K4TMC 2025 August NAQP SOLP

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

Call: K4TMC

Operator(s): K4TMC

Station: K4TMC

Class: Single Op LP (unassisted)

QTH: NC

Operating Time (hrs): 6

Summary:

 Band  QSOs  Mults

-------------------

  160:   0      0

   80:   0      0

   40:  18      9

   20:  21     13

   15:  33     19

   10:   1      1

-------------------

Total:  73     42  Total Score = 3,066

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club



Greetings from the Kildaire Farm/Monclair knoll (~450 ft ASL) on the
Ten-Ten Road ridgeline about 5 miles southwest of the geographic center
(I-40 & I-440) of Wake County, NC, locally know as the southernmost
contiguous portion of the Town of Cary.  From this lofty location, like
bats in a cave, using antennas hanging from the attic roof rafters, my
exploratory RF instruments have inflicted signals onto the ionosphere and
subsequently penetrated the skies of domestic and foreign lands. Historical
evidence will soon be located in the US Library of Congress,
ISSN:0033-4812, Vol. 109 No. 9, page 69.

And so, in this current tale, woe is unto me, what a disappointment
compared to last year’s effort (438/100/45,552) from the beach site sand
dune. The upper band conditions seemed awfully bad, lots of QSB.

As the recent IOTA effort was so physically exhausting, and the upcoming US
Islands QSO Party is the last weekend of August, potentially another
exhaustive effort, the decision was made to operate from the knoll in
southern Cary for this year's August NAQP SSB contest.

The 3 MFJ 10M Moxons were again employed to search for those fleetingly
rare 10M signals during the hot days of summer (seasonal MUF degradation of
the F2 region). And with the miraculous Elecraft K3’s KAT3 antenna tuner,
the Moxons were successfully used on 15 & 20 Meters, where prey were more
likely to be found. I even managed to generate a weak signal on 40M. A big
thank you to those who were able to hear me on 40, mostly PVRC members.

I tried some runs on 15 and 20 but they were not very successful, so this
was primarily a S&P effort. Only managed to find one contest QSO with a
fading KP4 station on 10M.

It was fun using the scoreboard to see how other PVRC members were doing. I
was proceeding OK during the day with a group of PVRCers, but fell way
behind when everyone moved to 40 & 80.

Anyhow, thanks for the QSOs and glad to add to the club effort.

73,

Henry – K4TMC

Station: Elecraft K3+ with Heil HC-4 mic element plus 3 MFJ 10M Moxons in
home 2nd floor attic at 26 ft