This contest starts at 12 noon CST on Saturday and runs until 6 PM CST on Sunday. I was hoping to be ready for the start on Saturday but I had not tried My set up before and of course I had issues right away. I thought since it had worked in September for a previous RTTY contest I wouldn't have a problem. It ended up being a bad connection in My home made interface.
I just started on 10m with several contacts when a Family obligation at Our local Church shut Me down till later in the evening. After We returned, ate supper and I took care of some chores, I was back to the contest. Ten meters was very quiet and 15m was only marginal but had enough activity to keep Me busy before dropping down to 20m. After a fairly decent S & P operation on 20m, I next went to 40m and then eventually to 80m before calling it a night.
I was up early sunday morning and managed many contacts before Church. I operated parts of the afternoon after returning and having lunch. Both days ,the bands were very poor for DX. I only managed 16 different DX entities and only 43 States and Canadian multipliers. Most activity for Me was towards the West coast which is different than most contests which seem to favor the East Coast stations. It really did seem like the California/Washington State QSO parties!
I used My Yaesu Ft-950 at 50w into either My big dipole,HF6V ground mounted vertical or My 10m monobander although 10m didn't produce much. I also am set up for AFSK using N1MM with MMTTY as the RTTY engine which works great. Great programs! My FT-950 always amazes Me on its BW capabilities and I really enjoy slicing between close "neighbors" to snag that lonely CQ'er!!!
I managed 240 Q's which was 10 less than last year for a score of 14,160. Conditions were strange but I really like these RTTY contests!
73---Tim
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