Minnesota QSO Party
Call: NE9U
Operator(s): NE9U
Station: NE9U
Class: Mobile/Portable LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band CW-RTTY Qs Ph Qs
-------------------------
160:
80: 80
40: 661
20: 123
15:
10:
6:
2:
-------------------------
Total: 864 0 Mults = 51 Total Score = 87,924
Club:
Comments:
By the looks and sounds of things, 80 meters was the band to be on, at least
early and late. Unfortunately, due to Murphy, we ran the contest without a
working 80 meter antenna.
Me and Art (N9BCA) drove over to KT0R's Friday night. Before we left we did a
last minute check on the antennas(working fine!) and also were able to get the
radio interface to work (added the 2 stop bits suggested by K0RC). On the way
over we stopped and had a great fish fry with N9ISN near Eau Claire.
Saturday morning, we fired up the frozen radio and computer and the radio
interface was no longer working. Well, it was 15 minutes before kick-off so I
decided not to bother with it. (I messed up the log numerous times but usually
caught it soon enough to add a note and fix later). I took a quick listen to
the bands and 80 sounded good so decided to start there. But as soon as we
started down the highway, the SWR shot off the charts.resonant freq was
somewhere down around 3450. Well, since it was 20 below or so, I decided to
worry about it later and started off on 40. Every once in a while during the
day I'd give it a check, but still no good. I braved the cold/wind a few times
and tried adjusting things, but nothing brought it to life.
My rates on 20/40 were down slightly from last year.20 seemed especially bad.
My Monday morning thinking on that is the mobiles were spending more time on
40/80 so the usual following was looking for them on those bands instead of on
20. Or maybe it was just condx???
Late in the contest, I knew my mult totals were pathetic, so I had to try
slugging it out on 80 with my dummy load. I'm not sure what was radiating out
of the antenna, but it wasn't much. I heard several fairly loud Minnesota
multipliers but got CQ'd in the face. Amazingly I was able to get some answers
to my CQ's, but hardly ever could get a CQ'er to hear me. I worked seventy-five
80 meter contacts in the last 3 hours, but primarily out of state guys I had
already worked. I logged N0IM in Aitkin County for my last Q and a new mult.
After the contest, we drove over to my cabin where it was minus 22 on the
outside and a balmy +4 on the inside. We fired up the baseboard heaters and
went out for dinner where we had to explain to everyone that we weren't out
tracking Elk, Bears, or Wolves.
I think we have the 80 meter problem figured out and hopefully it doesn't
repeat itself in the WQP!!!!!
Anyway, other than the frustrations, it was a fun time as usual!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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