[Elecraft] EQP Results

[John]

Station: K7UP

               Q's    S/P/C
40M =      16       10
20M =      52       27
15M =       7        6
total =      113     43

102 S/N qso's, 11 non S/N qso's, for a total of 113 qso's.

(532 qso points) X (43 S/P/C) X (7) = 160,132 points total.

8 hours ops time.


Station:  K2 #2012, K2 #2223, K1 #637. Tri-bander @ 35', two 40M dipoles @35'.

Conditions were poor on all bands. QRN from the east and west added to 
dismal band conditions. Another downer was a constant 40 to 50 mph wind 
throughout the contest period. The high winds coupled with extreme dry 
conditions, dew points in negative numbers, blowing dust, created more 
random static noise. Ah, spring in NM. The wind did confirm what I 
suspected, a intermittent trap. Now to find which one. Will be glad when I 
get some mono-banders back up.

The radios played well, except I had another headphone jack failure in a 
K2. I'd just replaced it about a month ago. Has anyone found a more robust 
replacement for the standard jack. The first two failures of the jack 
wouldn't allow audio to the speaker with the plug removed. The failure 
yesterday was when plugging in the headphones the speaker wouldn't mute.

It's possible 15M was open more than most expected. The few QSO's I had on 
15M, the stations were very loud. I tried moving some stations to 15M, but 
not many takers.

The most fun was contacting the same station several times with different 
rigs. I got a lot of (B4, DUPE, etc.) but it worked out OK. Some probably 
thought I was a LID, probably rightfully so, after all was I was accepted 
into SOC. And, speaking of SOC, I did manage one SOC QSO, made sure it was 
with the big guy, (#001) so I wouldn't be banished for life, and have to go 
down another tier. There isn't a TOC, is there?

It was fun. Looking forward to next years event. Thanks to all for digging 
me out of the mud.

John
K7UP