AA4FU ALAN KNIGHT MANY THANKS TO ALL THE MOBILES. I WORKED KR4F AND AB9CA/4 ON
K0MPH ROGER R ROTH STARTED LATE. ALMOST MISSED THE PARTY.
K3TW THOMAS J. WARREN "BAND CONDITIONS WERE VERY GOOD, ESPECIALLY ON 20M
WHICH STAYED OPENED TO ALABAMA FROM THIS FLORIDA QTH FOR OVER SIX HOURS. THANKS
TO THE MOBILE STATIONS FOR PROVIDING THE RARE COUNTIES AND MULTIPLE CONTACTS."
K4TD RICK WALKER First, thanks for all the Q's. I wanted to get on the air and
at least hand out a few MDSN CW Q's for this one. (Yeah, I know MDSN is the least
rare county in the state)... Actually, I was amazed at the number of participants
around for the start of this. I had several minutes at the beginning where I was
working 5 Q's/min (300 Q/hour rate). That's as good as any DX contest I operate
from here. Others have mentioned the lousey RF conditions so no need to beat that
dead horse. The WX here was also a factor in my limited operating time. After
the third time I had to shut down for lightning, I just decided to stay off the
air. (With my own eyes, I've seen my tower get hit 23 times, so I didn't
figure I'd risk being on with lightning popping around me).
I was pleasantly surprised to find that 15 and 10 were open to somewhere most
of the time I was on... Unfortunately, not many came up that far looking for a
Q. N8II asked me to move to 15 and 10 after he worked me on 20. His signal was
great on all three bands. I only operated a short time on 40 and never even got
to 80 as I had gone QRT well before time to try that band. Here is a breakdown
of my top multi-band contacts:
4 Bands: N8II NT2A W0BH
3 Bands: K1DC K8BZ KQ3F KY4F NW2K VE3KZ W0GXQ WQ5L YV5OIE
2 Bands: AA4FU K0RC K0TEX K5WAF K9OZ KB1CL KG4CUY KI0I KO1U KR4F KU8E KV8Q
KY7M N0QP N1API N1NN N2MM N4BP N4JF N4VV N8KIE N9QS OM2VL VA3ATT
VE1OP VE3MGY VE5KS W0EAR W0ZP W2RR W3MS W4EE W5FIT W9MSE W9OL WA8PGE
WB8JUI
I only remember working one mobile (N4ZZ while in LIME), but it appears that
the mobiles did a great job putting counties on the air. Congratulations to
all the winners!!
73,
Rick
K4TD
K4ACG ROBERT BEAUDOIN JUST OUR LUCK WITH PROPAGATION
K4BAI JOHN LANEY I listened to 40M CW from my vacation location in NC last
night and almost all of the activity I could hear was in the AQP. Great going,
guys. Was fun to listen, but wish I had a transmitter with me. Was using
a Radio Shack all band receiver with the built in vertical antenna.
Sorry to miss AQP again this year. 73, John, K4BAI.
K5YAA JERRY CHOUINARD I enjoyed the activity level. 40 meters was gangbusters
late in the evening! Worth my investment for sure and thanks for putting the
show on. Worked several northern counties on the way home for the County Hunters.
K8BZ STEVE WUELFING I HAVE OBSERVED ALL COMPETITION RULES AS WELL AS ALL
REGULATIONS FOR
KA0P DAVE FELBER TNX FOR PUTTING ON CONTEST
KC8NLP BOB SWICKER 3 ALABAMA QSO PARTY
KK4CIS ALAN SPIES HAPPENED TO CATCH AN HOUR NEAR THE END OF THE CONTEST.
KK4TE CHARLES MOSS III WHAT A BLAST!!! WILL BE BACK NEXT YEAR!!!
KK5NA JOE SPENCER RIG: K3@5WATTS, ANT: EDZ @ 55
KN4Y EDWARD PALAGYI RAN 12 COUNTIES, COVERED 645 MILES.DID NOT PASS
KT4TX TIM WININGER WOW....wished we could has postponed this event this weekend.
Ole Sol did us in for sure. However the show must go on. Here at KT4TX not only
band cndx but the WX was a factor in the afternoon with T-storms and some
un-plugged time. Having said all that 20mtrs was the go to band which instantly
yielded fair rates. 40mtrs was just a mystery the last few hours. Well didn't
give in and give up so not all was lost. For the 6.5 hrs the rate was OK all
in all. So TNX to all those who braved the HF bands in poor cndxs and gave me
and the other AQP activists QSO's. See all next year with hopes of better prop.
KV8Q TOM HAIN I CANT SEEM TO BUY A BREAK LATELY. LAST WEEKEND I HAD MAJOR
ANTENNA
KY4F DOUG HAFT I guess there's no need to mention conditions. Always fun
to get on and hand out Limestone county. Would like to have put in a better
effort, but thunderstorms kept interrupting the proceedings! Of course,
there's always next year. 73's and thanks for the Q's
M0CFW KAZUNORI WATANABE I FELT STATE QSO PARTY IS DOMESTIC CONTEST IN US
WHEN SOME STATION TRY
N4JF JERRY FIORE WHAT AN ENJOYABLE CONTEST..WKD MANY OLD FRIENDS AND MADE
LOTS OF NEW ONES. TX FOR ALL THE Qs..NEVER HRD 20 METERS WITH SUCH SHORT
SKIP ALLOWING ME TO WK MANY AL STATIONS AND COUNTIES. THE MOBILES COVERED
THE ENTIRE STATE..TX FOR SHOWING UP GUYS..73s Jerry
N1NN ROGER A. HENTERSHEE 7TH ALABAMA QSO PARTY
N4KG TOM RUSSELL In spite of the Solar Disturbances, or maybe because of
them, the Short Skip openings on 20,15,10 Meters were Incredibly Good
Saturday afternoon. I've never worked so many Alabama Counties on 20M in
the AQP before (BALD,CHOC,ETOW,FRNK,HNRY,HOUS,LAUD,MDSN,MORG,WLKR). Also
worked several close-in states including GA,NC,TN,MS,AR,LA, and all or
most of W3,8,9,0.
For some reason I was unable to get much going on 20M SSB (15 Q's vs 180
last year - maybe I forgot to move the beam back to North from NW) but
did get a short run on 15M. I picked up NE on 10M CW along with a few
other close-in contacts but there wasn't much activity there and I
(foolishly) never checked 10M SSB, missing the Big Run of 150 Q's
enjoyed by NV4B :-(
My best rates were on 40M CW, starting at 3/minute until it dried up at
52 Q's in 30 minutes. 80M was noisy but most signals were fair to good,
just not a lot of activity.
Missed VT DC DE MT NV ND SD KH6 KL7 VE1,2,4,6,7,8,9 VO1,2 VY0,1,2
I took LOTS of breaks due to nearby Lightning strikes and to work on my
broken lawnmower before the storms moved in. Tom N4KG in Limestone County
ALA
N8XX HANK GREEB NICE PARTY, GOT IN VERY LATE, QRN TERRIBLE ON 40, N
D ON 80.
NE4M RICHARD BROUGHTON ANOTHER EXCELLENT QSO PARTY
N4RNR BOB BANKSTON My preparation:
1. Checked my radio (Icom 7700), 3-band wire dipole (20/15/10) in attic,
microphone (Heil PR781), and PTT handswitch. All good to go.
2. Wrote out everything I would need to say during the contest, just in
case I had a brain fart when I keyed the microphone. And recorded
everything into my radio's voice memories.
3. Spent 30 minutes before AQP start listening to 20m to see who what
frequencies was clear and what call areas/states I could hear.
4. Found a good spot where I could politely slip in between two other
stations, tuned antenna for 1:1 SWR, and asked if the frequency was clear
30 seconds before start time.
And then it was "Go" time.
As I reached to press Voice Memory 1 to call CW, another AQP participant
beat me to the punch and got my frequency. Argh! Now in a full panic,
I frantically searched for another clear spot. 10 minutes later,
I found a marginal location and asked if the frequency was clear.
No response, so I hit Voice Memory 1 and started my call(s),
15 minutes later still no response. Where was that big pileup KC4HW
promised me - just call CQ and the world will be beating down your
door to talk to you? Was my signal getting sucked up through a one of
those holes created by global warming? Frustrate and about to quit, I
sat and stared at my radio. Suddenly, I noticed that I was transmitting
in LSB (lower side band). Apparently, I must have hit the USB/LSB button
(which is just below the Voice Memory 1 button) by accident. Boy did I feel stupid.
Now in the correct mode for 20m, I was finally putting out a signal someone
could respond to. Made a contact in IL, then NJ. Life was starting to get
better, but the calls suddenly dried up. The first hour passed with only
two QSOs, four in hour two, and five in hour three. The thought of giving
up raced through my head. Maybe just one more hour.
Someone must have felt sorry for me, because things finally started
clicking - 19 QSOs in hour four, 19 in hour five, and 17 in hour six.
About 8 QSOs into hour seven, mentally and physically exhausted, I took a
break to eat dinner. One of those last QSOs shared with me that I had a
huge pileup of people responding to my CQ calls, but apparently I could
not hear them.
While humbly eating my dinner, as if it was my last supper, I thought
about the day - what I had done wrong and what I learned. Head hung low,
I headed back to my shack and spent the next two hours listening to other
AQP participants and how they handled the traffic. I heard some great
operators that reminded me of why I wanted to get into ham radio in the
first place. My time will come when I can sound as professional and
effortless as them. I just need a lot more experience.
Lessons learned:
1. A great radio cannot compensate for a poor antenna, nor a poor operator.
I definitely need to work on both of the latters.
2. I need to spend more time on the radio and most of that calling CQ.
3. Need to get a foot switch for PTT or switch over to VOX. Trying to hand
key the mic and log a call sign on the computer at the same time slows you
down and causes you to get call signs wrong.
OK, too much rambling. I'll close with saying thanks to Jim/KC4HW and
the Alabama Contest Group for putting on such a great event. Save me a
spot in next year's event. I'll definitely be back. 73s, Robert/N4RNR
NT2A GENNADY MOSHKOV NICE QP. THANK YOU.
NV4B CHRISTOPHER ARTHUR Despite band conditions, two hours QRT for
weather, a late start because I was
sure the contest started at 1700Z instead of 1600Z, and spending more time than
I should have on SSB for a mixed mode entry, I had a blast! I wasn't sure how
serious I was even going to be in the contest this year as I've been involved
in other projects and interests lately, but when I got on the air and got a
rate, I was hooked.
Band conditions were poor -- W6s and W7s were few and far between -- but the
strong sporadic-E opening mid-afternoon kept me in the chair operating 10
meters. The MUF reached 2 meters at one point, and when I went to 20 meters,
it sounded more like 40 with the close-in states booming in. In fact, I worked
several south Alabama counties on 20. I tried 15 but never could get a rate. I
was greeted with a massive pileup when I finally left 20 for 40m at 0200Z. It's
nice to be the hunted for a change!
I appreciate the dedicated AQP ops who followed me from band to band. I had at
least two stations who asked me a couple of times for 20m QSOs -- I hope I
worked all of you! I went to phone first on 20m and kept a good rate until the
band was starting to die to the East Coast. Thanks to all for the QSOs and 73!
OM2VL LESLIE VEGH EXTREMLY BAD CONDX. AFTER 3 HOURS I DESPAIR OF THE QP.
VE3RCN JKEVIN CLEMENTS ALL CONTACTS MADE FROM A CANADIAN SUBMARINE.
W1END ELDON BURKINSHAW CONDITIONS WERE SOMEWHAT LESS THAN GOOD. BUT
ACTIVITY WAS MUCH BETTER.
W2UDT WILLIAM HUDZIK ONLY A PART-TIME EFFORT HERE DUE TO FAMILY COMMITMENTS.
STILL NEED AUTAUGA COUNTY SO,
W4II JOHN FRAZIER LOADS OF FUN...EXCELLENT ROVERS!
W8KNO JOSEPH L. WEHNER THE QRN SEEMED TO BE A FACTOR THIS YEAR IN AL.
HOPE YOU DID NOT HAVE ANY TORNADOS.
WA4JA JOHN U ALMON NICE TO HEAR 20M OPEN SO SHORT. UNUSUAL.