NAQP SSB January 2014

I set a goal for myself to break 20,000 points and I just barely did it -- 20,503 points with 203 QSOs and 101 mults, working the full 10 hours allowed albeit with a ton of short breaks for snacks, smokes, cat herding, phone calls, and the like. The band breakdown went something like this:

• 1800-1930: 15m (45 QSOs)
• 1930-2000: 10m (3 QSOs)
• 2000-2030: 15m (13 QSOs)
• 2030-2100: OFF (30 min)
• 2100-2215: 20m (38 QSOs)
• 2215-2230: 40m (5 QSOs)
• 2230-2300 15m  (11 QSOs)
• 2300-0030: 20m (34 QSOs)
• 0030-0100: 40m (11 QSOs)
• 0100-0130: 20m (8 QSOs)
• 0130-0200: OFF (30 min)
• 0200-0315: 80m: (14 QSOs)
• 0315-0400: 40m (14 QSOs)
• 0400-0500: OFF (60 min)
• 0500-0600: 80m (7 QSOs)

Electrical noise continues to plague me, and it seems like it gets worse on contest weekends, No joke, S9+20dB npose on 40m during the 0030 stint, though it lessened a bit later on. So I was only able to work the strongest signals on the band, and that was only when they could hear me!

Of the six states I need confirmed on LOTW for the Phone portion of Triple play, I only worked AK and VT. Not a trace of the others (DE, IA, MI, or RI). I search-and-pounced the whole ten hours, don't see much point of attempting a run until I get then noise and/or antenna troubles sorted out.

Your humble narrator and big-shot
contester wanabee with his latest
and greatest ham shack layout.

A major tactical error probably cost me a half dozen multipliers on 80m -- I took my last break between 0400 and 0500, and by the time I came back on for the final hour nearly all the stations I was monitoring and flagging in N1MM to work at 0500 were either QRT or lost to QSB. C6AEA who was pounding in here at 0445 was starting to fade out by 0500; he could almost hear me but gave up on me, and he was gone altogether a few minutes later. Same for a bunch of mid-west states that I could have used (for the contest Qs and mults as well as 80m WAS). Need to rethink my strategy next time -- or at least have a strategy to rethink!

The new shack layout (rig and amp off the shelf and down on the desk in front of the keyboard) made a huge difference in fatigue reduction, since my arm no longer has to be elevated for tuning. Everything is right at my fingertips now. Wish I had done this sooner.

Next up: ARRL International DX Contest (CW)  on February 15/16. Valentine's Day weekend. Great.