ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: K5TR
Operator(s): WM5R
Station: K5TR
Class: SO SSB HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW:
SSB: 2505 111
-------------------
Total: 2502 111 Total Score = 555,888
Club:
Comments:
Station K5TR:
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr/blanco/k5tr_station.html
Kenwood TS-850SAT
Ameritron AL-1500
24' boom, 6-element yagi @ 60' rotatable
24' boom, 6-element yagi @ 30' fixed NE
4-element yagi @ 40' fixed SE
3-element yagi @ 20' fixed W
Ameritron RCS-8V antenna switches
Heil Proset Plus
W9XT contest card
TR Log 6.79
The ARRL 10 Meter Contest is fast becoming one of my favorite
contests. George K5TR was kind enough to host me at his fabulous
station in the Texas Hill Country for the third year in a row.
This year, we didn't try to hook up a second radio with a listening
antenna - I only ever had one radio turned on all weekend.
Of the three ARRL 10 Meter Contests I've done, this was the first
in which there was propagation of some sort for a full 36 hours.
Friday evening started off kind of slow, with a 31 QSO hour followed
by a 12 QSO hour. I worked 12 VKs and one ZL in the first hour
of the contest, as well as a 3D2, a ZK1, and a KH7. In the second
hour of the contest, I worked a few South Americans and local Texas
stations. Right at 0200 UTC, I worked by first Florida station on
Eskip, and the big Eskip opening of the first night began. I
had hours of 56, 64, 69, and 77 QSOs, starting with Florida and
the Gulf states, but eventually resulting in 27 states from all
parts of the country by the end of the evening. The opening had
weakened a bit by 0600 UTC, when I was working mostly California
stations, and by 0720 UTC, when I shut down for the night, I was
still hearing a few W6 stations, mostly in southern California,
calling CQ, but I had run out of stations to work. I worked no
Japanese (or other Asian) stations that first local evening.
When I shut down for the night, I had more QSOs in the log than I
did in 2002 at that time.
For some reason, Saturday local morning started off kind of slow
for me, but things did eventually begin to pick up. I think there
was some Eskip that began around 1500 UTC, that together with the
F layer propagation made for some great runs. I made 57 QSOs in
the 1400 UTC hour, but things really began to take off in the
1500 UTC hour, the first of eight consecutive hours of over 100
QSOs (193, 210, 187, 121, 106, 112, 140, and 119, respectively.)
This was the first time I've ever worked over 200 QSOs in a single
clock hour in any contest - I came close last year in the ARRL 10
Meter Contest, but this year I did it!
The vast majority of these QSOs were with W/VE stations. The
first European in the log was a DL at 1336 UTC, the second was
an F at 1417 UTC, another French station at 1437 UTC, and then
an EA at 1441 UTC. By 1945 UTC, I had only worked 22 European
stations in six DXCC entities. A nice surprise was being called
by a 5U7 station at 1524 UTC. I also worked an EA8 during this
morning run. Aside from the occasional Caribbean or South American
station, everything was W/VEs until a surprise late QSO with CT
station at 2151 UTC, and a real surprise when I was called by an ES
station at 2218 UTC. In total, I worked 24 Europeans on day one.
The first Japanese station to call in came shortly thereafter at
2221 UTC. In total, I worked 14 Japanese stations the first night,
the last one at 2324 UTC. I also worked a single DU station in this
opening. The European "opening" was almost nine times as long as
the east Asian opening.
F layer propagation mostly went away right around sunset, 0000 UTC,
with the band still open to VKs and ZLs. Fortunately, the Eskip
we had all day Saturday stayed around. It wasn't nearly as intense
as it had been the local night before, and it was really favoring the
southern latitude W/VEs, but it meant that I was able to do hours
of 31, 33, 45, 29, 35, 38, and 17 QSOs after dark, which is much
more fun than 0 hours. When I went to bed, I had more QSOs in the
log than when I shut down for the night in 2002!
The conditions on Sunday were much less favorable than they were on
Saturday. I think the Eskip we had on Saturday wasn't there. The
band felt long in the early hours, with most W/VEs too weak to work,
but more distant stations (like VE9, LU, ZS) loud but, of course,
more scarce. The same thing may have happened on Saturday, but with
Eskip filling in the gap to more nearby stations. Right around 1400
UTC, I really began to become frustrated and even a little concerned;
I was getting very few answers to my CQs, and repeated S&P trips
up and down the band were really discouraging - there seemed to be
gaps of six or seven unoccupied kHz all over the place, and everyone
I could hear was already in the log. At 1422 UTC, though, a TK
station answered one of my CQs, and had a respectable signal, the
first European of the morning. But the band still felt weird. In
any event, the band began to shorten sometime in the 1500 UTC hour,
and more W/VE stations began to enter the log again. The morning
run was not as intense as the previous morning, with only one hour
over 100 QSOs. My next-to-final southern European was an EA7 at 1720
UTC. I worked a few northern Europeans on the polar path, though: an
RW1 at 1728 UTC, an SM at 1743 UTC, a YL at 2141 UTC, and an OH
at 2142 UTC. The final European in the log was actually a CT station
at 2154 UTC, the only southern European station I'd worked in five
hours.
There were some nice surprises that called in on Sunday: OX, V7, FK,
S9. My rate took a dive in the middle of the afternoon, when I
had a few slow hours (42, 45, and 45 QSOs respectively.) I think
the Eskip we had all day Saturday wasn't there on Sunday. The rate
picked up again in the 2100 UTC hour, with a 102 QSO hour. There
might have been brief Eskip in that hour. The first JA of the
evening was at 2209 UTC, and the final JA of the contest was at 2327
UTC - again, a much shorter opening than the European opening. F
layer propagation started to go away early in the 2300 UTC hour,
and without Eskip (and being Monday morning local time in VK/ZL,)
there were very few stations left to work. During the last hour of
the contest, I made only 10 QSOs.
I really have no idea what to expect 10 meters to be like on the
downward side of the solar cycle. Last year, I was psychologically
prepared for a terrible, difficult weekend, and was caught completely
off-guard by great conditions. This year, I was ready to eke out
everything I could, and I was really happy to have a QSO total
going to bed on Saturday local evening that was higher than my QSO
total in 2002 when I shut down for the evening, even with the
drastically less productive openings to EU and JA (for instance, in
2002 I made 127 QSOs with Japan, but this year I made only 28.)
Without Eskip on Sunday, though, it was impossible to keep up with
last year's Sunday rate, and I finished with 350 fewer QSOs at the
end. I worked 33 fewer multipliers despite taking even more frequent
search and pounce runs through the bands than I did last year. The
much weaker openings to Europe really hurt my multiplier totals.
Interesting note: If you total my VK/ZL/ZK1/FK QSOs, I made exactly
as many QSOs (28) as I made with JA stations. That certainly wasn't
the case last year.
I really enjoy this contest - it's great fun to run rate and work
through the openings. I love working JAs - I wish there were more
of them on the air.
I logged 77 dupes.
Rate Sheet:
===========
HR 10SSB CUM TOTAL SCORE
-- ------ --------- -----
0 31/8 31/8 0.00M
1 12/4 43/12 0.00M
2 56/7 99/19 0.00M
3 64/13 163/32 0.01M
4 69/5 232/37 0.02M
5 77/3 309/40 0.02M
6 27/0 336/40 0.03M
7 2/0 338/40 0.03M
8 --- 338/40 0.03M
9 --- 338/40 0.03M
10 --- 338/40 0.03M
11 --- 338/40 0.03M
12 --- 338/40 0.03M
13 14/8 352/48 0.03M
14 54/17 406/65 0.05M
15 193/6 599/71 0.09M
16 210/8 809/79 0.13M
17 187/5 996/84 0.17M
18 121/5 1117/89 0.20M
19 106/3 1223/92 0.23M
20 112/1 1335/93 0.25M
21 140/1 1475/94 0.28M
22 119/2 1594/96 0.31M
23 90/1 1684/97 0.33M
0 31/0 1715/97 0.33M
1 33/1 1748/98 0.34M
2 45/0 1793/98 0.35M
3 29/0 1822/98 0.36M
4 35/0 1857/98 0.36M
5 38/0 1895/98 0.37M
6 17/0 1912/98 0.37M
7 --- 1912/98 0.37M
8 --- 1912/98 0.37M
9 --- 1912/98 0.37M
10 --- 1912/98 0.37M
11 --- 1912/98 0.37M
12 3/1 1915/99 0.38M
13 23/1 1938/100 0.39M
14 22/1 1960/101 0.40M
15 70/0 2030/101 0.41M
16 103/1 2133/102 0.44M
17 93/3 2226/105 0.47M
18 42/2 2268/107 0.49M
19 45/0 2313/107 0.49M
20 45/0 2358/107 0.50M
21 102/3 2460/110 0.54M
22 35/1 2495/111 0.55M
23 10/0 2505/111 0.56M
Day 1 1684/97
Day 2 821/14
Total 2505/111
Continental Distribution:
=========================
10SSB
-----
USA calls = 2135
VE calls = 140
N.A. calls = 39
S.A. calls = 62
Euro calls = 47
Afrc calls = 8
Asia calls = 0
JA calls = 28
Ocen calls = 46
Total calls = 2505
QSO Distribution by Multiplier:
===============================
1. Ca 231
2. Fl 119
3. Ny 108
4. Wa 95
5. Il 81
6. Pa 80
7. Ma 80
8. Oh 75
9. Nj 74
10. Tx 71
11. Nc 64
12. Tn 61
13. Ga 60
14. Or 56
15. Mi 54
16. In 52
17. Az 48
18. On 48
19. Va 48
20. Mn 47
21. Md 47
22. Wi 46
23. Ky 44
24. Ct 41
25. Co 40
26. Mo 40
27. Al 38
28. Sc 29
29. Nh 29
30. JA 28
31. Ks 27
32. LU 26
33. Ia 26
34. Bc 26
35. Ne 21
36. EA 19
37. Nv 18
38. Vt 18
39. Mt 17
40. Ab 17
41. Me 17
42. VK 15
43. Hi 15
44. Ar 15
45. Wv 15
46. Ri 15
47. PY 13
48. Id 13
49. Qc 13
50. Nm 12
51. Ok 12
52. La 11
53. Ms 11
54. ZL 10
55. Nb 8
56. Sk 8
57. Mb 8
58. XE 7
59. Ut 7
60. Wy 7
61. KP4 7
62. F 7
63. CT 7
64. Ns 7
65. De 7
66. Sd 6
67. YV 6
68. CE 5
69. CM 5
70. I 5
71. TI 4
72. KP2 3
73. OA 3
74. CN 3
75. Nf 3
76. CX 3
77. ZK1/S 2
78. P4 2
79. ZS 2
80. ZF 2
81. TG 2
82. SM 2
83. Nd 2
84. HI 2
85. 3D2 1
86. DL 1
87. V4 1
88. FY 1
89. HK 1
90. HR 1
91. 5U 1
92. EA8 1
93. Lb 1
94. Pe 1
95. PJ2 1
96. HP 1
97. ES 1
98. DU 1
99. ZP 1
100. KG4 1
101. TK 1
102. Dc 1
103. CU 1
104. UA 1
105. OX 1
106. V7 1
107. FK 1
108. YL 1
109. OH 1
110. S9 1
111. PJ7 1
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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