ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: NK7U
Operator(s): NK7U, K7ZO, N7WR, KL2A, KC7RSO
Station: NK7U
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Oregon
Operating Time (hrs): ~45
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 20 16
80: 161 49
40: 259 66
20: 960 119
15: 152 45
10: 3 2
-------------------
Total: 1555 297 Total Score = 1,345,410
Club:
Comments:
NK7U fielded a leisure class M/2 operation this year. Regulars NK7U, K7ZO, N7WR,
and KL2A were joined by KC7RSO making a long trip in over snow covered roads on
Friday afternoon. We could have either done a serious M/S or a more casual M/2
so we decided on the later. In hindsight this was a great decision as it gave
everyone a chance to either operate as much as they wanted or to catch up
reading of back issues of NCJ and/or watch the golf channel.
On the bands we echo everyoneâ??s thoughts that while 20M was an absolute zoo
with the usual frequency squabbles it really was in pretty amazing shape. We
had a strong opening to Asia at the start of the contest with a 150 QSO first
hour and with some good mults calling in -- HS, UA0, BV, 9M6, BY, JT, KH2, DU,
YB, etc. It opened to Europe well before dawn on Saturday morning which
surprised us. KL2A commented â??It was like someone flicked a switch and
suddenly the band was full of S9+ signals.â?? We had some pretty good runs on
20M into EU both days and ended up with 509 EU QSOâ??s on 20M. Not bad from the
west coast. As one EU operator commented to us on Sunday -- â??Yea you guys have
a great signal 59 +10 but then the east coast is 59 +40!â??. We even broke in
KC7RSO on 20M by having him CQ Saturday morning. This gave him some valuable
experience on how to copy callsigns through noise and QRM. If you can do this
you can do just about anything. It is one of those things you just have to
learn by doing. This is the way to grow and train operators. On the downside we
were amazed at the number of US operators we heard CQâ??ing at 14348 and up. And
these were extra class calls. I imagine they will getting some friendly letters
in the mail soon.
On the other hand 15M was a real disappointment. It was sorta open to JA for us
right before the contest started. Of course as the clock struck midnight UTC the
opening was gone. We got a marginal opening on Saturday afternoon and managed to
get 6 JAâ??s in the log, but that was it. We had no EUâ??s on 15M not even to EA
or CT. The closest we got to EU was CT3. A EA6 was heard but we could never
break the pileup.
Joeâ??s 80M 4-square was damaged in a freak wind storm a couple weeks ago.
Local gusts of 75mph were recorded a quarter mile from his place. The result
was that two of the 4 verticals were bent over in the middle with their tips
resting on the ground in a true Inverted V configuration. We tried operating
just one of the good remaining verticals standalone but it was just not cut for
that operation. So, we decided to hook the 4-square back up and see how it
worked. Amazingly it worked pretty darn well and we did well on the band. NK7U
had some great runs into JA on it the first night working a number of 5 watt
stations and we even managed to work a handful of Europeans on it over the
weekend. In many respects a 4 square is a pretty picky antenna array to get
working well but Joeâ??s seemed to hang in there despite itself.
Experience from the winter seasonâ??s 160M contests have shown that Joeâ??s
array of 4 sloping half wave dipoles off a 150 foot tower work very well. We
were plagued by pretty high noise levels all weekend with Saturday night being
the worst due to a snow storm and the associated static. However, we did manage
to work CS2C right at his dawn on Sunday for one of our better QSOâ??s of the
weekend.
Thanks everyone for the QSOâ??s. We will see you in future contests.
Scott/K7ZO (one of the NK7U operators.)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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