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The NAQCC Rag Chew Challenge - Dec 2008 Final Results: Call - # Of QSO's WY3H - 51 K3WWP - 14 KB3AAG - 10 N8XMS - 9 N9AKF - 5 N1LU - 3 W2JEK - 2 VE3HUR - 1Soapbox: K3WWP - I know something you don't just yet as I write this, but you will know soon when Tom WY3H sends me his report. I want to congratulate Tom on a supreme effort in this challenge. I'm proud of what he did, and I think it will show that all this hubbub about poor propagation may be just that - hubbub. Wow! As for me, I'm happy with my 14 rag chews considering the total number of QSO's I had in December. I know it is not far above 31 QSO's - I got my daily QSO every day and not a lot more than that due to lack of time. It wasn't the 'poor' conditions as several of my 14 were 2X QRP and lasted quite a bit longer than our 20 minute definition of a rag chew. Happy New Year to all, and continued good CW QRP Rag Chewing in 2009. KB3AAG - I found this to be fun! No special effort just shiped a bit more bull in each qso! Six of them on 40 up at 7.111 where I hang out, I spend most of my time up there and find lots of people that are not in a hurry and will put up with an old man whose code is deterating and slowing! Three of them were on 80 when the broadcast got too strong! One on 20 and don't ask what I was doing up there, must have got lost! I only got to work five days on this but did enjoy it. I did enjoy working WY3W for one of them. I operate from what was my familys hunting cabin out in the wilds of western Green County, PA. It is located in the valley (more commonly called a hollar localy) and am surrounded by 350 foot hills on all sides within a quarter mile. Not the best location but I have made over 900 QRP contacts from here including two DX! I try to get out here on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons to check the cabin and play radio so stop in at 7.111. 73 Frank WY3H - I really don't know why, but for some strange reason I had a compulsion to "out do" myself for this December's Challenge: Make as many 20-minute QSOs as possible. Since night conditions were not always good, and since I had to work several nights or was sometimes late getting home from VA Hospital appointments in Pittsburgh, and was washed out when I got home, I decided to try 40 Meters early in the a.m. and again at noon if I was home for lunch. Therefore, the bulk of my QSOs were made on 40-meters, although one was made on 20 and nine on 80. I couldn't get any 20-minute QSOs on 160 or 30-meters. In all during this month I made 79 QRP QSOs of which 51 qualified as "20-Minute Rag Chews" as per challenge rules. Only three stations were duplicates (worked twice) but one of them was made with AG4EA who was operating QRP portable from N.C. and at another time he was QRO from his home QTH in S.C. Ten of the Rag Chew QSOs were 2XQRP. This means about 20 percent were also operating QRP at the time. In all I worked several NAQCC members, acquired several new FISTS numbers and SKCC numbers, and met some really interesting people, including one fellow reporter (retired). Two QSOs lasted 42 minutes and only four were exactly 20 minutes. in all 18 states and one Canadian province were logged. (I just missed getting a WP4 station). One QSO ended (not by my choice) at 19 minutes when the op had an urgent land line, so I couldn't count that one of course. Most were made by calling CQ or listening for a CQ call. Some were made by tail ending an ongoing QSO. I had a few operators tail end me, I think two or three. Total operating time for the 51 R.C. QSOs for the month was 23 hours and 16 minutes. Overall, the challenge was fun and I think at this time I may get the first-place certificate -- unless someone comes up with 52 QSOs. So now, SKN is already underway and I'm going to get a "FEW" QSOs, and by a "FEW" I mean exactly that. Throughout the Dec, Challenge I used my trusty old J-38 key (a gift from a friend) and the ICOM 718 set to just a tad under 5 watts. I think tonight I may fire up the old Century 21 set to 4 or 5 watts. I just had it repaired and it works great. If I use that rig I will use the Russian Army surplus key.(It's the only one that as of now has an RCA plug which the C-21 has for the key connection. For what it's worth, last night JoAnne (My darling XYL) had the night off work. We had john, K3WWP as our guest for a "movie night" and JoAnne made her famous Spaghetti Dinner. We watched the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" starring George Clooney. If you like old time Bluegrass music you'll like this movie. And, if anyone had ever read the "Odyssey" by Homer, you'll recognize the overall plot. One thing about the movie is that while it is very entertaining and has a lot of humor, it makes me glad I am living in our present day and age -- after all, they didn't have solid state gear back then! Best 73/72 to all and good DXing in 2009. Tom N8XMS - With apologies to Simon & Garfunkel, the theme song for this challenge should be: Slow down you move too fast. You've got to make this ragchew last. Tuning the bands and pounding brass. Looking for fun and feeling groovy. Happy New Year and 73, Paul N9AKF - December is such a busy month, but I had two weeks of vacation, the week of Christmas and the week before. I figured that would give me a lot of time for this challenge. As it turned out, due to a major ice storm here, my vacation started one day earliear than planned thanks to a power outage. By the next day, I relized that my antenna had been brought down by the ice. We had a warm but rainy day on December the 21st, so I was able to get my antenna back up in the air, however, that week of Cristmas was pretty busy so I didn't do much hamming. I only had 8 QSOs for the month, and 5 of them were 20+ minutes, so over all, I figure that's not too bad. Bart PREMISE: Make as many 20 minute rag chews as possible during December. TIME FRAME: Dec 1, 2008 0000Z through Dec 31, 2008 2400Z RULES: Get on the air and make QSO's lasting 20 minutes or longer. Technically a rag chew is 30 minutes, but to encourage going beyond a routine RST-QTH-NAME-RIG-WX QSO, we're shortening the time to 20 minutes. You must use QRP and the other station can be using any power. You may count a maximum of 3 QSO's with the same station toward the award below. This to discourage simply making skeds with one station to run up your totals. AWARDS: A certificate goes to the three members making the most QSO's. PARTICIPATION AWARD AND WEB LISTING: Anyone submitting a report gets a Participation Point and a web listing. You must make and report at least one 20 minute QSO. LOGS: For your report, simply tell us how many QSO's you made. You may also include comments about the challenge. Please preface any comments you want posted with "SOAPBOX:" so we will know what you want posted and what is private. Send your results to  You must type that address into your email program. Subject must read: (your call) NAQCC (month) Challenge For example: K3WWP NAQCC December Challenge Postal mail: John Shannon, K3WWP 478 E. High St. Kittanning, PA 16201 All entries must be RECEIVED before Jan 10, 2009 at 2400Z. |