[ILQSO] Contest reflections de NE0P

[John Geiger]

Well another IL Qso party is in the books, and once
again I had a blast.  Lots of activity, good
conditions, and outstanding efforts from the mobiles.
I picked up an Icom 756 (non PRO model) the sunday
before the contest, and it performed very well.  I can
only assume that the 756PRO must be a great radio as
it adds a couple of things missing on this rig plus
the digital filters.

The contest weekend got off to an interesting start as
I had a little accident saturday morning while working
on a friend's tower. It required 10 stitches in my
left thumb, but as that is not the sending hand, it
wasn't that big of a deal.  Had it been on the right
hand, it could have been a crisis of epic porportions.
 

Stations on 20 were loud.  Pete, NN9K was putting in
an excellent signal from the mobile, and KF9TL, WW9CW,
and K9WA sounded like they had great portable setups.
Things seemed a little slow at the beginning of the
contest, and I was wondering where all of the mobiles
were.  Well, they finally showed up, handing out the
much needed counties.  I figured that 40 must had been
good early, as 20 meters really took a dip in activity
starting in the mid afternoon, but being further west,
40 was really marginal for awhile, and that was the
slowest part of the contest.  

>From the GRVARS club I worked NN9K, WW9CW, K9WA (even
on phone), KF9TL, N9BIL, KG9LZ, KG9IE, K9IUA (good
signal for QRP), N9MZP, and K9AKS.  Never heard Bob,
K2DRH on, and did hear Jim, W9UD working Pete once. 
Also worked K9CHZ, not sure if he is a member of the
club or not.

I agree with other posts that there were incredible
pileups on some of the mobiles.  Never heard anything
like that before during a QSO party.  I did see some
of them spotted on DX Summit, which I am sure helped
some of the activity.  Also, 80 did have good
activity.  Sure nice to see people up there, and I did
even make 1 QSO on 80ssb.  Tried 15 with K9PG and
could just hear him at the noise level.  Nothing
happening on that band.  Once 40 took off I did go
back to 20 occassionally to find some other mobiles
who were still loud.

I will have my final score shortly, but I did work 80
counties, and had 6 8 QSO counties.  I also had 4 more
7 QSO counties.  If only I had done another QSY with a
couple of stations.  Moving stations (especially the
multi county portables) from CW to SSB really did help
with the points and the bonus multipliers

Looking forward to seeing everyone again next year,
and in some of the other contests this year! Don't
forget the OK QSO party next march.

73s John NE0P



		
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