Didn’t have any other plans for Saturday so I was able to work the NAQP SSB ham radio contest. A single op can work 10 of the 12 hours and max power of 100w – not a problem for me as that’s my max.
Bands seemed noisy most of the day. We got 5-6″ of snow overnight and throughout the morning so I don’t know if that had anything to do with it. I shoveled the driveway twice before the contest started and used the contest as an excuse to not shovel any more. I started on 15m & 10m and it was a bit slow going and a bit noisy across all the bands throughout the contest. I spent 100% of the contest working S&P and bouncing between all the bands (10m – 80m). I just didn’t feel that I’d be as productive calling CQ, even on the lower bands in the evening.
I did enjoy hearing one op give his name as IDIOT for his exchange. Around 0000z I started to hear some closer states on 20m that were much louder than normal. I recall RI, MA and MD sounding extremely loud on 20m around that time and it seemed odd not just for me but the other ops as well. I also worked the HK0NA Dxpedition. They were operating on 15m SSB split and took a shot working them after they had been on 15m for a long time. Got real lucky and came back to me on my first attempt. Better lucky then good. I also worked them on 20m RTTY Sunday morning.
I had passed my 2010 NAQP SSB score when I hit 242 Qs this year vs 347 Qs in 2010 because of I had 121 mults in the 242 Qs vs 87 mults in the 347 Qs. I ended up with a total of 287 Qs and 135 mults which is almost 1 mult for every 2 contacts which is pretty good. I didn’t log the usual tougher states (NE, WV, MS though CT and ME weren’t logged this time either). What is also odd is I didn’t log a Quebec contact on any band. Normally they are a dime a dozen.
Here’s my score summary:
Band QSOs Pts Sec DX
3.5 63 63 28 1
7 57 57 28 0
14 91 91 36 1
21 47 47 26 1
28 29 29 14 0
Total 287 287 132 3
Score : 38,745Here’s a map of the contacts made using http://levinecentral.com/adif2map (click for a larger view):
Very friendly contest and speaking with the ops, even briefly, is nice. Last night my log was uploaded LoTW, eQSL and sent into the contest.
Today I’ll get on VHF and work some of the local club members that are making contacts in that contest. If the snow doesn’t melt off the roof of the car, I won’t go mobile and work them from my home.
73,
K2DSL
Congratulations. The party was wonderful. Participated in only 10 meters, and enjoyed myself.
73
PU5AAD
Eighty meters was my best band during NAQP CW and your Q distribution almost matched mine with 20m as an exception. Also, activity appears more concentrated east of the Mississippi as well, interesting to note the RI, MD, and MA skip phenomena. Likewise, one Five Cities RadioSport enthusiast mentioned noisy conditions here on the central coast with rain moving through the area.
An event well accomplished!
73, DRR
We were pretty noisy in Idaho too, so much so that I passed on 75M and quit 40M early when all I could hear was CA stations. I did not hear a lot of the usuals, and my states-worked list had some holes in it. Never heard a single NJ or CT.
Quiting early was an investment in future contest chair time. Time spent on the couch with my Sweetie this weekend might help later when the RTTY contests start hihi.
I flipped over to listen for the HK0 a number of times but never heard them, although the pileup was a mile wide above them. Once the bands settle down a little, and they’ve gotten a few thousand guys in the log, I’ll try later this week. Wish me luck.
73, Bill N7VEA
It was good to make a contact with you on 40m!
I wanted to make a “semi-serious” effort with my little station. I did okay with 343 contacts, but learned a few lessons. This was one of my first endeavors in a contest where I wasn’t 100% S&P. I missed out on a lot of multipliers on 10 and 15 meters; better antennas would have helped, for certain. I had a really high noise level on 80m but insisted on trying to stick it out anyway, which only paid off when somebody spotted me on the DX cluster, but that little pile-up lasted only about five minutes or so. Lesson learned: if you find a frequency on 40m, don’t give it up in the early evening. I was kicking myself when I heard some of the stations that were S&P on 40m after I went back from 80. I missed a lot of mults that way, too!
Oh well. In all, I know I didn’t win, but I hit 47 states (missed AK, HI, and NV), a few Canadian providences, and had a great time.
Hope to see you in the RTTY portion!