AA8IA

Amateur Radio

Posts Tagged 2010

TnQP 2010 – Summary

Sep 6

Posted by Mike in Contesting, QSO Parties | No Comments

I had a very busy Sunday, spending most of my time with family doing holiday things. I was able to get on the air for about 1.5 hours and operate the TnQP. I operated 40m only, on both CW and SSB. I mainly wanted to get on the air and give out a few Qs — the TN guys are very active in our OhQP and I wanted to reciprocate to the extent that I could.

I only made 41 Qs, but 21 of those were with 10 different mobiles. There were so many mobiles out and about. It was great. The downside was that there was always a pileup for the mobiles [I think everyone was chasing mobiles]. I didn’t seem to have a problem getting through to the mobiles, but I had much difficulty copying their exchange after I would throw out my call because 10 other stations would be repeating their callsigns trying to make the Q. Also, the TN mobiles often delayed giving their calls ovver the course of many Qs and so I’d have to wait around to get their call just to know who I was working.

Weather was great. 40m to TN was awesome. There were more Qs to be made, but I just didn’t have the time. When I first got on the air I checked 10/15/20. On 15 I heard KH6MB CQing and he was S9+, so I had to snag him. Heard a few other 15m DX stations. If I wasn’t interested in making a few Qs in the TnQP I would have stayed on 15m and worked a few other stations.

Anyway, nothing heard on 10/15/20m for the TnQP when I listened. I didn’t bother to check 80m because I was having so much fun on 40m.

I sure wish I could have operated the TnQP from beginning to end. I think I could have done pretty well. Thanks to all of the TnQP participants on the air, especially the bevy of mobiles that had ascended upon TN counties during the contest. It was really fun to chase them.

I can’t remember if I used my DX-EE or the 80m V for this one. I just tuned up whatever antenna was already chosen.

My Results


Tennessee QSO Party

Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: SO Fixed LP
QTH: Toronto OH
Operating Time (hrs): 1.5

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs Mults
-----------------------------------
40: 35 6 29
-----------------------------------
Total: 35 6 0 29 Total Score = 3,393

Also get bonus points for contacting the TCG station.

Club: Mad River Radio Club

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CoQP 2010 – Summary

Sep 6

Posted by Mike in Contesting, QSO Parties | No Comments

I’d have to say the CoQP was the most fun of all of the QSO parties I’ve worked thus far. Yep, even more fun than the OhQP for me. I worked hard to get the limited number of Qs that i got [72 total], but it was very relaxing to me. 20/40m were awesome. Weather was great. There were very low noise levels. I rarely had to call a second time to get a CO station. Their mobile ops are just great, able to handle fast/slow CW but predominantly sending at a much slower rate than ops in many other contests send. I think this is great because it is more appealing to casual participants, especially those who aren’t used to copying at such high speeds. Whether the CO ops knew it or not, I think they were presenting themselves in a way that made even the most green of participants want to give them a call. Thumbs up to them.

I had a blast working the mobiles. All of the CO mobiles were solid copy and had surprisingly strong sigs on both 20/40 for the duration of the contest. It was really a great way to spend a lazy Saturday before the holiday weekend kicked into gear.

Thanks to all of the CO participants… and especially the CO mobiles that made it so fun to chase them from county to county. W0UA/M and W0ETT/M were everpresent and easy to work. I also liked that the mobiles appeared to often QSY up or down the band after changing county, which made it more challenging since you couldn’t count on them being at one particular frequency through multiple counties.

Another thing I noticed is that my low 80m doublet was the best antenna for 20/40, beating out my DX-EE every time I checked. I was really glad I had the 80m V up.

I had never intended to operate 8 hours, but it was so fun that I got sucked in!

My Results


Colorado QSO Party

Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: SOMixed LP
QTH: Toronto OH
Operating Time (hrs): 8.2

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
80: 10 0 0
40: 26 9 0
20: 36 17 0
----------------------------
Total: 72 26 0 CW Mults = 32 Ph Mults = 16 Dig Mults = 0 Total Score = 16,320

Club: Mad River Radio Club

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NAQP SSB 2010 – the summary

Aug 22

Posted by Mike in Contesting, QSO Parties | No Comments

At about T-2.5 hours til the end of the contest I got back on the air. 80m was all QRN. Very unpleasant. Of course, without an actual efficient antenna on 80m I just wasn’t being heard over the QRN. Every contact was a struggle. Between 11:30 PM and 12:05 AM I managed 4 Qs on 20m and 7 Qs on 80m. On 40m there were only two stations to be found that I hadn’t contacted previously.

At 12:06 AM I shut it down, with nearly two hours of contest left. I simply felt that I exhausted any possibility of useful contacts. I don’t know where the ops were – Was I just not hearing them? Or did everyone give up early?

My Results


North American QSO Party, SSB - August

Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Toronto, OH
Operating Time (hrs): 4.2

Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 7 5
40: 37 23
20: 44 13
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 88 41 Total Score = 3,608

Club: Mad River Radio Club

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ARRL Field Day 2010

Jun 28

Posted by Mike in Contesting | No Comments

FD this year was great. Of course, I operated 1D from home. Ideally I would have been at some FD operation, but it wasn’t in the cards.

6m had some activity, but it didn’t appear to be nearly as “open” to Ohio as it was during the June VHF contest. Or, maybe less people were prepared/planning to operate on 6m.

10m was alright, but not spectacular. In the past month I have seen much better openings on 10m.

15m was just awesome from my perspective. I made a lot of contacts on 15m/20m CW and more SSB contacts on 15m than I have made at any other time since I obtained my ticket in 1991. 15m is my fav band, when it’s open.

I didn’t even attempt to make a digital contact. Dummy me. Although, there were so many CW stations that I wouldn’t have wanted to give up the time on CW to play on the digital modes.

My summary is below…

ARRL Field Day

Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA

Class: 1D LP
QTH: Toronto Ohio
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
—————————-
80: 22 2
40: 64
20: 97 8
15: 73 45
10: 26 18
—————————-
Total: 282 73 0 Total Score = 1,274

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

More fun than I’ve had in a long time. I’m beat…no stamina whatsoever.
Great conditions from my perspective. Thanks to all the stations that worked
me!

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Alabama QSO Party 2010 – my performance

Jun 6

Posted by Mike in Contesting, QSO Parties | No Comments

Well, lack of performance. Propogation Saturday was lousy. QRN was horrendous. There were thunderstorms all weekend. I was less than motivated, but I tried.

I worked the ALQP three hours off and on — 20 CW contacts on 40m and 1 CW contact on 80m. I figured I’d do what i could just to give somebody else a point, and of course i submitted my log. There was quite a bit of mobile activity, and many people worked the mobiles on 4+ bands.

Again, purely an S&P venture. One day I need to suck it up and actually CQ for a contest rather than simply search & pounce.

Thanks to the ALQP organizers and participants. I had fun. Hopefully i’ll make a better showing next year.

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Manchester Mineira All Americas Contest

May 16

Posted by Mike in Contesting | No Comments

I was bored, a lot of people were in Dayton, and this weekend was a good weekend to play in a contest.

The MMAA is a CW-only contest on 80m / 40m / 20m / 15m /10m. It is a 32-hour contest, of which I worked 5 hours off and on. Participants are those living in South America and North America. I worked a few stations on 15m, most on 20m, and 2 on 40m.

It was fun and relaxing. I worked 18 stations, two of them on two different bands. Score was somehere around 370. Yeah I know, pretty damned weak. A real contester would do 300K+ in this contest. So I guess I’m about 1/100th of what a real contester is.

Next year I should make many more contacts since I’ll have a better antenna system. And, supposedly the MMAA will turn into a 5-continent contest starting next year.

It was nice to brush up on my CW. I’ll do more CW contests since it’ll always be my favorite mode. No matter how you slice it, it all comes down to Morse Code. If you haven’t learned CW, you’re losing out. No doubt about it.

Thanks to the CWJF Group for putting on this nice contest. It was a pleasure working many new SA stations.

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