RTTY

CQ WPX RTTY Contest - 2020

Call: NR4M
Operator(s): NR4M
Station: NR4M

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: FM18 VA
Operating Time (hrs): 3:13

Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80:
40: 58
20: 133
15: 25
10:
------------
Total: 216 Prefixes = 167 Total Score = 110,721

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Thanks for the Q's.

Don't know why I always choose 'assisted', when I always stay on one spot and CQ.
I guess it's nice to know how loud I am here and there

Call: NR4M
Operator(s): NR4M
Station: NR4M
 
Class: M/2 LP
QTH: FM18
Operating Time (hrs): 4:49
 
Summary:
  Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    80:   83    23
    40:  144    39
    20:   24     3
    15:
    10:
-------------------
Total:  251    84  Total Score = 21,084
 
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
 
Team:
 
Comments:

Ugh! Antenna issues left and right. 80 meter 4 square went to 2:1 and stayed there. 20 meter tower prop pitch froze over night Lower antenna in 40 meter stack kaput up on the tower somewhere. etc, etc, etc. Not as much fun as it could have been. Thanks for your patience and your Q's.

Just could not get enthused about this contest. My 20 meter antennas were frozen (literally) toward EU and working the US off the back of an antenna is not much fun. And too much other stuff going on to be in a contest I really wasn't up for.

Had some 'down time' with about 2 hours to go when a double female panel feed-thru connector had finally gotten hot enough for the center pin to lose tension and no longer make a solid connection to the PL-259 center pin. Was just *a bit* discolored...

Started a bit late due to a total crapout of my Flex radio. Then, had to shut down because of lightning and hail! After some time off, I got back on later and worked some on 80.

Beside the fact that 10 meters was 'stink-o', propagation was OK. As you would expect, the 15 opening was much shorter than the recent past, but did hang in there with QSO's all day long.
40 meters is almost a 24 hour band now, which is always a good thing. I found the low bands to be very quiet, which was nice.

Had a HUGE crew, but some were in/out and we had SIX 'newbies'. Some of them had not done any RTTY before, so there was a bit of slowing down and explaining things and a bit of hand holding. This is not a bad thing necessarily, but with 6 beginners in major contest, some allowances were made. I would not have any issue having each one of them back again.

Bands noisy first night, much better second night. Three 'newbie' ops with limited experience. One of the ops for the upcoming Heard Island DXpedition stopped by to see how RTTY is operated, so will at least be familiar with it while on the Island.