Finally back on HF, finally back on CW.
After months of inactivity, I decided to go for SOAB(A) 15m this year.
At the ultimate last moment, I changed my choice to 20m (fear of an ON competitor with stacks on 21Mhz).
Normally I put up my 6 element 50 Mhz yagi just above the Steppir in May and take it down in October, but this year I was too lazy to put it down. Consequence : in stead of 1:1, I had an SWR of 1.5 on 14.050 Mhz because of the capacitive load of the 50Mhz yagi.
I had to control the Steppir on 14.400 Mhz to get it OK on 14.050 Mhz, but as a additional consequence, the 180° function requested 13.900 Mhz. Technically, it worked fine, but this is not the good way. Yagi this year @23m.
Goal was at >1000 QSO. I had no idea of the conditions.
I ended up with 2.175 Q and possible a new ON record. Reason for that huge number of contacts is the combination of good running times together with very quick S&P. Flexx radio + CWskimmer is a perfect combination. When a station, somewhere on the band, calls 1x CQ, it is noticed and put on the N1MM+ bandmap. Often, I was first to respond on a cq.
S&P was never as easy as this year.
But : special multipliers do not call CQ and are often too weak to be noticed (or the antenna is turned in a wrong direction).
Additionally, N1MM+ accepts only 1 telnet session, i.e. skimmer OR DXcluster. This isn't the best solution. I lost some important multipliers the first day. On Sunday I installed the DXcluster on a second screen.
Anyway, happy to be again active on CW.
It took a week daily Morserunner and Rufz sessions to activate the necessary CW-speed in mind.
Weakest point stays the hunt for mulipliers. 3 elements are too little to get them on an easy way.
Need more elements for future contests on the higher bands. Let the new sun-cycle begin :-)
AND.... I have a ham student in the house + an interested one (who has to study first more maths and basic physics). No ON3 preparation @ON4CCP/ON4CFG, we allways go for full Harec. Exam to be done in Q2 2022.
