{"id":189,"date":"2008-07-18T06:11:57","date_gmt":"2008-07-18T10:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/?p=189"},"modified":"2008-07-17T16:14:34","modified_gmt":"2008-07-17T20:14:34","slug":"2008-iaru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/?p=189","title":{"rendered":"2008 IARU"},"content":{"rendered":"

The IARU is always a contest I enjoy, because I like the mixed mode work everybody format. <\/span>I had more time available than expected to operate, and I did better than expected. <\/span><\/p>\n

The morning was slow, but things picked up in the evening. <\/span>I was able to hold a run frequency on 20m, something that is unusual. <\/span>I operated <\/span>almost entirely CW, so I expect to take a well deserved beating in log checking, as my CW accuracy needs a lot more elbow grease than I have applied.<\/p>\n

This was the first real try out in a contest for my Elecraft K2, and I am very pleased with the radio. <\/span>I was trying to practice running, but found myself fascinated by how much nicer S&P is on the K2 with the filters crunched down. Every 200 hz another workable station popped up. <\/span>I found that I needed to tune slowly just to keep from missing stations in the crowd. <\/span>I still was able to find a hole now and then, and when I did I parked and gave a shout. <\/span>Some of these runs were short but productive. <\/span>But the Big Dawgs will have no reason to fear the upstart pups this year. \ud83d\ude2e<\/p>\n

Most of my contacts were domestic, and a large part of that was one-pointers. Given the relatively low dipoles I have, that’s not a big surprise. <\/span>I was surprised at how close-in the 80m propagation seemed to be. <\/span>80m just did not seem to be giving me many contacts into the mid-west, and very little in the southeast. <\/span>Curious.<\/p>\n

I also probably did not hit 40m as hard as I should have. There did seem to be more DX moving up into their new allocations between 7.100mc and 7.200mc., and that is a good thing. It will really be a fun band once the broadcast stations exit stage right. As it stands now, the broadcasters make a lot of the upper parts of the band mostly useless. I could hear the Eu ops well enough on 40m, but its a little like pulling onto the freeway with a moped. Big Dawg territory. So the pup soon departed, tail between his legs.<\/p>\n

Leaving 40m turned up a real plum on 20m, AL1G. Its been two or three years since any AK stations have been able to hear me, so that was a nice surprise.<\/p>\n

Overall, propagation was not terrible domestically, but the low dipoles were not getting into EU. 20m was my best band, 80m didn’t pay off, and 40m was too intimidating. Picked a very few cherries on the high bands, but completely FORGOT to check 160. Duh-OH!<\/p>\n

Hopefully we will have better luck with DX during IOTA in two weeks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Station: W4KAZ\r\nClass: SO Mixed LP\r\nQTH: NC\r\nOperating Time (hrs): 13.5\r\nSummary:\r\n Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults\r\n-------------------------------------\r\n  160:    0      0      0       0\r\n   80:   57     24      5       3\r\n   40:   82     14     10      15\r\n   20:  156      9     11      13\r\n   15:   14      9      5       5\r\n   10:    9      5      5       1\r\n-------------------------------------\r\nTotal:  318     60     36      39  Total Score = 58,950<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The IARU is always a contest I enjoy, because I like the mixed mode work everybody format. I had more time available than expected to operate, and I did better than expected. <\/p>\n
The morning was slow, but things picked up in the evening. I was able to hold a run frequency on 20m, something that is unusual. I operated almost entirely CW, so I expect to take a well deserved beating in log checking, as my CW accuracy needs a lot more elbow grease than I have applied.<\/p>\n
This was the first real try out in a contest for my Elecraft K2, and I am very pleased with the radio. I was trying to practice running, but found myself fascinated by how much nicer S&P is on the K2 with the filters crunched down. Every 200 hz another workable station popped up. I found that I needed to tune slowly just to keep from missing stations in the crowd. I still was able to find a hole now and then, and when I did I parked and gave a shout. Some of these runs were short but productive. But the Big Dawgs will have no reason to fear the upstart pups this year. \ud83d\ude2e<\/p>\n
Most of my contacts were domestic, and a large part of that was one-pointers. Given the relatively low dipoles I have, that’s not a big surprise. I was surprised at how close-in the 80m propagation seemed to be. 80m just did […]<\/p>\n
Continue reading 2008 IARU<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/w4kaz.com\/qth\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}