Summary: Band QSOs Mults ------------------- 160: 37 22 80: 253 41 40: 121 34 20: 31 17 15: 12 8 10: 1 1 ------------------- Total: 455 123 Total Score = 55,965
What follows are the gratuitous and extraneous ravings of an NAQP and contesting novitiate:
This NAQP turned out to be another 80 meter contest for me, although it didn’t start out that way. I wasn’t making any headway on 20 meters, so I ditched the high bands for a try at a run on 40 meters. That worked well as long as it lasted, but I needed to ditch my run in favor of a couple of household errands and a turn at burning various meats over an open flame, accompanied by a small glass of fermented hops-laden adult beverage. (Sam Adams Black Lager- very good stuff.)
After a suitable period of discontinuity, I rejoined the fracas fortified and with distended belly. Sacrificing further 40 meter mults, I set up shop early on 80 meters, and enjoyed an unprecedented(for W4KAZ) string of QSO’s over the next 2.5 hours. The ten minute rate meter got as high as 175/hour. After looking at my log, I had one sixty minute period that was at a 98/hr rate.
Almost got to the 100.Q/hr goal, but not quite.
Over the 8+ hours I operated the contest, it averaged out to 55 Qs/hr. Huh? Gotta be a mistake!
Okay, that’s not too notable to most serious contest folks, but its pretty good for this operator at this “station of the wet noodle antenna”. I’m not really sure why 80 meters has been playing so well in the domestic contests, but I’m happy with the result.
Moving to 80 so early boosted the total, but since my 160 meter antenna is relatively poor, the last couple of hours were spent begging for QSO’s on all three low bands and soliciting band changes for mults from run stations on 40 and 80. The band change strategy gathered in a worthwhile few extra mults, but the Q totals were low in the last two hours.
Woo hooo! NAQP will likely remain one of my favorite contest formats for a long time. It is just plain fun.
W4KAZ—-> a.k.a. “Andy”.
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