W0SD ARRL RTTY Roundup Multi-op High Power
80 136
40 347
20 513
15 176
Total 1172 QSO's 56 QTH 50 DX
Final Score: 124,232
Operators:W0SD, AC0M, N0ABE, WB0YQT
We missed NE otherwise I was satisfied. Tnanks ND and MB for being on in a
lot bigger way this year! The bands seemed very, very poor to me. I
listened all week before and heard loud signals from Europe on 20 and 15
meters. The aurora over the magnetic pole did us in again. We heard no
Europeans at all on 15 meters. In fact if it would not have been for a
nice sporadic E opening on Sunday afternoon 15 meters would of been a
complete bust for us. We have 5 elements on 15 at 120 feet and 3 elements
at 60 feet toward Europe and they just were not their. Even South America
and the Pacific was poor!
On 20 meters the high antenna at 140 feet saved the day! We could not even
hear nearly all the European DX on the antenna at 60 feet. Even on the
high one they were very, very weak and watery! THE AURORA JUST KILLED US!
I think we could of won it this year if that won't have happened but that
is all part of the competition and the joy of having the magnetic pole
right between you and all the RTTY multipliers!
Everything worked great! Thanks so much to all of you who worked us or
tried to work us. There were some who we just could not get a print on.
I'm sure it was indoor antenna's etc! I want you to know we sure tried to
pull you in! We tuned a lot and that got us about 20 more qso's and
speeded up another 20 a great deal. We added a scope for tuning this year
and that helped a lot! We added a second radio to listen with but with the
terrible band conditions it was not as valuable as it will be in a year
when the bands are better!
I made one stategic error! I should of kept going longer the first night
before our first break as the next morning for 3 hours virtually no one was
on! That is two years in a row so I'm convinced the 1000z thru 1300z slot
is a good time for a break! Apparently RTTY operators are "NIGHT OWLS".
Does anyone have any data on this HI!
Our best hours were 77, 74 and 73. Our first 3 hours were 63, 77 & 66. If
anybody wants to brag a little send me a direct E-mail with any hour rates
better than 77. I mean true hour rates from like 1800-1859 etc. I want to
know how much we need to improve in that category!
If we can keep MURPHY away and we can get our DX total up we are going to
win this thing sometime! BTW I want to congratulate the top scores on
Single OP. There are some that beat our multi-op effort! My hat is off to
you! I realize you don't have the 10 minute rule and that helps but
anytime a single op score beats a multi you can be proud!!!!
For me most contests are fun preparing for and fun reflecting on afterwards
but just plain hard work during the contest! I will say the RTTY Roundup
with the great WF1B software is much, much less of a "GRIND". BTW for you
fellows who are only able to get on a few hours, keep it up!!!! Thanks for
making the effort to get on, even if just for an hour or two!
We will be back!
73, Ed-W0SD
Ed Gray
Rt. 2, Box 151
Salem, SD 57058-9110 USA
w0sd@rapidnet.com
<http://www.rapidnet.com/~w0sd>
605 425 2242 office
605 425 2787 office
605 425 3144 office FAX
605 425 2354 home
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