the contest on 20m. After the first 40 minutes, the “run” dried up, and never was re-established. The first two hours ended with only about 45 Q’s on 20m, woefully inadequate. I knew it was going to be bad when NT4D lapped the QSO count the third time on the 40m station. He had 100+ while the 20m station was stuck at 33. Ick. No one else had any better luck on 20m either. Just terrible. 15m was far worse. I moved there to pick up the CA mult and 6 or 7 CA QSO’s. N1LN picked up another mult and another 6 or 7 Q’s on 15m a little later. 11 Q’s total.

10m? Ha.

The good news was that 40m/80m/160m all supplied a steady stream of Q’s. With 20m shut down tight, the “happy hour rush” was pretty slow, as 40m had been milked pretty thoroughly by 5:00pm local. I did manage to notice it was twilight, and picked up a handful of FL, GA, and AL on the low 40m beam. But as soon as that finished I was beginning to work WA and OR on the top of the stack. 40m was long at sundown. NT4D abandoned the futility of 20m to start 80m pretty early. When N1LN took over the 80m run a little later, the rate had become pretty good on 80m. O’course, 40m had petered out.

80m was fairly productive for the rest of the contest, and there were a few good runs on 160m later in the evening. The term ‘good’ in the context of this operation was a best combined 60 minute rate of only about 125/hr. The three and ten minute rates hit 200 several times, but only for short intervals.

The company was great even if conditions for HF were not. I am learning a lot from N1LN and his station, and I really appreciate the opportunity to see the station in action. Time well spent.

The 3830 entry.

Call: NC4KW
Operator(s): NT4D, W4KAZ, N1YXU, W4SAR, N1LN
Station: N1LN

Class: M/2 LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  168    40
   80:  381    52
   40:  371    44
   20:  110    22
   15:   11     3
   10:    0     0
-------------------
Total: 1041   161  Total Score = 167,601