[FQP] KH2D/4 FQP Summary

[Jim Kehler]

KH2D/4 FQP 2006 Contest Summary

Category: CW Only, Low Power, Lousy Antenna,
Bad Karma, RFI in the Shack

QSO's: 421

Mults: 60

Score: 101,040 (maybe)

A couple weeks ago I got an email asking if I was
going to be active in FQP this year. I missed last
year, matter of fact I hadn't been on the radio
for more that 32 seconds in a row in the last couple
years. After I thought about it for a few days, I
decided what the heck, might be fun.

Streaming video has been on my project list for a
while, so I decided to stream audio/video from the
shack during the contest. After a day I had it up
and going, but then I realized that with my DSL, I
had the bandwidth for about 2.4 streams, so I fell
back to the old "web cam" idea, and an audio stream
from my radio. Two cameras, one of the radio so
viewers could see the frequency they were listening
to, and one of the "shack".

My DOS computer (with CT) didn't work when I turned
it on, and neither did my DOS 6.22 install diskettes,
so that kept me busy for another day or so getting
a working logging computer going.

Another day of antenna work, and a couple days of
trying to get the RFI under control, and I was
ready to party.

The contest was fun, but slow. Nobody calls my QSL
card (like they used to do in Guam), and it seems
like Europe has finally figured out that KH2D/4 is
not Midway Island, so no big EU pileups, or maybe
EU just couldn't hear me...

Even with my lousy antenna, I can't imagine that
propagation can get any worse than it is now.

I really miss the concrete box I lived in over in
Guam - RFI doesn't go thru reinforced concrete like
it does thru Florid stick houses. I miss sunspots
and all the guys who called my QSL card too.

My apologies to the six Florida stations that called
me on 40 meters at the same time - I must have
sounded like Billy The Bumbling Idiot, but I was
logging on paper because CT won't take "PAS" as a
valid exchange, so I had to change the PAS to FL on
the computer and write the time/call/exchange on
paper before I could log the next guy in the computer.

I realize that my transmitted signal is very weak,
and thus I can hear stations that can't hear me. But
it's very disconcerting to have other Florida home
stations start CQ'ing on top of me because NEVER did
any of them ask "QRL?" before banging the CQ button.

If you can't hear me, and you QRL? before you CQ,
I'll understand and move. If you listen for 30 seconds,
you might hear other guys calling me and realize I'm
there...

If you just start CQ'ing, I'm smart enuff to realize that
even though you can't hear me, other people far away
can so I'll stay and help you CQ, or maybe I'll take the
dog for a walk while I help you CQ...

I know we are all "Contesters" but I still haven't
found the book that explains just because we are,
we aren't allowed to have manners.

It's also disconcerting to hear Florida home stations
CQ'ing in the middle of the "mobile window" as
advertised on the FQP web site in the contest rules.
Especially when they were the same guys who were
helping me call CQ...


Top Ten Things I Learned In FQP 2006

1. An Icom 706MKIIG is NOT a contest radio. That
puppy gets HOT when you call CQ for 45 minutes.
Even with a fan running on the back of it...

2. A Buxcom balun is NOT a contest balun. Even
with a 1.5:1 SWR, it gets HOT and saturates on
40 meters when you call CQ for 45 minutes. Even
with only 100 watts, even though it's "rated"
for a "KW"...

3. If you have an old DOS computer that runs CT,
it's not a good idea to leave it turned off for
three years. If you do, the CMOS battery goes
bad, it loses it's brains, and then you have to
take your wife's XP computer away from her and
reformat the hard drive with DOS so you can run
CT for contest logging...

4. It's not a good idea to move things around in
the shack three days before a contest. If you do,
you get to spend the next three days getting the
RFI out of things that never had RFI problems
before...

5. It's not a good idea to move a perfectly working
antenna two days before the contest, because then
it won't work on most of the bands it used to work
on before you moved it, and you have to put up a
different antenna...

6. It's a good idea to turn off the stereo speakers
on the other PC before you call CQ on 40 meters,
because if you don't the RFI makes a noise like
the boom box from hell, which in turn makes the
dog wake up under the desk and go running out of
the room with the web cam cable tangled up around
it's rear leg...

7. Contest web cams and streaming audio are a
waste of time. About 40 pageviews to the contest
cam page, and out of the 40 guys who visited,
only two were running a late enuff version of
a browser and could connect to the audio server.
Wasn't worth the effort to watch the three other
computers needed to keep the pictures/audio going,
and would have been 10 degrees cooler in the
shack with those three turned off. Hams need
to get out of the Windows 95 mode...

8. It's not a good idea to tell a Florida mobile
station "QSO B4", because it makes him unhappy,
and it's hard to explain to him on CW (with six
other guys calling you) that your logging program
wasn't made with an ESP filter that realizes he's
in a different county than he was the last time
he called you (with the SAME call sign)...

9. If all the guys who got on my freq and sent
"CTY?" or just "?" would have worked me, I would
have had 1,000 Q's instead of only 400...

10. Contesting with my antenna, at the bottom of a
sunspot cycle, is about as much fun as watching
paint dry. But at least I found out that I can still
handle a CW pileup - thanks to the six Florida stations
that called me at the same time.

Is "OO4T" really a call sign? I listened a dozen
times before I werked him, and that's what he was
sending...

And finally, to the VE2 who called me 62 times,
but absolutely refused to tell me his province,
even after I sent "QTH? PROV?" 126 times at five
words a minute, thanks for the Q's OM ES HPE
2 CU IN DA TEST NXT YR. PSE DU NT QSL CUZ
U NT IN DA LG...

73, Jim KH2D