NAQP SSB 2015 results

Ken - NM9P

After dealing with family business, I sat down to begin the contest three hours late and discovered that a Win10 update required a de-install/re-install of SSDR and FlexVSP AGAIN.  48 minutes later, I made my first contact at 21:48Z  almost 4 hours late.

By that time, the only band that was useful on my new T-11 LP antenna was 20 meters.  But it performed well.  The band, on the other hand, didn't.  It was only open to the Pacific Northwest for the most part.  I tried turning it to other directions and was only greeted by several extreme noise sources - power lines, electric fences, bad street light ballasts, that had the noise floor up to about -108 instead of the -124 to -128 that I had gotten used to for the past three weeks since the antenna went up.  It seems that the "anti-contest gods" or at least some drier weather had conspired against me.

I was able to successfully spend a couple hours or more "running" a frequency on 20 SSB, something I had never tried before with my wires and verticals before!  What fun!  ANd the 6500 performed very well.  And when I turned to S&P on 20 for multiplier hunting and again on 40 & 75, the panafall and filters did their job admirably. 

Again, I received many unsolicited comments on my audio, this time using my DX/Contesting profile which is a bit more narrow than my Rag-chew profile, rolled off at 165 Hz and 2800Hz, with boosts at the high end, and PROC set to DX+

This was my first contest with the new antenna, but not much of a test, because I needed to change to 40/75/160 for most of the contest, using the dipole and vertical due to band conditions.  It was helpful to have both antennas on 40 meters, since there were big differences between the two, depending upon distance and direction.

My score wasn't spectacular, but could have been a lot more had I been able to operate the whole time.  20 was open mostly when I wasn't able to operate.  (excuses, excuses!)

But not bad for 100 watts, single op, assisted (running N1MM+),  TB & Wires



How did some of the "Big Guns" on the board do?
Post your scores.

Ken - NM9P

Steve W6SDM

Nice job on the contest, Ken.  I didn't play this time.  Too much stuff going on.  It's always better to give up a contest or two now and then to appease the warden so that I am left unmolested when the really big DX contests come along in the winter.

Everyone should do themselves a favor and turn off Windows 10 automatic updates.  It will default to doing them if you choose the "express install".  I have come in  a few times and found the system had rebooted overnight.  Not such a big deal on the Flex computer but on my APRS I-Gate/Digipeater system I had to re-start all the software and it was down for a while.

I don't have a problem with the updates - they're probably necessary.  I just like knowing how far back I need to restore a system if something really does **** up.

James T. Whitehead

Ken your storys/details are great - a pleasure to read and learn along the way - keep them coming - I missed the ending of the tower story - I an glad you got it up. I am working on a tower protect too. In South Florida permits are required.

Rob Fissel

Nice work, Ken. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the use of any assistance automatically puts you into the multiop catagory. 

Definitely an advanced being in the middle of the country for this contest. 40 was the workhorse, but us small gun east coast guys had a lot of trouble making it out west and doubling down on mults. I ran for about 10 hours, and ended up with 28 on 3.5, 127 on 7, and 64 on 14, for a total of 219 QSO's with a claimed score of 14235. I'll take it considering my less than optimal setup and band conditions!

BTW your new beam pictures look great!

Mike NN9DD

Ken, It was nice working you in the contest. Here in GA 20 was awful only providing a handful of contacts. I worked very little until 22:00 and the had some good runs on 40 and 80. They are the two bands that provided most of the 425 Q's. I ended up with 36,000 point rather disappointing but we all had to deal with the conditions On to next contest. Until then 73 Mike N9DFD

Walt - KZ1F

Wow Ken, and people tell me I am long winded. ;-)

So we can take this to mean you are seriously enjoying the 20-10 (or 6) LP?
I just got mine working again today. It had been retracted as the rotor stopped rotating, it's fixed now and while it was down I put up a sloper for 160, 80, 40 and 30. With any luck the tower won't get retracted ever. I will have the same folks come down when it's time to change the cables.

I digress, sorry. I am happy you are enjoying your new station. (Going from a wire to an LP makes it a new station :-)

Walt

Ken - NM9P

Yeah, the category rule is kind of a **** rule. But those are the breaks. Me and my moderate antennas, one operator, and 100 wats gets lumped together with the high power big gun multi-ops , simply because the spotting network was turned on. Some contests have a single op, low power, assisted category. I asked one contest manager why the rule was changed on their contest, and was told that too many categories thins out the competition numbers too much. It was also too expensive to publish so many lists.....(but internet publishing shouldn't be...) In any case...my plan was to use the spotting network to help me land my final states on 10 & 15 meters for 5BWAS, but those bands were completely dead!

Ken - NM9P

Ha! Walt, I make my living by talking. Dee tells me not to work so hard for my money! The T-11 covers 20-6 meters. And is performing well at 38 ft. I am hearing stuff Q-5 that I couldn't hear at all on the other antennas. At least I did until the several noise sources kicked in. I plan to move the dipole over the the tower later, and add an inverted 'L' for 160/80. Good luck on your own tower project.

Walt - KZ1F

Thanks! This is my first sloper. I haven't been on 160 since '93. Although, as I recall, it's a winter band but I saw you worked a station there in the contest. Really lousy reception it seems today. Someone told me, maybe it was Howard, that you're a Pastor? Cool, this crowd needs one of them.

Walt

Burt Fisher

I worked 4 stations with 10 watts, where do I apply for my award?

KY6LA_Howard

@Burt
Submit your results  to

http://ncjweb.com/naqplogsubmit/

You will definitely be listed in the contest results

Depending on the participation in your Area/Section/Category/Power/etc you just might win an award for something... 

One never knows...

Heck if you actually win a category.. you just might end up becoming a serious contestor

Ken - NM9P

That is probably better than some of the QRP entries in some states due to the rotten band conditions. Last week I had long contact with a station on the South Island of New Zealand. He suggested I drop power to 5 Watts and I was still strong enough that I dropped it to one watt and was still 55 on his end! The band was in good shape that night.

Ken - NM9P

That is probably better than some of the QRP entries in some states due to the rotten band conditions.

Last week I had long contact with a station on the South Island of New Zealand. He suggested I drop power to 5 Watts and I was still strong enough that I dropped it to one watt and was still 55 on his end! The band was in good shape that night.

Ken - NM9P

Oops... My iPad linked this comment to your post, when it was supposed to link to Burt's.......

Ken - NM9P

Howard, were you active on NAQP? I didn't hear you or Stu, unless you were using different calls.

Rob Fissel

I hear you, Ken. BTW, I think another rule for the contest was 100W max. Anyone running QRO would have to submit as a check log. 

Ken - NM9P

Actually, that isn't such a bad rule. Putting on the same level would add to the competition and reduce QRM. In theory.

Rob Fissel

I agree. It's nice for a change to try and have everyone on the same power level playing field!

KY6LA_Howard

Not really what I would call active.. I was on Grandkid Duty up in Encino..

So when I finally got the kid to sleep (Grandma quits by 9PM) I made a few dozen Q's via Stu's K6TU iPad Remote App which I would not count as really participating in the contest

Contests are a great way to test things since there a lots of people on the air so people always come back to you no matter how terrible your signal is and then lie about your signal report...with a 5/9  (@Burt - yes they all lie about the signal reports)

I ran iPad Remote using my Bluetooth Headset to Stu's App then via Parallels Access Desktop Emulation App... then tried a wired headset for both versions.. then tried to iPad mike itself for both versions.....Nothing really conclusive yet except that somehow my cheap Bluetooth headset got the fastest responses.. so it must have been the clearest...or more likely had the EQ settings right so that it had the most oomph 

KY6LA_Howard

Dumb idea...

I like to compete with the BIg Boys....

Contesting is not only skill but also a measure of technical excellence.. putting limits only discourages innovation...

I may not be the best physically coordinated contestor in the world but I am pretty good on the tech side which I use to my advantage to enable me to compete in the big leagues...  Power is just one of many tools...

Next you would be banning large antenna arrays or some other **** restriction..

Anyways its much more fun (frustrating) in the major leagues