This year’s North Carolina QSO Party was very fun. I operated from my QTH for the duration of the contest, breaking for a 30 minute lunch and for the occasional stretch break. The propagation was better than last year, going by the numbers,

Again this year, I used my Icom IC-7300 running 100W to an MFJ-986 tuner connected to ladder line and a center-fed Zepp dipole antenna. All performed well. Two days prior to contest, during good weather, I took down the dipole for inspection. I checked continuity between the feed point and each element and replaced aging zipties that were growing brittle. Maybe next year I’ll swage the ends and do away with zipties altogether.

My goal for this year was to shake off CW rust. I would again operate 100% CW, run at 25 WPM, and take my lumps during log checking.

Midway through the contest, I realized I was on pace to hit 500 QSOs. I made that my goal. I knew incoming QSOs would slow due lack of new stations to work, but I hadn’t operated on 80m yet. Eighty meters is a popular band once the sun goes down. Many operators converge there for the last 30-60 minutes of the contest. Once moving to 80m, I could re-work every station that I had already worked on 40m, 20m, and 15m.

  • 10 meters was dead. Tried running 2 different times for ~10 minutes. No QSOs.

  • At 3:30pm EST, A=10, K=1, SFI=152

  • At 5:00pm EST A=22, K=5, SFI=159

I felt some fatigue set in for the last half of the contest. My ears occasionally reminded me that glasses + headphones is not a comfortable combination. Fortunately, many of the QSOs in the second half of the contest are stations that I had previously worked on a different band. That makes the fatigue slightly less consequential since most out-of-state exchanges don’t change.

With end of the contest 2 hours away, I decided I would make one more tour through 10m and 15m, then swing back to 40m finish on 80m. I decided to skip 20m since I had my most QSOs on that band and thought that it would be difficult to work new stations there. I had yet to operate on 80m and was counting on that band to keep me busy. I called CQ for over 5 minutes on 10m. I was surprised (still) that no one, not a soul, was responding on 10m. I switched to 15 and it was slow for a few minutes. Then, I made a rash of QSOs and added multipliers for MT, WY, and ID.

From N1MM

Here’s my Score Summary:

Contest: NC QSOPARTY
 Band     QSOs     Pts  Mul  Pt/Q
   3.5     108     324    2   3.0
     7     174     522   39   3.0
    14     221     663   45   3.0
    21      44     132    5   3.0
 Total     547    1641   91   3.0
Score: 149,331
1 Mult = 6.0 Q's

Here’s my Runs summary:

QSO Parties (US and Canada) - 2023-02-26 1500Z to 2023-02-27 0059Z - 554 QSOs
K4CBW Runs >10 QSOs: for computer named: WIN11-HAM

2023-02-26 1502 - 1554Z,   14039 kHz, 80 Qs, 92.2/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 1603 - 1608Z,    7046 kHz, 12 Qs, 142.1/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 1636 - 1659Z,   14042 kHz, 34 Qs, 86.8/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 1706 - 1718Z,   21042 kHz, 17 Qs, 84.9/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 1727 - 1738Z,    7044 kHz, 13 Qs, 75.7/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 1804 - 1821Z,   14047 kHz, 32 Qs, 110.2/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 1925 - 2000Z,    7042 kHz, 40 Qs, 69.1/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 2008 - 2036Z,   21044 kHz, 13 Qs, 27.9/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 2045 - 2104Z,   14045 kHz, 33 Qs, 103.9/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 2112 - 2132Z,    7044 kHz, 31 Qs, 91.6/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 2147 - 2224Z,   14042 kHz, 36 Qs, 59.0/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 2301 - 2328Z,    7033 kHz, 34 Qs, 73.8/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-26 2332 - 2359Z,    3549 kHz, 48 Qs, 105.9/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-27 0011 - 0023Z,    7043 kHz, 16 Qs, 80.3/hr K4CBW 
2023-02-27 0026Z - 0059,    3550 kHz, 56 Qs, 102.2/hr

Here’s my Off Times:

QSO Parties (US and Canada) - 2023-02-26 1500Z to 2023-02-27 0059Z - 554 QSOs
K4CBW - Off Times >= 30 Minutes

2023-02-26 1500Z - 2023-02-26 1501Z     00:02  (2 mins)   (Start late)
2023-02-26 1822Z - 2023-02-26 1853Z     00:32  (32 mins)

Total Time Off 00:34  (34 mins)
Total Time On 09:25  (565 mins)

Notes for Next Year

  • Get spotting set up well in advance. Be able to work mobile stations as they enter different counties.
  • Focus on rates. If a band isn’t open, don’t stay there (10m).
  • Work bonus stations first before/after starting runs.
  • Goals:
    • 600 QSOs (+10%)
    • 180,000 points. (+21%)