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| NAQP RTTY: Goals |
| As has become customary prior to any amateur radio contest I participate in, I post my personal goals. This is the competition I chose, myself. Most all of the contests I enter I know I won't be awarded a plaque or certificate, but if I can best my previous score in a given contest, I consider myself a winner. And above all else I have had fun. The NAQP RTTY Contest from February was one of my best efforts to date. Unfortunately, goal aside I forgot or overlooked sending my log in and no score was recorded on the NCJ website. IF my score would have been submitted I would have cracked the top 10 in 6-land (California) with a score of 46,854 points based off 342 QSOs and 137 mults in 10 hours. Current propagation looks a bit better than what we saw in February, 2010. Predicted Smooth Sunspot Number is higher for July than they were for February, so hopefully that is a sign of good things to come this weekend. As I look at my Excel file with all my NAQP facts and figures I am shooting for a goal of 400 QSOs, 150 mults for 60,000 points. Looking back I had a bad two hour stretch last contest from 23-01z which yielded about 22 QSOs in that period. This hurt my overall performance on 40/80M since I gave up the last two hours of the contest. I fully expect 20M to be my workhorse band (41% QSO). I do plan on starting on 15M for the first hour in hopes of establishing a run early for about 30 minutes before moving to 20M unless the rate holds up to continue calling CQ. I would like to increase the percentage of multis on 20M, which was 29% in February on that band, compared to my 40% mults on all bands. I should be able to improve on 40 and 80M, taking those 2 hours off when the sun is setting. I do expect about a 25% higher QSO total on both bands, which would hopefully keep my multi rate at about 35-40%. My only concern at this point is my hardware. I have just replaced the feeder for my hex beam and added a new feed line choke. I measured SWR across all bands and was acceptable. I am hoping my FT-1000MP and US Navigator are both configured correctly and I am NOT transmitting my RTTY signal inverse. I was hoping to check that today, but activity on 20M RTTY for me, has been nil. With any luck I will have a very good NAQP, putting in a full 10-hour effort and SUBMITTING MY SCORE! Not sure what NCCC Team I will be placed on, but will find out in the morning. |
| W6ONV on Friday 16 July 2010 - 20:48:20 | Read/Post Comment: 0 |
| Remodeling is Hell |
| Next time you file an insurance claim, make it a big one! Make it a claim which will allow you to do as much remodeling or construction as you need. I know, this is flat out insurance fraud, but damnit my wife and I are stuck in the middle of this and are still discussing how to proceed. Thankfully, we have already received three insurance checks, one for personal property and two for repairs. Actually, I liked the idea of a friend at work to make the repairs, then take the rest of the money and walk from the mortgage. Needless to say, that didn't happen. So here we are with this money and it's a good amount to make the repairs to the downstairs bathroom and replace all the carpet and remove the wood floors for tile. But we decided to stretch this amount to include the kitchen. Why? Because it is old and falling apart, as the cabinets are nothing more than press board (high density fiberboard, as they call it now). We also have a pipe (maybe two) that require repair. I have called 10, count them 10 plumbers in the Oakley, Brentwood, Antioch area. Of those, 4 did not answer, 3 said they would call me back, 1 did want to give me an estimate, 1 gave me an estimate over the phone and one stood me up on coming to see the pipe. I then got the names and numbers of two other plumbers, both of whom have yet to call me or stop by. Why the hell is a plumber so hard to come by? I guess they all have better work than repairing my pipe. Back to the kitchen, the sum of money if budgeted wisely could stretch to include the kitchen, the catch. I would have to do a considerable amount of work, including the tear down and replacement of the cabinets. As long as I get my buddy, Greg from SoCal, I don't see why this would be out of the question. There are no fixtures, switches or lights that need to be removed, so I am fine on electrical. The plumbing should be fine, the only area of question is the pipe feeding the sink. So we were given an estimate yesterday from a contractor and I think we were both speechless after he ran down the itemized list. I figured it would come in a bit higher, but got of lucky, I guess. Still after going through it, asking questions and discussing our situation there is a good chance only portion of what he included will get accomplished, if not by the contractor then by myself. The only problem with that, it will take twice as long. How much is convenience actually worth? I was shocked at the price of kitchen cabinets. The estimate I saw was nearly double what I figured. Then I checked with Lowes since that he where he went to price cabinets and I was appalled when the cabinets I asked for were not the same ones he got a quote on. Huh? So I am headed back to Lowes on Tuesday to sit down with a planner and work out our new kitchen. Rest assured it won't come in nearly as high as the contractor's estimate. The end of August is my target date, not sure I am on pace to make that, but rest assured when things start to happen it will go quicker than what is happening currently. |
| W6ONV on Friday 16 July 2010 - 00:06:51 | Read/Post Comment: 0 |
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