Only 112 QSO’s spread out over several hours. I spent a lot more of my operating time listening to various run stations and just soaking in the propagation observations on the bands. I just couldn’t get into operating the contest on either mode.
But maybe thats because I spent the first five hours ripping apart and re-building the station set up. All was not lost. I was able to debug a problem with the DVK input to the radio(a bad RCA jumper). Since I had just completed a new feed-through panel, I also needed several new jumpers to go from the panel to the station. I had more fun soldering up jumpers than I did operating.
I also discovered that my 20 meter dipole seems to favor the east, so it must have some interaction with the other wires in the yard. Working the European stations I could hear was easy, but working US stations to the west was difficult on the 20m dipole. Interesting.
I tried in vain to work the ZL who had a really good S8 signal here on my dipole. I was able to work KH6ZM after trying in vain earlier to work KH6 and KH5 through the pile of sixes and sevens.
Working Europe simplex rather than split on 40 meters was fun. It seemed to help spread things out on SSB. CW on 40 was very difficult this year.
It sounded like the US ‘five landers’ had a decent shot at running on 10 meters. Am eagerly awaiting more sunspots here in central NC!
Call: W4KAZ Operator(s): W4KAZ Station: W4KAZClass: SO Mixed LP QTH: NC Operating Time (hrs): 3 Summary: Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults ------------------------------------- 160: 80: 40: 14 22 7 9 20: 17 40 9 11 15: 8 4 3 2 10: 4 3 2 2 ------------------------------------- Total: 43 69 21 24 Total Score = 11,610
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