03/06/2006 | KT0R What a contest. I was hoping to make it to W0AIH for the contest but, xyl had to work so I was to be home. I started talking to a few people and decided to go for a Multi-2 effort. I just think multi-2 is more fun and you dont have to worry about the band changes so much. Once Al K0AD and Greg K0OB commented to operating I knew we could have a good effort. My problem is I tend to stay up too late on low bands and miss some of the early high band activity. Greg and Al did a great job. Thanks guys.

Friday night started out rough. I had very high noise level on low bands S9-plus and 40 just didnt seem that good. It still amazes me how a station in Europe running 150 watts can cq on 40 and not hear me, when he is S9+. I called many stations many times on 40 and others would come right back. The first night only netted 145 qs. I was on my own for the most part. Tom KC0W came over around 10:00 pm for a couple hours and tuned around a bit. I did manage to work a couple EU stations on 80. 160 was very hard to copy much of anything.

Saturday Al K0AD came over to work morning shift and did a great job on the crowed 20 meter band. Jim KE0L came over for about 2 hours of so and worked 15 meters on what he could hear. Also Neill NR0L (ex-KA0WQA) got his first taste of contesting in a multi-op environment. Neill was over for a short time. And Mike WG0M came over for a few hours to help Al while I had to take my sons to a birthday party in the late morning to early afternoon. I think they had fun. Tom KC0W returned on Saturday for a bit and operated till around 6:00pm. I again had to leave for a basketball game from 4:00-6:00. Came home and had the shack to my self for the evening. The low bands were again a struggle but managed to work more mults and even got VP5H on 160. That was neat. Glen you were weak on 160 but, 100 watts FB. I saw you spotted several times and listened and finally heard you and you came right back to me. Thanks. Was fun to hear GO MWA on every Q. I also worked KL7 and KH6 on 160 that was cool. The 2nd night we were up to 718 qs. I called a few Jas early Saturday morning, with no luck. I was surprised they were fairly strong but no qso with Ja on 40. Was very nice to have some Jas on 20 during the day. Never could really run to Japan, they seemed loud but would cq with no answers except from USA stations that said Wow what a signal. I guess that is good to know for the state side contest. Hi Now if we can just do that into Europe or Asia.

On Sunday: Greg K0OB was slated for his morning run; of course Greg was right on time as usual. He jumped right into the fire. Got a run frequency and we stayed there all day. I think we just had about 2 frequencies all day on 20 meters 14.266 and 14.220. We just kept running working the stations through the qrm. And boy was there qrm. With many, many repeats. Thanks to all that stayed with us. Once Al K0AD came over after church Greg and I did a little SR2O (single-radio-two-operators), I think it helped us work a few more and took the strain off the main operator. I really enjoy working with Al and Greg they are great operators. Greg had to leave around 1:00 so it was just Al and I for the rest of the contest. It was fun to be called by S9SS and 7Z1SJ and many others. We had a great time. Earlier before Al arrived I was on 15 and was hoping for 15 meters to pop and open to Europe, 1st they started coming in southeast then East, then direct path but, never really opened to Europe. We could not run on 15 meters, despite the ledged report of being very strong on 15 meters, either day. My 1st qso on 40 meters Sunday afternoon was at 20:48 utc, but then was hour later before could work more Europe on 40. It was a lot of work but, was worth the mults and there was not much new on 15 meters. Did finally work a few Jas on 15 meters for a mult. Again a few good signals but nothing else heard for running. My noise problem popped up again on 15 at the end of the contest so that made thing tough at times. I think I netted about 20 qs on 40 at the end and several mults. 15 meters was gone and 20 there were no new stations to work, except ZF2NT Bruce had the biggest pile-up. I dont think he had been on 20 all weekend. We heard several MWAers get in there, but we just had no luck. We just missed 1 million points. Every q or multiplier saw the score creep to the mark, but we just ran out of time. The clock went to 00:00 and that was it. So all in all we did better than last year despite the lack on 10 and 15 meters and the low mult count on low bands. We had 267 more qsos and our score was 100K points better but, 45 less mults.

Thanks to the guys for coming over and operating and I hope everyone had a good time. I know I did.

Vry 73 Dave KT0R


-- KT0R