ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: NS3T
Operator(s): NS3T
Station: NS3T
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 37
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 51 35
80: 155 61
40: 153 64
20: 357 71
15: 143 58
10: 15 9
-------------------
Total: 874 298 Total Score = 781,356
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
First, thanks to my wife for dealing with the kid while I played on
the radio ("Look, it's the man from the basement!")
I am never going to win this contest with no towers and no beams in my
suburban backyard, but I enjoy seeing how much I can squeeze out of my
station as compared to the high scoring low power set. I really do
enjoy these 48 hour DX tests. They are a true test of everything,
especially your own personal drive.
For the third straight year, I made 874 contacts. Not bad considering
that in those years the high bands keep getting worse. My low band
antenna work has paid off on 160 and 80, while 40 needs help...and
I need something to dig out the weak ones on those bands. A new
dipole on 20 aimed at Europe really helped me CQ.
15 never really got that good at my QTH. It had that sound of a
band that makes you think it is open, but when you CQ, it really isn't.
I scanned 10 meters about every 15 minutes on both days, just to make
sure I wasn't missing anything. I worked every station on 10 that
I was able to hear. TI5N, P49Y, P40W, 8P9PA, PJ2T, PJ4R, TO9A and
and J7OJ were my six-banders. I also worked almost 20 stations on
5 bands (160-15) including F6KHM, G4BUO, OK1RF, 9A15DX, OM7M and RK2FWA.
My overall goal was to get to a million, but I knew that would be hard,
so my secondary goal was to beat last year's score and I did that by
getting 27 more mults than last year.
0000z
I missed the first 15 minutes of the contest after going to dinner with
the XYL and harmonic...still made 36 S&P Q's in the next 43 minutes.
I tried to CQ on 80, but it just wasn't working on the first night.
Had a few mini runs on night two. Basically it was almost all S&P on
160-80-40 through the night. I had already decided not to sleep because
if I sleep when the family sleeps, then I'm wasting operating time.
160 was great. I had never worked into Europe so easily in my life.
By sunrise on Saturday, I had tripled my 160 mults from last year and
was ahead in mults on 80 and 40 as well. 20 started making noise around
1030z and EA8/OH4NL was the first EU in the log at 1059. Things finally
picked up about 1115 and I S&P'd furiously for 56/25. I found a hole
at 14075 and started CQ'ing just before 1200. It was a steady rate
of 40 or so, which let me pick off stations on 15 on the second radio.
When things slowed on 20, I CQ'd 15 and hunted on 20. I did that
until a 45 minute lunch break with the family at 1730z.
After putting the kid down for her nap, it was more CQ/S&P on 20/15.
I never heard anything on 10 the first day. I started checking 40 early
for anything new and worked an IK2 at 2057z. After another 45 minute
family break, I hit 40 meters and turned the TS2000 filters way down
and methodically worked my way through the band. 7X0RY was a nice pickup.
I tried CQ'ing on 80 and hitting 40 with the second radio at 0000z,
but it didn't produce much until a mini-run at 0330. I think next year I
will start using this time to have a calm dinner with the family, or a nap,
because 40 takes a dive here to Europe after sunset now and does not really
come back for me (with new stations calling CQ) until 04-05z. That
will change when the sunspots return!
What I try to do Saturday night is go to bed when the XYL does and get up
3-4 hours later. Usually she sleeps early, but this year she stayed up late,
so I slept from 0515-0930. Not the best choice, but hey, I'm not going to
win this contest and I need to keep some family sanity in the process.
It took a few minutes for my head to start deciphering code again, but
once it did, I bagged ZK1NOU, ZM1A and V7/K7ZZ on 40. That was cool.
I heard big pileups on 80 again, but I couldn't hear who was calling.
I only heard one JA on 80 and 40, but never was able to work them.
Never heard a KL7 again, though I did have one call me on 20 Saturday morning.
I violated my rule of keeping one radio on 40 after sunrise - the tradeoff
was to keep the second radio on 15 to desperately search for contacts there,
because I had the feeling 15 would not produce big numbers this year.
20 opened slowly on Sunday. I CQ'd at 14070 for 45 minutes until VC3A
made it clear that he was going to use that frequency. I moved up the band
and found 4X/UT5UDX and then CQ'd a bit more. Things did not perk up on
20 or 15, so I CQ'd and S&P'd back and forth until a 30 minute food and
family break at 1445z.
Finally, I heard a signal on 10 meters at 1633 and got LU7HN...but then it
was another 90 minutes before the Carribean and a few South Americans came
in from 1800-1900z. Hats off to YV5YMA for CQ'ing with his 5 watts.
As I said above, I worked every station that I could copy on 10. It was
frustrating of course to hear the local big guns calling stations that
I could not ever hear in ESP mode. After that it was back to 20 and 15.
By midday, I had pretty much worked every single station that was calling CQ,
except for a few of the really rare mults that had giant pileups like S9SS.
So it was 5 minutes of S&P, then play with the kid for awhile, back for
5 minutes, etc. CQ'ing would bring a few calls and then nothing for 10
minutes as I scratched and clawed my way to 874. Things were further
interrupted when we determined that the reason it was cold in the house
was that the furnace had stopped working. That kept me away from the
radio for a good chunk of the last two hours.
I think I have sort of reached the point where my antennas are good enough
to get me 98% of those stations calling CQ - but not good enough to call
CQ and get endless replies in these down solar times. Even so, I am not
disappointed with my score. I am sure I missed some opening to this or
that part of the world, but I did the best with my limited antenna setup.
Just nine months of antenna work until CQ WW CW!
73 Jamie NS3T
pair of TS 2000's
160m inverted L at 60'
80m inverted vee at 60'
80m inverted L at 55'
40m dipole at 55'
end fed dipoles on 20,15,10
QSO/DX by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
D1-0000Z 2/2 29/18 5/5 --+-- --+-- --+-- 36/25 36/25
D1-0100Z - 10/7 30/14 - - - 40/21 76/46
D1-0200Z 6/6 20/8 4/2 - - - 30/16 106/62
D1-0300Z 3/3 16/4 15/6 - - - 34/13 140/75
D1-0400Z 2/2 8/5 25/8 - - - 35/15 175/90
D1-0500Z 17/10 9/7 - - - - 26/17 201/107
D1-0600Z 8/5 8/3 5/4 - - - 21/12 222/119
D1-0700Z 3/2 14/3 6/4 - - - 23/9 245/128
D1-0800Z 2/1 1/1 10/5 --+-- --+-- --+-- 13/7 258/135
D1-0900Z 3/2 1/1 6/3 - - - 10/6 268/141
D1-1000Z 1/1 - 2/1 3/3 - - 6/5 274/146
D1-1100Z - - 3/2 51/21 2/2 - 56/25 330/171
D1-1200Z - - - 41/10 17/14 - 58/24 388/195
D1-1300Z - - - 24/3 23/8 - 47/11 435/206
D1-1400Z - - - 15/1 27/10 - 42/11 477/217
D1-1500Z - - - 17/3 14/5 - 31/8 508/225
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 21/2 14/7 --+-- 35/9 543/234
D1-1700Z - - - 18/2 1/1 - 19/3 562/237
D1-1800Z - - - 9/3 6/3 - 15/6 577/243
D1-1900Z - - - 17/4 4/3 - 21/7 598/250
D1-2000Z - - 1/0 17/8 2/1 - 20/9 618/259
D1-2100Z - - - 2/0 - - 2/0 620/259
D1-2200Z - - 11/4 - - - 11/4 631/263
D1-2300Z - 2/0 4/2 8/5 - - 14/7 645/270
D2-0000Z --+-- 9/0 3/0 --+-- --+-- --+-- 12/0 657/270
D2-0100Z - 1/0 3/0 - - - 4/0 661/270
D2-0200Z 1/0 3/0 3/0 - - - 7/0 668/270
D2-0300Z 1/0 9/2 - - - - 10/2 678/272
D2-0400Z 1/0 10/1 2/0 - - - 13/1 691/273
D2-0500Z - - - - - - 0/0 691/273
D2-0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 691/273
D2-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 691/273
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 691/273
D2-0900Z - - 4/1 - - - 4/1 695/274
D2-1000Z 1/1 1/1 4/3 - - - 6/5 701/279
D2-1100Z - - - 11/0 - - 11/0 712/279
D2-1200Z - - - 21/1 3/0 - 24/1 736/280
D2-1300Z - - - 21/2 9/3 - 30/5 766/285
D2-1400Z - - - 13/0 14/0 - 27/0 793/285
D2-1500Z - - - 5/0 5/0 - 10/0 803/285
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 7/0 --+-- 2/1 9/1 812/286
D2-1700Z - - - - 1/0 - 1/0 813/286
D2-1800Z - - - 3/1 1/1 10/7 14/9 827/295
D2-1900Z - - - 8/0 - 3/1 11/1 838/296
D2-2000Z - - 1/0 11/1 - - 12/1 850/297
D2-2100Z - - - 11/0 - - 11/0 861/297
D2-2200Z - 1/0 1/0 2/1 - - 4/1 865/298
D2-2300Z - 3/0 5/0 1/0 - - 9/0 874/298
Total: 51/35 155/61 153/64 357/71 143/58 15/9
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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