K4TMC CA QSO Party - SOAB LP SSB

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

Call: K4TMC
Operator(s): K4TMC
Station: K4TMC

Class: SO LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 7

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs
--------------------
  160:   0       0
   80:   0       0
   40:   0       0
   20:   0       8
   15:   0      36
   10:   0      68
--------------------
Total:   0     112  Mults = 45  Total Score = 10,080

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Due to XYL issues (serious fall late August with broken elbow and fractured
spine/hip) I am currently unable to make it to the beach portable site.  As
a result, I am trying to do some operating from home. The challenge is the
HOA and the small lot, plus the limited space in the second floor attic.
Just this week I installed a Force 12 Sigma 5 vertical dipole adjacent to
the existing MFJ 1890 10M Moxon. It was going to be a tight squeeze to get
the Sigma 5 vertically oriented, so remembering all the discussions of
verticals versus horizontal dipoles, I hung the Sigma 5 as a hatted
horizontal dipole. So, with the 10M Moxon and Sigma 5 oriented to the West
Coast I accepted the challenge of entering the Calif QSO Party.

This was a single-op low power SSB unassisted effort using the BIC S&P
method.

At the 1600 start on 20M, I was only hearing a few weak CA stations calling
CQ and they could not hear me. OK, don’t get discouraged…try 15M…same
scenario. On to 10M…success at 1610!  Finished the first hour with 15 CA
contacts. Not a great rate, even for S&P.  36 QSOs in 2.5 hours...arg!
Tried 15M several times making a few contacts, but the band did not seem to
open until 2000. 20M never seemed to open to CA, only squeezed out 4 CA
QSOs by 0230. Interesting that 10 was still open to CA at 0220, hearing
several stations that I have worked previously in the afternoon. Hopefully
that is a good omen for the upcoming contest season on 10M.

Sunday was much like Saturday, but not as many new stations to work. I did
manage to work a number of earlier stations on 1 and 2 other bands to
increase my QSO points. 10M seems to close earlier than Saturday. 15M was
better than Saturday.

Worked a number of stations on county lines for double points and even one
station at the intersection of 3 counties in N. CA. Still missed some
counties, sadly because I did not hear them due to my poor S&P timing,
either they were too weak, or they chose not to use SSB.

The only other PVRCer I heard working the contest was N1LN. He was out
front at the beginning and the last time I heard him Sunday afternoon he
had over 500 QSOs. Congratulations to Bruce!

There were a lot of POTA/SOTA stations on 20 and some on 10...maybe there
is an opportunity for a POTA/SOTA Contest sometime...

Antenna-wise I found that the 10M Moxon worked better on 15M than the Sigma
5 dipole. The K3 tuner with 50 ft of RG8X was able to keep everything
happy. On 20, apparently the Sigma 5 dipole was just too low for any decent
takeoff angles to the West Coast, only worked 8 CA stations.

Wow…there are 4 state QSO parties next weekend!

73,

Henry - K4TMC