I have wanted to take part many times over the years but either didn't have the right band antenna or a good setup...or so I thought. With the COVID-19 lock down of sorts I have had more time on the radio which has given me more confidence on the radio. As well, I listened to the Ditdit.fm Podcast on the NAQCC and their contest sprints. I've had a member number (1967) for years but just never used it. It was time. I looked on the NAQCC site this morning to see when the next sprint was and it was tonight! I have a 130' random wire and my little tuner that will put me on 40 and 20...just not 80. Those are the 3 bands the sprint runs on.The toughest part, once it got going at 20:30 Eastern time, was dealing with the congestion. It took a bit to learn to find a signal and focus on it alone and ignore all the others around you/it. It makes me wish I had the narrow CW filter in my FT-817. Anyway, 20M wasn't very good but 40 was full. My plan was to stay for an hour and take what I got and be happy. I didn't really feel the need to call CQ NA because I could just dial around and find others calling. The sprint runs generally between 7.030 - 7.045. All in all I made 6 QSOs and didn't stumble too much through them. I was pleased with my effort and results. The total points score was 144 after multipliers for using a Straight Key and the SPC multipliers. I know many get dozens of Qs in the log but this was about me getting more airtime. I used one of the popular loggers called the NAQCC Sprint Logger which was created by Ron Bower, AC2C. It worked well when I went to enter my contacts after the fact and I was able to do a report that I cut and paste into the log submission page of the NAQCC. It was painless. This was a great experience and I hope to take part again next month.
Cheers es 72 de Scott ve3vvf,
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