This contest runs 48 hours and is one of My favorites. Being a low power ,little gun station, all contests which give Me points for any contact is a good thing. I was hoping to beat my score from last year, but just couldn't devote enough time. Conditions were very good and I was very pleased to have some good DX contacts from 40m thru 10m. Never tried 80m- way past My bedtime!
Friday I operated for several hours just to test the station and get My feet wet. Ended the night with My goal of 50 or more QSO's in the log and although 40m was in great shape, it was time to pull the plug.
Saturday I was up early and out the door to meet some "Ham radio" friends for breakfast and head over to a local swapfest.I didn't buy any gear but had a great time chatting. Then it was time to head home and take care of some chores and fit time in for contesting. The bands again were in good shape and doing My usual S & P operation I started on 10m and thru the day worked My way down to finishing again on 40m. Being a low power,small station, I use several tricks to beat pile ups. The first is--avoid the pile ups. Thats usually good for Sunday contacts as desperation sets in and the big guns start noticing even the small stateside guys!
My setup is a Yaesu FT-950 and a butternut Ground mounted vertical for 40m thru 15m and a 10m Yagi at 20'. Not a spectacular setup but it performs well. I had already tested My logging program and homemade interface, but during the contest decided to massage the "macros" in N1MM a bit. I added "Mycall" once more to the call string and changed the "BTU" exchange inserting "MYcall" instead. Last Year I was penalized for broke QSO's and it really affected My score so I made these simple changes in hopes of having a better correct call completion percentage. It did on occasion seem to increase My exchange alot but felt it also made a difference on marginal contacts. Some Hams send such a shortened string I'm amazed its ever completed. A few contacts I felt didn't need the full exchange I did shorten by the "esc" command. I've also been reading about the new "2tone" program having better Rx characteristics so I might have to download it and give it a try. MMTTY works very well but never hurts to increase the arsenal!
I fell short of beating My score from last year but added four new DXCC's and two uploaded their logs to give Me 101 DXCC's confirmed!! Certificate on the way!
QSOs: 228
Score : 80,472
about 50 less contacts but still an OK score for Me
73---Tim
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