I was on vacation this past week at my in-laws in North Carolina. I brought my laptop, my power supply, LDG KT-100 antenna tuner, my Kenwood TS-2000 and a G5RV Jr on loan from a friend and my 20m dipole. I strung the G5RV Jr up between 2 far enough apart to fit the antenna so it was flat, though the end of the ladder line was only up about 10-15 ft off the ground. But it worked.

I didn’t operate too much during the week though I made a few contacts including one to 4L4WW in the country of Georgia. I operated as K2DSL/4 when I was on from NC.

Friday night was the start of the SARTG RTTY contest. I only made 40 contacts. It seemed quiet during that first of three segments of the competition.  I didn’t operate that contest after those 40 contacts.  I had contacts with Hawaii, Alaska, Romania, Italy, Wales, Slovenia & Ukraine along with mainland US, Canada and Caribbean stations.

On Saturday, was the North America Phone (SSB) QSO Party and I operated for a bit there before having to take the antenna down and back for the ride home today (Sunday) with the alarm set for 4am (ET).  I made 105 contacts with US, Canadian, Virgin Island and Puerto Rico stations.  I operated as K2DSL/4 and it threw off a few of the folks that know me as K2DSL. I had a couple of short chats during the contest with the ops that wondered if I moved or was on vacation. Besides the /4, I was also reporting that I was in NC and not NJ. That also threw off some folks that previously worked me and I imagine their logging program popped up NJ as my state. I hope all the ops got the /4 and NC correct in the exchange as I repeated it multiple times if they didn’t say it back.

I enjoy the phone/SSB contests as it is fun to speak to folks that I often just hear the diddles for during a RTTY contest or the dits and dahs from a CW contest. And it is nice to say hello in addition to the quick contest exchange. The NA QSO Party contests are fun since everyone operates no more then 100 watts. Even with just 100w, some of the top contest stations still sound magnificent.I had one 15m contact which I went to after a strong 20m contact with a station that had another op on 15m. I don’t think I could put out a full 100w on 15m as there might have been too much RF coming back down the line and my SWR shot up during the contact. Even with reduced power he was able to get my report.

It was also the weekend for the NJ QSO Party which I missed since I was away. There was only 1 NJ op I heard yesterday when I was on, and he was giving out both NJ and NA QSO Party exchanges. I was hoping to hear a few of the local folks from my club or around where I live, but I didn’t hear them when I was on.

Here are the summaries from the 2 contests:

SARTG RTTY

        Band    QSOs     Pts  Cty   Sec
           7      19     220   10    6
          14      19     185    5   10
          21       2      15    2    2
       Total      40     420   17   18

            Score : 14,700

NA QSO Party – SSB

        Band    QSOs     Pts  Sec   NA
           7      51      51   25    0
          14      53      53   24    1
          21       1       1    1    0
       Total     105     105   50    1

            Score : 5,355

73,
K2DSL (K2DSL/4)