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[3830] ARRL 10 N8II SO Mixed LP

To: 3830@contesting.com, N8II@aol.com
Subject: [3830] ARRL 10 N8II SO Mixed LP
From: webform@b4h.net
Reply-to: N8II@AOL.COM
Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2013 01:59:59 +0000
List-post: <3830@contesting.com">mailto:3830@contesting.com>
                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW: 1005   132
  SSB:  680   117
-------------------
Total: 1685   249  Total Score = 1,339,122

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Conditions much improved over 2012, enjoyment decreased. It was less than a full
time effort for me. I was expecting to have to QRT afternoon Sunday to have a
friend and XYL over for a holiday get together; it turned out his dad ended up
in the hospital and he had to cancel out Sunday morning. I missed the first
hour and 45 minutes having dinner with relatives; it looks like that may have
put me way behind right off the bat. Then I didn't start Saturday until about
1240Z; the band was wide open to EU before then. I operated most all day
(snowing outside) but little accumulation except for 2 meal breaks and finished
with about 1025 Q's by 0131Z when then band was still amazingly open to JA, not
with great signals, but we could still catch a big gun or two. Ironically, the
band opened to JA quite late Saturday, maybe due to some solar wind issues
which also attenuated KL7 until Sunday. That was after they had almost
completely faded out around 0045Z, must have been some Es link. Overall, I just
didn't attack the test full bore, if I was tired of the tediousness of endless
S&P on CW or fighting to run thru QRM, I stopped and switched modes. 
On the plus side, conditions to EU were as good as they could get in December
on Saturday, e.g. 150 Germans, 61 G's, 52 F's, and 58 I's were logged this year
vs. a total of less than 10 EU last year. I operate casually a lot on ten and
there must have been some sporadic E on the EU ended which extended normal band
closing by at least 1 or 2 hours compared to a average day. The OK's, OM's,
9A's, and S5's lasted far longer than normal with booming signals. Many days
pass with few or any Russians, they were surprisingly numerous all the way to
UA4 land and I even worked one or two big guns from the western edge of UA9. I
had a really good CW run for quite a while until finally a loud USA backscatter
station got too close and a loud EU was just above me. If I was really serious
the EU total on CW would have been about 100 Q's higher. The early EU band
close  Sunday by about 1700Z except for a few Iberian stragglers is pretty
typical of recent conditions. 
Conditions to the west coast and CA in particular can only be described as
miserable most of the time and I never ran more than about 7 CA stations on
phone even at the best of the opening well after sunset Saturday. Conditions to
AZ were good for long stretches and CO was right in the middle of the sweet
spot. It felt like almost every station who could get on from CO showed up in
my log. QSO totals were 73 AZ, 61 TX, 57 CO, 53 CA (it felt like less than
that!). UT Q's = WA with both at 25!
We had some Geminid meteor shower scatter Friday evening especially into the
upper Midwest and New England which helped with a few mults, but the normal
amount of plentiful Es into the 4,5,9, and 0 call areas seemed totally absent
from here, so I did rather poorly on stateside and VE mults. Despite the
booming Texans especially on Sunday afternoon, nary a single OK station was
ever heard and I never worked MS, hearing only a "MS" being sent to
another station once. Only one Q each was made with LA and MS. NF, MAR, NB, and
PEI were found on CW, but none of them on phone and I barely worked PA on phone
(thanks W3GH on scatter) which is easy with locals usually. 
There was so much activity from so many places at once, there was no one
correct strategy; it was a bit overwhelming. Do you try and run NA on phone or
look south for mults? SA mults were few! But there was decent activity from the
Caribbean. Gotta keep reminding yourself that CW Q's are worth 4 points vs. 2
for phone and they can actually copy my low power calls on scatter. And don't
forget to look south on CW. It's a real quandary! Conditions were so good to
the south that I worked virtually everything there with my Force 12 C3S at 60
ft = 2 el yagi.
Many thanks for the all of the calls and struggling to hear me on CW. It was a
bit more fatiguing than usual, but still fun. I stopped for about a minute to
chat with Alan, KO7X in WY who used to live in PVRC land. The mountain west was
certainly better represented than ever in this one. Next year the solar flux
will likely be a lot lower, but you never know. So show up, have fun, and find
out!

73, Jeff


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