NAQP CW JANUARY 2024 K4QPL

[James Jordan]

Class: Single Op LP Unassisted
Operating Time (hrs): 9.75

Band QSOs Mults
160:    42      21
80:    183     44
40:     273    52
20:    133     42
15:      45     26
10:      49     18
Total: 725     203 Total Score 147,175

A fun contest but terrible planning of station, time and band use. Best
call it a learning experience.
I had planned to operate VP5M and duke it out with the other NA area
"Islanders" but had to cancel at the last minute. Meantime I was relocating
my shack at home and everything was in piles and all cables to the tower
area disconnected. Scrambled to put something together and ended up with
one radio, no rotator control on the tribander (I think aimed at EU) and no
control for the 30' SteppIR which is very good for domestic work.
Still having the great VP5 high band performance in my head, I wasted the
afternoon trying to run and/or work mults rapidly on the high bands with
embarrassing results.
Then having burned 5 hours, I had to take two half-hour breaks just as the
lower bands were coming to life. After that 40 and 80M runs took off to
avoid total disaster with some ten-minute rates in the high 200's
reminiscent of what we get at VP5.
So then I go to 160M and grab nice mults on the East Coast that my antenna
is good for. Later on I leave perfectly good rate on 40 and 80 to come back
to 160 wasting time looking for a few more mults that weren't workable.
I love NAQP and working all the contest friends but a contest average of
70/hr has me frustrated with my poor performance knowing I could have done
much better.
Thanks for letting me vent!!
73,
Jim K4QPL