Radio W4KAZ Thanks for stopping by the virtual KazShack. Feel free to comment - I often approve them.
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By w4kaz, created on 2007.12.03 at 21:45:57 | last changed on 2007.12.03 at 21:59:20 | Thinking back on the event, it seems like the 80m and 40m antenna moves were good. Propagation was just a bit unusual, favoring longer skip paths than I normally see at the KAZland QTH. I think that these antennas, in their current orientations, will play even better when conditions are more ‘normal’. It is also clear I’d have done much better on 20m had I debugged the shack problem with the 20m antennas earlier.
The other operating change I will make is to plan on S&P during the first two hours of this contest. My S&P rate will be higher than any runs I might have during the bedlam of the start of the race. It will also give me a better chance at nailing some of the mults I should have found this year.
750 Q’s seems like a reasonable goal for this contest with these same bottom of the cycle propagation conditions. I wonder if 900 or 1000 Q’s are possible when conditions improve. Maybe.
By w4kaz, created on 2007.12.03 at 21:31:43 | last changed on 2007.12.03 at 21:32:32 | Summary: Total: QSOs = 122 Sections = 38 Countries = 2
Total Score = 10,000
I only got on for a few hours of casual S&P this year. I had fun with it last year, and this year was no different. I’d really like to put in a larger effort into this contest next year. That just didn’t pan out this time around. Continue reading ARRL 160 Meter
By w4kaz, created on 2007.11.20 at 21:08:14 | last changed on 2007.11.20 at 18:20:00 | 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
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160: 0
80: 339
40: 198
20: 44
15: 4
10: 0
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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
By w4kaz, created on 2007.11.07 at 06:49:06 | last changed on 2007.11.07 at 19:35:58 | Its “not a contest”. HA!
Maybe it is not, but the N4Q Krewe managed to rack up a nice QSO total anyway. And thats with one of the best operators, N4YDU, taking several hours off for another item on his schedule.
But our score put us as #1 in Class 2A for the Roanoke Division, and #16 in class 2A for all entries. Thats an improvement on 2006, where as N4PY we ranked #44. It is also a bit better in the #19 ranking in 2005, despite a slightly higher score then.
Time to update the N4Q website! (edit 11/7 – Note the number of participants versus the competition. It is even more of a stark contrast looking at 2A entries overall(#16))
Roanoake Division 2A top 10
# Call Score Cat QSOs Mult Sec Participants Club
1 N4Q 8,054 2A 2,093 2 NC 6 NC Contesters
2 K4MN 7,550 2A 2,293 2 NC 28 Cape Fear ARC
3 W4XD 6,988 2A 1,899 2 VA 90 Massanutten and Valley ARA
4 K4M 6,798 2A 1,824 2 NC 18 CARS
5 W8GK 6,196 2A 1,755 2 WV 32 Kanawha ARC
6 K4OO 5,920 2A 1,614 2 NC 6
7 K4RC 5,408 2A 1,690 2 VA 36 Williamsburg Area ARC
8 W4ANK 5,258 2A 1,143 2 SC 22 Trident ARC
9 W4BFB 5,248 2A 1,512 2 NC 58 Mecklenburg ARS
10 N4AW 5,042 2A 1,244 2 SC 18 Anderson RC
By w4kaz, created on 2007.11.06 at 12:33:28 | last changed on 2007.11.06 at 10:35:11 | 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
By w4kaz, created on 2007.11.01 at 14:25:07 | last changed on 2007.11.01 at 14:30:22 | I just realized that I had not created a page listing all of the SSB Mythbusters articles. Well, the page is done, and it has earned a spot in the blogroll as a ‘best of’ entry.
By w4kaz, created on 2007.11.01 at 06:30:14 | last changed on 2007.10.31 at 18:09:15 | MyCrowFone – Infiltrating the Continuous Wave – SSB Myth Busters Chapter 4 (a call to arms for PVRC Phone operators to stretch their wings for 2007 ARRL CW Sweeps)
Tempus Fugit! Okay. Last year at this time, I went on at length at how the CW operators should not rest on their laurels, but should take the plunge and try to find their MyCrowFones for the second half of ARRL Sweepstakes.
But this year, it is a more difficult task – convincing the Foney operator that he too can earn additional points by modulating the Continuous Wave in the first half of the ARRL Sweepstakes. Yes, I know the mere suggestion will have the elite CW ops cringing, but I am living proof that even mere lids such as myself can in fact substantially bolster their overall Sweepstakes score by infiltrating the CW portion of ARRL Sweepstakes.
ԅgadsԬ I imagine you thinking, Գurely this W4KAZ lid is daft?Ԡ Continue reading MyCrowFones- Infiltrating the Continuous Wave
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.31 at 16:29:17 | last changed on 2007.10.31 at 16:32:52 | I didn’t really expect to operate this DX contest, but I’m glad I did. I discovered that I’ll need a better 20 meter antenna before Sweeps, as I seem to have an intermittent connection somewhere on the 20m dipole. This antenna is at a ladder line fed dipole at 50 feet, so it should be working well enough. I was unable to load it properly. I’ve decided to ditch it in favor of a coax fed dipole in the same location. I have a vertical that I will probably deplaoy as well-just in case.
I was also happy to hear 15 meters open on both days. It has been a while since I operated a contest with my favorite band open enough for my piddly rectangular loop. Piddly or not, the 15&10 meter nested rectangular loop is a good antenna when conditions are better. It requires only one support, has a 50 ohm feedpoint, and I can turn it 90 degrees to favor a different direction. Not as good as a yagi, but better than what I had before, and its a good SWR across all of 15 meters and the contest area of 10 meters. Continue reading 2007 CQWW SSB W4KAZ SOAB LP
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.24 at 09:35:12 | last changed on 2007.10.24 at 09:38:04 | N1LN is still chipping away at flying all of his antennas. Two more went up on Saturday for the 20 meter stack. This has been a fun project to watch go together, as I’ve not been involved with anything of this magnitude before. It is probably not so much fun for Bruce yet-he and Laurie are doing 99 percent of the work themselves. He still has a great deal of work outstanding, but it is really coming together for them very well, and they have planned for it for a long time.
I you want to see the photos, continue to the full page.
Continue reading More N1LN Antennas Flying
By w4kaz, created on 2007.10.22 at 14:02:35 | last changed on 2007.10.22 at 14:02:35 | With my other hat on, I’ve updated the PVRC-NC page of Sweepstakes content. The revised page has a bit of new content, and has been made more generic to appeal to a wider audience. Feel free to share the link.
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