[PVRCNC] K4QPL SS CW SOAHP

[Jim K4QPL]

CallSign Used : K4QPL
      Operator(s) : K4QPL

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP-ASSISTED
             Band : ALL
            Power : HIGH
             Mode : CW
 Default Exchange : U 57 NC
            ARRL Section : NC
        Club/Team : Potomac Valley Radio Club
         Software : N1MM Logger V9.10.3

        Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
         3.5     485     970   19
           7     202     404   31
          14     268     536   28
          21      15      30    1
       Total     970    1940   79

            Score : 153,260
              Rigs : Orion II, SB-221; Kenwood TS-850, SB-1000

         Antennas : TH7 @ 75'; Various dipoles and inverted vee's in trees 60-80'. 600' West and 350' North rx beverages.

          Soapbox : Great to work so many PVRC'ers. 80M again was the money band at about 50% of Q's. Like a lot of people I also missed NL for a sweep. Moving from SOLP to SOAHP turned out to be a major project all in the name of more points for the club. Spent a lot of time getting the station put back together after not seriously operated a contest at home since this time last year. Thanks to K2AV for loan of the SB-221 to make both radios high power. Also first time using packet in SO situation although used it multi at NY4A. Had some connectivity issues at last minute so didn't get the skimmer stuff downloaded and installed but found WR3L was rock solid. Overall, the equipment worked perfectly including homebrew switching for cw and audio. No significant interference between radios using nothing more than an ICE 419 on the Kenwood. Fortunately, nothing but a megawatt or two on the same band would likely faze an Orion II.
    What I didn't do was spend enough time preparing the operator despite Howie's pleas for everyone to practice. One session was a great help, but not enough to clear the cobwebs, rust and lack of memory. I failed to print out a cheat sheet for N1MM and then couldn't remember simple commands like "Return to CQ frequency" and "adjust repeat delay on automatic CQ".  Jeez, I was often not even picking out calls from a 2X "pileup".  And SO2R was almost non-existent run/mult. I did use the W4KAZ idea of S&P with two radios which works well in SS with the long exchanges although clicking back and forth between spots on the same band also improved the S&P rate.  
    No excuses. Bottom line is a 970/79 score at a 1100+/80 station. Without the amps and packet it would probably have been around 750/76 which is worse than I did ten years ago. Need to get into NAQP, WAE, etc. in addition to the big ones in multi. Gotta' get sharp again or as they say in the military, "Shape up or ship out!" 
 
73,
Jim, K4QPL