RTTY Round Up: Part 2

Unfortunately work usually has me in a stranglehold on contest weekends, this weekend I made an exception. I took Sunday off, as well as 4 hours on Saturday, which means I should be able to put in a full 24 hours of operating. If I am able to pull it off, this will be the first contest since I started participating, that will of had a full effort.

I did participate in the two scheduled practice rounds on Thursday and Friday, sponsored by the NCCC. Between the two 30 minutes sessions from 0230-0300z I logged 17 total contacts on 40M and 80M. These QSOs were not without some RF issues in the house. When running more than 350 watts on 40M every time I keyed the rig, the television would go black. On 80M it was even worse as about 250 watts would cause RF through the television and on one occasion affected either my XYL’s computer or the cable modem. Not sure which, but I seemed to be okay I dropped the power to the aforementioned 250 watts.

While 40M and 80M are not my strongest bands, I feel I will still have some good success on those bands. I am not expecting big things after sunset. My main band will be 20M, with some time spent on 15M. Not sure what conditions on 10M will yield, I suspect very little from my QTH. I am still without a rotator for the 5-band hex, so it will be the armstrong method of turning the antenna. I am going to start with the hex point about about 65 degrees, which was a good direction for Sweepstakes and encompassed most of the US and Canada. When grey line approaches I will turn about 170 degrees for South America and then finish up strong at 310 degrees for Japan and the Pacific.

With any luck I should only miss the first 30-45 minutes of the contest, thankfully Sundays usually provide many more “casual” operators, so I expect to be a very big push on 20M. I am setting a goal of 500 QSOs in this contest, which would be the largest total I have made. It would also give me a nice start to 2010, one in which I am planning 4000 QSOs this year.

I had thoughts of trying to setup an SO2R operation, but with very little experience at the controls during a contest and even less time calling CQ, I decided to hold off. Maybe for WPX I will see if I can get a nice SO2R effort going. I am looking very forward to this RTTY contest. With any luck I hope to maximize my multiplier (total of 63, the 50 states and 13 provinces) by the end of Saturday. I already know VE8 and VY2 will be the tough ones to get. I will also have live streaming video up and running of the contest. It can be viewed on the 6th HamCAM page.