ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): NF1R K6SF N7MH
Station: W6YX
Class: M/S HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 28
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 1299 148
SSB: 966 138
-------------------
Total: 2265 286 Total Score = 2,038,608
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Thanks to Clayton/NF1R for organizing our effort this year. Clayton started out
on Friday evening and we had 285 Qs in the log by the time I arrived at 0430. I
squandered some of the Es opening setting up a second radio using a Micro2R SO2R
box so that one radio was on CW and the other on Phone. Dual CQing on CW and
Phone netted 4 more Qs before I called it a night.
In the morning the band opened to South America early with several stations
worked between 1330 and 1400, almost 2 hours before our sunrise. Surprises
included ZS2NF at 1351 and 3W1T long-path at 1423 with a signal so strong it
sounded local.
The first European was TM6M at 1437, still over a half-hour before sunrise.
The opening to Europe was skew path for the first couple of hours with us
initially beaming 120 degrees, toward South America.
We had 4 Yagi antennas and beamed them at 120, 90, 70 and 30 degrees. We kept
listening on the different antennas and eventually the skew shifted to 90
degrees. We weren't very successful running while beamed at 120 degrees. Most
Europeans were working other parts of the US via direct path so they weren't
beamed in the corresponding SW direction.
Eventually the opening was via direct path but our running netted mostly
western EU stations with a few eastern EU big guns calling occasionally. The
band had also opened to much of the US so we ran for much of the day.
Clayton ran for most of Saturday morning and I lined up spotted multipliers on
the second radio which he worked when there was a break in the run. We missed
a few mults when they went QRT before we could call.
Chris/K6SF took over at 2000 and did most of the running for the rest of the
day. We when the band opened to JA we pointed an antenna that direction and
split power between the US and JA. The last JA was worked at 0152 which was 15
minutes later than on Friday evening. None of us could operate in the evening
so we missed any Es opening that may have happened Saturday evening.
I was the only operator on Sunday. Since the band had opened early the
previous day I tried to arrive at 1300 (5 AM local time). KC0W in ND was
worked at 1324 on what sounded like meteor scatter. The only other stations I
heard before 1400 were N9RV and K7BG.
I listened on phone and noticed that several European stations were beginning
to move the meter shortly after 1400, but all were direct path unlike Saturday.
None of them could hear me calling. I listened on the CW radio and the band
sounded dead. This seemed odd since I'd expect the band to open on CW first.
Moving the SSB radio to the CW band I heard signals all across the band. I
went back to the CW radio and changed from a 500 Hz filter to a 2 KHz filter
and could then hear plenty of signals. I worked a few stations with the wide
filter but had a hard time hearing if a loud signal was nearby.
Finally I realized that the IF Shift knob on the FT1000MP was not at the
default setting and once I returned it there I could use the narrow CW filters
again. I never touch the IF Shift control so I wasn't expecting it to have
changed. Apologies to anyone who tried calling during this time since I could
only hear the really strong signals like N9RV.
The European opening on Sunday was mostly G, F and EA stations and the band
closed down to EU by 1700 except for an ultimately successful 3-minute effort
by TM7F on phone at 1730. The rest of Sunday was similar to Saturday. The
SO2R box was handy for working mults on the other radio, even on the same
mode.
73,
-Mike, N7MH
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