[K6BW] 3Y0X, contests, and QRM

[David Mueller]

Good Evening,
   Bill asked me to forward this information to
everyone.

   I participated in two contests over the past two
weekends - the North American Sprint, SSB and CW.  The
SSB Sprint was 2 weekends ago, and I operated from
K6BW, finishing in the top 10 overall in a
semi-serious effort.  The QTH never fails to impress
me for how well it works with the simple antennas
available.
   Last weekend was the CW Sprint, one of my favorites
of the year. I travelled back to my friend W6NL's QTH,
located at the summit of Mt Unumhum just south of Los
Gatos, 3200ft above the surrounting terrain.  Here's
some pictures of the QTH and view he has:

http://www.n2nl.net/gallery/W6NL

   I ended up winning that contest, the first time
since the inagural running in 1977 that an operator
from California has done so.  
   This weekend is the ARRL DX CW contest, a good
opportunity to work some new countries, especially
Sunday when everyone's begging for QSOs.  DX works
USA, USA works DX only.  DX sends 599 + power output,
USA sends 599 + state.  I will probably only due some
low band DXing Saturday night in this one due to my
homework load.

   3Y0X.  I've been able to work 3Y0X on several bands
and modes since the operation began.  I have worked
them on 20CW, 20SSB, 30CW, 40CW, 40SSB, 75SSB, and
160CW.  They were loud on 160M tonight for the first
time and were an easy QSO there.  The K6BW callsign is
in their log, as well as K6BBQ who came up last night
and worked them on 20, CW and SSB.  They will probably
be easy to work Saturday AM after VEC testing.  They
aren't loud on 20M, but they hear well and that's the
easiest band to work them on.  The TH7 tribander is
pointed that direction.  Supposedly the DXpedition
will  QRT early Monday AM.

   QRM.  We are suffering QRM across 40M and there is
a buzzing noise every 40 Khz from 80M up to 20m.  This
noise is being generated by the Verizon cellular site,
confirmed this weekend by W6NL who had a similar
problem from the cellular site that leases one of his
towers.  Bill and I have spoken with the technicians
and we home to coordinate getting it fixed soon.

Good luck at the VEC session Saturday!  I'll probably
be working on my Chemistry homework!

73, Dave N2NL


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