Well, that sure was fun. If I were feeling better, I think I’d have made the 400 Qso goal, but as it sits there are 11 Q’s missing. But that is closer than I genuinely expected to get to the 400Q goal.
Summary: ------------------- 160: 160 1 80: 201 41 40: 139 38 20: 47 18 15: 1 1 10: 0 0 ------------------- Total: 389 99 Total Score = 38,511
TheGood:
This contest went very well. The very high point had to be being called by UT5UIA in the last minute of the contest on 80m. I don’t actively pursue much DX on 80m, but it is obviously there. I hear lots of DX during DX contests, but have always assumed they were probably running power. The noise level on 80m was very low during the last half of the contest. Great 80m conditions.
I also had a few interesting QSO’s on 40m phone. KH6FI was so loud I thought he was in the mid-west.
Of the pre-contest goals, I was able to meet most of them, at least to my own less demanding standard. I fell short of the 400 Q goal by just less than one percent. Given the interruptions, my claimed 9.5 hours is more than I was actually butt-in-chair, having to get up several times for errands. Those times are counted as operating time, since the breaks were less than 30 minutes. I also had to take a break during the evening rush to meet the two hour off requirement. So I expect those two goals are dependent. The good news is that I didn’t get tired and conk out early.
Running at 24wpm worked out fairly well, after a bit of initial fumbling around. When the rush hour arrived the grey matter was copying well enough to keep up with the run. I found I was needing fills again before the end of the contest, but I was mostly able to keep up.
It was fun to run.
TheBad:— The 160m-L needs work. It is still showing a high SWR. Debugging needed. 20m had a high local noise level. It sounds like there may be something in the neighbor’s new addition that is generating RFI. There’s not really a more suitable location for that particular antenna – unfortunately. Running on 20m is mostly wasted effort, even in NAQP. S&P is fine. Not much activity early in the contest.
TheUgly:— None this time. I’m sure Murph is out somewhere looking for new tricks…
Worked you on 80M :-).
KH6FI, yes he was loud! It was very worthwhile to check out 40M even after the bulk of activity on the East Coast had shifted to 80M. In fact I worked him 5 minutes before I worked you on 80M.
Last winter, working QRP with 5W on a HW-8, I remember getting Hawaii on 80M in the middle night during the CQWW DX. I was sick as a dog that weekend and for some reason making that contact sticks in my brain as one of the highlights of that entire year!
Tim.
Great effort to come super close to reaching your goal of 400. I think I was in the low 300’s, but I’m out of town and can’t access my log right now to confirm. Like you, I spent most of the day in and out of the shack. Two or three good solid hours at one stretch, I remember. The rest was a few minutes here and there. Too much going on around the house that day for some reason.
Did you use your K2 or the 920 for this one? I split time between the FT1000MP and the K2. The 1000 did a nice job on 20 when the signals were more spread out. But the K2 really kicked butt when I went to 40 and there was more congestion. How is the 160 module working for you?
73,
Ed
I used the K2 100%. It really is a great CW rig, and it seems to play best on 40/80/160. It seems about equal to the ft-920 on 20m, but it still wins out on selectivity there.
I have a problem to debug on 75m SSB. When I installed the 160m module, I must have de-tuned the filter enough to cause SSB distortion on 80m. That should be easy to correct by retuning the 80m/160m output more carefully. It’s on the toodooo list – I’ve just been unwilling to take it apart to fix it since it doesn’t seem to be a problem on CW.
The K2 really is pretty good for 160m. It really was outstanding at pulling individual stations out, much better than the ft-920. Too bad my antenna blew up. Something else to fix.