Ken Harker WM5R
2006 North American QSO Party SOAB Phone - K5TR (WM5R, op. )

 160 meters:
   - Inverted L
 80 meters:
   - Three sloping dipoles from 120', fixed NE, NW, and S
 40 meters:
   - two element Cuhscraft yagi at 120' fixed NE
   - two element Cushcraft yagi at 100' rotatable
 20 meters:
   - six element 44' boom yagi at 90', rotatable
   - six element 44' boom yagi at 80' fixed NE
   - six element 44' boom yagi at 40', fixed NW
   - six element 44' boom yagi at 40', fixed NE
   - four element Cushcraft 32' boom yagi at 60', fixed SE
 15 meters:
   - six element 36' boom yagi at 70', rotatable
   - six element 36' boom yagi at 35', fixed NE
   - four element Cushcraft yagi at 50', fixed SE
 10 meters:
   - six element 24' boom yagi at 60', rotatable
   - six element 24' boom yagi at 30', fixed NE
   - four element Cushcraft yagi at 45', fixed SE
   - three element yagi at 20', fixed W
 Receiving antennas:
   - Four 500' long Beverages fixed NE, NW, SE, SW

 Radio 1:  Kenwood TS-850SAT
 Radio 2:  Kenwood TS-850SAT
 Headset:  Heil Proset HC4
 DVK:      W9XT Contest Card
 Software: TR Log 6.78
 Other:    Ameritron RCS-8V antenna switches, ICE bandpass
           filters, Top Ten Devices Band Decoders, homebrew
           audio switchbox

I had a really great time operating this contest, and as usual, George was a great host. This is by far my best ever score in this contest as a single operator.

Conditions on the high bands seemed much better than last year. 20 meters was in really great shape, and 15 meters and 10 meters were more productive than I was expecting. I think I might have spent more time on 15 meters, and maybe gotten there earlier, but 20 meters was _so good_ at the start. Similarly, I kept with 20 meters later than maybe I should have, but I was getting some of my best rate in hours during the 0000 UTC and 0100 UTC hours.

I remembered that last year I thought I took too much off-time too late in the contest, so this time I decided the thing to do was to take half hour off-times roughly every three hours and not think about it too much. I did adjust based on the rate, but I basically kept to that strategy.

The only part of the contest that frustrated me was 160 meters. I could hear stations really well, especially in W4, that could clearly not hear me at all. I made fewer than half as many QSOs and mults on 160 meters as I made last year.

I'm getting a little more comfortable using two radios, and decided during this contest that keeping the volume of the S&P radio at the right level can improve my efficiency. There seems to be a balance where you can still pick up the stations you are likely to work quickly, but where it's quiet enough that the second radio is not as likely to become a distraction. This was more important later in the contest when the bands were noisy and I was more tired.

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of DX multipliers on the air, and it's great to hear multiple XE stations active in this contest.

There was a little bit of jamming this contest during the 2300 UTC and 0000 UTC hours, mostly carriers, and one incident of extended dits.

Contest Logging was done with TR LOG contest logging software. The following reports and log were created using TR LOG's post-contest processor.

• Rate Sheet
• Band Changes
• Multipliers Worked
• Multiplier Distribution
• The Contest Log