[NLRS] AC0RA/R 144 sprint recap

[Wyatt Dirks]

I ended up with 88 qsos and 53 mults for a score of 4664 which is quite a
bit better then last year. Of the 88 qsos 22 of them were Ft8 and of those
I'd guess all but 5 or so could have just as easily been made on ssb.  Also
worked 44 unique calls.

I was running a 12 element lfa at about 20ft with kw plus out.  If I wasn't
so windy with my new mast I can get the antenna up to 35ish ft with guying
but even at 20ft it seemed to perform very well.

Ft8 did seem to be very popular last night but using it effectively was a
little bit of a struggle for me.  I was setup about an hour before the
start for us and was easily coping several stations in Ohio and eastern
Michigan but later when the sprint started for us never did hear them
again.  It's note worthy cause I almost never work over that far on a flat
band.  The other thing to note was the some signals were hard to copy due
to not spreading out.  With multipath from 3 or 4 strong stations at times
hearing the further stations was difficult.

As for the the pc in the rover I have always had a laptop for logging so
running digi modes is not a problem.  I have no desire to go home after a
contest and log 300 to 900 qsos from paper to a logging program so logging
on pc for me is the only way.  Plus I like to be able to track my score as
I'm going along and watch where my dead zones are for mults and point
accordingly.

Another thing to note is using digi in future contests such as the June it
may be possible to run 6m ssb and 2m Ft8 or maybe 2m ssb and 6m Msk144 at
the same time to have Rf on 2 bands at once.  There are lots of ways to
improve one's score in contest but that's kind of where I am right now.

Still debating on going out for the 222 and or 432 sprints myself. Who all
is planning to be on? I am planning on the 6m sprint in may.

73 Wyatt
Ac0ra