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| 2013 North American QSO Party CW Results |
Good afternoon from the Shell Beach shack after 10 hours in the chair wearing RadioSport cans while logging Morse code driven stations off of the aerials. I want to thank John, W6SL for time in the chair because my 2013 NAQP CW score is a personal best.
Everything is coming together and my rate for the first hour peaked at 90 while noting 10 minute rate peaks at 200 plus a few times during the contest period. My overall average was one contact every minute for 10 hours of operating time and I'm pleased with the results.
Resting
Likewise, my rest periods were broken up into 30 minute intervals, thanks to sage advice from another RadioSport operator. I ate lunch then took a walk to the mail box. It was easy going downhill and the uphill grade was invigorating. It was a 20 minute nap for the second break giving myself a needed siesta. I'm one of those who can wake up out of a cat nap and feel rested. Lastly, it was dinner time consuming my last break and fatigue creep followed after a full meal.
Conditions
Wavelength conditions meant lots of fun especially on high bands like 15 and 20m while 10m continues to baffle my timing. Perhaps, I needed to be on this specific spectrum space, a little earlier however conditions on 15m pumped for two consecutive hours. Likewise, I followed the grayline on 20m at East Coast sunset and followed the terminator until near West Coast sunset.
Low Bands
The low bands were a conundrum as 40m production numbers were low and I never really gained any rate traction at this wavelength. Eighty meters was fast seemingly closing down a little earlier than expected. However, the work at SL's antenna ranch this summer continues proving antenna systems, specifically; the full size 160m loop which is vertically polarized. The signal felt loud at 100 watts.
In Sum
Overall, NAQP CW Winter, is one of my best scores thus far and I'm beginning to feel like everything is tuned up from the tip of understanding propagation to asking questions about rest periods to antenna systems. Lastly, I want to say thank you to W6TK, KI6QDH, K6RQT, KL8DX, NE4RD, N5KO, and N5TJ.
Contest on!
P.S. Don't forget to upload your log and LoTW credits.
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