[PVRCNC] AA4NC / W4MR / K4HA SS CW results

[Roberts, Will]

As previously threatened, I operated in Single Operator / Multi station
mode. I promised I'd make some club points for "the gipper" - K4QPL who
did a good job rallying the troops here...

My scores:

AA4NC: 208 x 62 = 25,792  (Class A)

W4MR: 305 x 67 = 40, 870  (Class A)

K4HA: 275 x 73 = 40,150  (Class U)


Station 1 (AA4NC @ AA4NC): My third contest in 3 years if you count
Field Day this year and SS CW last year. I operated from my home station
for the first time in over 3 years (post divorce). Since no maintenance
has been done in that period, it was quite interesting seeing what
worked and what didn't. My squawk list is long, but not too terrible to
fix. It appears that lightning probably did in a couple stack match
boxes, 2 rotors, a CW keyer,  and I somehow lost 1/4 of a 20m antenna
element (director). Since it was dark when I arrived, I also didn't know
until morning that the 80m inverted vee had fallen and all of my 80m
QSOs were with the antenna tangled up around a lower 20m antenna. The
SWR was great on this mess in the CW band, so I never knew! I guess
that's an advantage of using insulated wire - it didn't short out to the
20m antenna. No 220V available, so low power was all I could muster.
I used N1MM Logger basically for the first time, so there were some
"learning curve" issues that secured my status as a big lid during the
first 50 QSOs. The lack of a CW keyer made me really sound dumb when
N1MM wanted to send something quite different from what I had in mind,
or at other times nothing at all!


Station 2 (AA4NC @ W4MR- club call): Operating "Gilligan's Island" style
- It's primitive as can be! I'm on from my other house whose antenna
farm consists solely of a 40m attic dipole. No broken equipment at all
here, although some people would consider my use of an ancient Kenwood
TS120 as worse than broken! Being fresh meat helps my peanut whistle to
be heard. I even made some QSOs on 80, 20, and 15 using a tuner. N1MM
Logger on my laptop has gotten quite a bit smarter by now as well :>)


Station 3 (AA4NC @ K4HA): Now we're talking a real radio station. Bob
has a FB setup and actually had the courage (or lack of better judgment)
to let me use his new Orion! Now this is fun: Fresh meat on Sunday
afternoon + packet + high power = Rate like shooting fish in a barrel!
Point and click on packet spots in N1MM is just downright wrong it's so
easy. The Orion just has too much stuff in it for me. I think if I owned
one, I'd spend the whole contest playing with the knobs and optimizing
menus rather than operating. Though it hears well, I found that I had to
constantly ride the RX gain. If too high it would distort with more than
1 or 2 strong stations calling. If too low, I had trouble hearing weak
guys. It's probably just me - I'm used to using the more mundane radios
with lots less dynamic range. My Kenwood TS120 probably has about 20dB
DR!
I could have made more Qs, but fatigue and a head cold were starting to
get to me. Tks to Bob for having me over...


It was good to hear all the PVRCers on. There sure were a lot of W6 U
classers on as well. It'll be interesting to see how things end up. I
hope to be in my new shack in my old house before too long so I can get
reacquainted with ham radio and contesting.

73,

Will AA4NC / W4MR