This past week, it was Michigan’s turn to be W1AW, and I signed up for a couple of spots:
- Thursday, 0000 – 0200Z, 30m CW
- Thursday, 2200 – 0000Z, 20m CW
I operated 30m CW from here at home and 20m CW from our station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum.
Arun, W8ARU, joined me for the 30m time slot. I always have a lot of fun with Arun. He’s a funny guy, and he’s done a heck of a lot more in amateur radio than I have, including microwave stuff and EME, in addition to HF. The first hour, we did OK, but activity tailed off considerably the second hour. Perhaps that was due to band conditions, perhaps to my modest station (an IC-746PRO running 100W into a dipole). Over two hours, we managed to scratch out 90 contacts.
I did a little bit better the next day from down at the museum. My first contact was actually a JA, and I worked many DX stations. Overall, I managed 120 contacts in about an hour and a half. I got started a bit late and quit a little early, as I had a splitting headache.
I also operated 10m CW from the museum on Sunday from about 1615 – 1800Z. I hadn’t scheduled myself for that slot, but before heading down there Sunday, I noticed that it was still free, so I filled it. I didn’t feel compelled to make a lot of contacts, so it was fun. The band wasn’t really all that open, but I made 35 contacts, including a bunch of DX contacts.
In all three cases, I never really generated much of a pileup. I’m not sure why, exactly. Perhaps it was my modest station or band conditions or my operating technique. I’m not a big contester, for sure.
At both my home station and WA2HOM, I used the N1MM logging software connected to a WinKeyer. This is really a great combination. After setting up the macros, it worked flawlessly. There was one little glitch, though.
At home, I use a Toshiba laptop. Well, to use the function keys, you have to hold down the fn key, then tap the appropriate function key. Otherwise, those keys are assigned to system functions, such as increasing and decreasing the screen brightness or audio volume. That turned out to be a pain to do, so instead, we used the mouse to click on a key in the N1MM window. That was kind of a pain, too, but it worked a little better than trying to remember to hold down the fn key.
At the museum, we have a desktop with a USB keyboard. This keyboard worked a lot better as the function keys worked without having to hold down the fn key. I guess that I need to get a USB keyboard for use with the laptop during contests.
Perhaps the biggest frustration for me was not being able to pull all of the stations out of the noise. At the museum, for example, we have a pretty high noise floor. I could tell that there were stations calling me, and often I was able to catch partial callsigns, but then they would slip below the noise floor. I’m sorry if you were one of those stations, but I did the best I could.
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