[PVRCNC] NAQP SSB W4KAZ Single Op LP-aka "ANDY"

[Keith Zeringue]

                     North American QSO Party, SSB

Call: W4KAZ
Operator(s): W4KAZ
Station: W4KAZ

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 8.25

Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   160:   37    22
    80:  253    41
    40:  121    34
    20:   31    17
    15:   12     8
    10:    1     1
-------------------
Total:  455   123  Total Score = 55,965

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Team: None


This NAQP was a lot of fun.  I enjoy working a lot of 80 meters because 
I get to work a lot of PVRC folks I have not yet met in person.  Thanks 
to everybody that dropped into my log this time around, and if you hit 
me at a particularly busy time, my stumbles were mostly because I kept 
fat fingering the keyboard.  I have just not needed to go that fast 
before.  Woohoo!

There is some real progress here:
2004 Jan SSB - 275 Q's
2005 Jan SSB - 356 Q's
2006 Jan SSB - 344 Q's
2007 Jan SSB - 455 Q's

but I don't think you guys at the top need to worry about being 
unseated.  Not soon anyway.

Maybe with another 20 years practice I'll be able to do similar damage 
on CW too.  That's coming a lot slower.  The 20 year lapse in activity 
between 1980 and 2000 sure didn't help.

Thanks for the Q's!
73,
kaz


Comments:

What follows are the gratuitous and extraneous ravings of an NAQP and 
contesting novitiate:

This NAQP turned out to be another 80 meter contest for me, although it 
didn't start out that way.  I wasn't making any headway on 20 meters, so 
I ditched the high bands for a try at a run on 40 meters.  That worked 
well as long as it lasted, but I needed to ditch my run in favor of a 
couple of household errands and a turn at burning various meats over an 
open flame, accompanied by a small glass of fermented hops-laden adult 
beverage.  (Sam Adams Black Lager- very good stuff.)

After a suitable period of discontinuity, I rejoined the fracas 
fortified and with distended belly.  Sacrificing further 40 meter mults, 
I set up shop early on 80 meters, and enjoyed an unprecedented(for 
W4KAZ) string of QSO's over the next 2.5 hours.  The ten minute rate 
meter got as high as 175/hour.  After looking at my log, I had one sixty 
minute period that was at a 98/hr rate.  Almost got to the 100.Q/hr 
goal, but not quite.

Over the 8+ hours I operated the contest, it averaged out to 55 Qs/hr. 
Huh?  Gotta be a mistake!

Okay, that's not too notable to most serious contest folks, but its 
pretty good for this operator at this station-of-the-wet-noodle-antenna. 
  I'm not really sure why 80 meters has been playing so well in the 
domestic contests, but I'm happy with the result.

Moving to 80 so early boosted the total, but since my 160 meter antenna 
is relatively poor, the last couple of hours were spent begging for 
QSO's on all three low bands and soliciting band changes for mults from 
run stations on 40 and 80.  The band change strategy gathered in a 
worthwhile few extra mults, but the Q totals were low in the last two hours.

Woo hooo!  NAQP will likely remain one of my favorite contest formats 
for a long time.  It is just plain fun.

73
W4KAZ, Keith  a.k.a. "Andy"