ARRL RTTY Roundup
Call: W4PK
Operator(s): W4PK
Station: W4PK
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 22.0
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 257
40: 585
20: 351
15: 49
10: 0
------------
Total: 1242 State/Prov = 58 Countries = 63 Total Score = 150,252
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
First serious effort for this contest. I elected to not use packet this year so
I could use my SO2R setup, but I only managed to make a couple of dozen contacts
on the second radio anyway. But overall I didn't really miss the packet all
that much.
My best band was 40 where I was able to get several runs going with my best
10-minute rate being 114 and one-hour rate being 89. And this was mostly with
Europeans and the west coast as my vertically-polarized antennas (80 & 40) are
not conducive to near-in contacts. I could not get a run going on 15 and I
struggled with 80 and some with 20. I CQ'ed on 10M Sunday afternoon with the
beam pointing to South America for a half-hour with no results. But I did
manage to make 2 (two) contacts on 15M S&Ping while calling CQ on 10. Needless
to say I still am not all that comfortable using SO2R although I am getting
better at it.
I do note that quite a few stations do not leave a "space" at the end of their
call and this of course adds characters due to noise.
Also my N1MM logging program populates the EXCH block if I had already worked
the station on another band and I would end up sending my report rather than
sending my call when S&Ping. I know I should look at the EXCH field and hit
the delete key (after all, it is highlighted) before I right-click to send my
call, but I kept doing it anyway! I apologize to all for this transgression!
Also early in the test (after a half-dozen contacts) my logging program
(version 9.12.6) slowed way down to where it would take many seconds to respond
to any key. When I tried to exit to reinitialize the program, it would not let
me exit! So I reinstalled an earlier version (9.10.2) and it performed
flawlessly for the rest of the contest. I honestly do not know what I had
done, but I am sure I had clicked on something unexpected to make this happen.
It was another fun contest, and my thanks to all who took the time to call me
while I was running.
73, Sam W4PK
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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