NAQP, January VHF, and MNQP 2004:
I am combining these three contests just because they were all run so close together, and with a combination of the same setups. The NAQP was originally just going to be a non-full-time contest. I missed the CW contest portion, but promised to make up for my absense in the phone portion. I did not go full blown here even so, but after TRYING to load the 10 meter antenna up on 40 meters and only getting 3 contacts, I decided to toss the G5RV in the air at 9pm. This worked ok, but as I found out, I put the wrong leg of it in the air. The hot side of it was mistakenly looped and tied off as a ground/negative side...wrapped around the flagpole and left laying on the ground. The leg I thought was tied to the center conductor of the feedline, was the braid side in reality, and this was strung in the air down my narrow lot. I found the error out when wrapping it up at the end of the contest. Suprisingly it did pretty well, but it should have done better if it were erected correctly.
The VHF contest was basically the same setup as last January's contest with the addition of only the CW decoding, and my first attept at computer logging with CT for my own contesting. The contest went reasonably well. The bands never opened up (other than a week too early), and even shooting through the hill in my west/north backyard, I still did pretty well...at least according to everyone else I did. I also found that the hill seemed to serve me well off to the SouthEast and East...I experienced a few contacts that seemed to be louder while pointing to the NorthWest...when they were to the SouthEast. I came to the conclusion, that the hill which is approximately 1/8 mile away was actic like a parabolic dish or at least a reflector of some kind, and giving a healthy signal off in the opposite direction.
The MNQP was run in two logs...HF and VHF. I kept the stack up from the VHF contest, and strung up the G5RV for HF. 40 meters and 80 meters were the only HF contact bands I activated, and I got a few VHF contacts, although the VHF bands were in worse shape than the Jan. contest. All in all, I had a good time, and kept busy.
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