NAQCC August 2009 Challenge

Call       Bands                Antenna(s)
K3WWP      160-80-40-20-15      SWA
KU4A       80-40-20-15-10       SWA (80-40) GAIN (20-15-10)
W2JEK      160-80-40-30-20      SWA
N8XMS      80-40-30-20-17       SWA
K3OXG      80-40-30-20-17       SWA
KE7LKW     160-80-40-30-20      SWA

Soapbox:
K3WWP - With the summer NAQP contest on the 1st of the month, naturally this wasn't much of a challenge. I love the NAQP contests in January and August second only to our NAQCC monthly sprints. I finished the challenge about 10:45 PM EDT on the 1st when I worked my 5th QSO on 160M in the form of WB8JUI. Could have been done a lot earlier, but 10 meters didn't cooperate at this QTH like it did for Chris below. Perhaps his gain antenna helped. Now what can I do the rest of the month? Maybe try for 5 QSO's on each of the remaining bands although that will be difficult on 12 and 10 meters.

KU4A - This challenge is easy with good propagation, very hard without it. With great conditions for the North American QSO Party, I had this done by 9 PM EDT on August 1. With the point for this challenge, I've now completed 24 consecutive months of at least one participation point. (Congrats Chris - we need more members to be as active as you are! - K3WWP)

W2JEK - made most of my qso's on 20, 40, 80, and 160m in the na qso party. tried 15m but no luck there so did my fifth band on 30m. i guess 10 and 15m do open for a short time now and then but i was not on at the right times. anyway it was a good challenge because of the poor conditions due to lack of sunspots. 72 and 73 don younger w2jek #1135

N8XMS - I know that some of you found this challenge very easy and finished it off in the first weekend by working the NA QSO Party contest. But as soon as I saw this challenge in the schedule I knew that it was going to be a real tough one for me. My normal rig is an Elecraft K1 with 40, 30, 20, and 15 meters so I am already "band deprived" with this radio. Furthermore, I haven't heard any significant activity on 15 in a very long time. Sure, the NAQP would probably bring some action to 15 but I was going to be on vacation during that time and I didn't know of any other major contests scheduled for the month. I did take my KX1 with me on vacation and managed to return with the required 5 QSOs on 40, 30, and 20 meters. To get the other bands I pulled out my moth-balled ICOM 725. A few months ago I had learned how to jerry-rig a circuit to connect to the ALC control on the back of the rig to force the output down to QRP level. But for this situation I thought that I needed something a little more robust so I opened up the rig and found the pot that controls the minimum output power and adjusted it for a minimum of 4 watts. I completed this just in time for our NAQCC sprint, and even though I don't have an antenna for 80-meters, I managed to make 4 contacts on that band during the contest. Within a couple of days I had the required 5 QSOs on 80-meters. Now what about the 5th band? Over the next few days I used my available operating time and my "pimped out" 725 to surf 10, 15, and 17 meters. I did hear a station from Costa Rica on 17 but he didn't have any copy on me. Other than that I heard nothing. Then on Saturday, August 15th, I was doing some work at my desk with my ICOM on 18.078 but turned down low. All of a sudden I heard a station tuning up a carrier. I grabbed my key and sent a quick "QRZ? DE N8XMS K" and K3CHP came back to me for a nice QSO. Two minutes after that contact ended I worked N3WT on 18.076. Over the next few days I managed to find enough openings on the band to complete the requirement. I can't say that completing the 5 X 5 challenge was as exciting as my 1st Novice contact, or completing DXCC, but I certainly did get a great sense of accomplishment from doing this one!

K3OXG - This was certainly a challenge. I ran a K1 at 5 watts to an inverted vee on 40-30-20 and 17 meters. 17 meters was by far the most difficult to achieve, in fact, I had only one prior 17 meter contact in the last 2 years. I was very glad to hear K4BAI (John) return my call on August 23 for my 5th contact on 17 meters. This challenge forced me to operate on bands that I do not normally work and I spent a lot of time listening to "dead air" on 17 meters before finally grabbing my final qso. I am glad that I hung in there and glad that I have expanded my areas of operation. All the K1 contacts were made using solar power and I have used solar (exclusively) since February of 2009. I am also running my shack lights with solar power. My 80 meter rig is a ten tec Omni D. I have a vibroplex bug on loan and most of these contact were made on a bug. Nice challenge and thanks to all. 73 lou

KE7LKW - Got 80-20m in the first week. 5 QSOs on 160m took me about 3 weeks. Very few signals on 17m heard, and none on 15M. Most difficult challenge for me to date. I need a better 160m antenna! 72, Stewart KE7LKW White Salmon, WA

PREMISE:
From President Tom, WY3H (ex-KB3LFC) - Make at least 5 QSO's on any 5 different bands during the month.

TIME FRAME:
Aug 1, 2009 0000Z through Aug 31, 2009 2400Z

RULES:
Make at least 5 QSO's on each of 5 different bands from the following list: 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 meters. That's a minimum of 25 QSO's to satisfy the challenge.

Any kind of QSO counts except for regular net check-ins or pre-arranged QSO's.

Of course all QSO's must be 2X CW and you must be using QRP power.

AWARDS:
A certificate goes to anyone satisfying the challenge. It will be endorsed either for all simple wire antennas or gain antennas (including a mix of SWA and gain).

PARTICIPATION AWARD AND WEB LISTING:
You must satisfy the complete challenge to get a Participation Point and a web listing.

LOGS:
For your report, send a list of all QSO's made sorted by band. Include your antenna type - simple wire or gain. 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:

E-mail:

You must type that address into your email program.

Subject must read: (your call) NAQCC (month) Challenge

For example: K3WWP NAQCC August Challenge

Postal mail:
John Shannon, K3WWP
478 E. High St.
Kittanning, PA 16201

All entries must be RECEIVED before September 10, 2009 at 2400Z.