Hopefully the stars align and Murphy decides to bypass the shack for the next 24 hours or so. We are within 3 hours of the start of the CQ World Wide RTTY and it’s a different game for me this season than in years past. In 2011 I missed out due to the home remodel and insurance claims we had to file. But if I look back to the 2010 contest I won my first award. This time around I am without by vertical antenna and have decided to do a single band operation.

Looking at the 2011 results NK6A had 124 contacts and 96 prefixes for 23,616. I am sure I beat that effort. There was no one who even entered the low power, single operator category in area ‘6’ in 2010.  It’s not all about winning, for some that seems to be commonplace. For guys like me, with small stations and not much time, you chose your battles wisely.

I have consulted a few on the NCCC Reflector and the majority says use 15M over 20M. Propagation will probably favor 20M staying open longer to somewhere in the world, but like many contests it will be a loud and crowded band. 15M on the other hand won’t be as bad and won’t be open as long. If I can get out 60-70 QSOs in 3 hours I will be thrilled, which will most likely end my first day.

Saturday will start at 15z (0600 PST), possibly an hour later as I will beam towards South America as the sun comes up. By 18z I might be able to get into Europe, although solar conditions are not that great this weekend there should still be a fair amount of activity on 15M.

As for my goal, depending on how much of an effort goes in on Saturday I would like to make 300 QSO and 150 prefixes (90,000 points). That will require a bit of work on my part and unfortunately having a ‘W6’ call sign is just too common in these contests where prefixes are your multiplier. Nonetheless it’s better than a day at work.

On Saturday