ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: EA5ON
Operator(s): EA5ON
Station: EA5ELT
Class: SOSB/15 HP
QTH: Torrent
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 2087 61
10:
-------------------
Total: 2087 61 Total Score = 381,921
Club: Torrent Contest Club
Comments:
Once again fate conspired against us and not enough people available for a
multi-single. So, I decided to do 15HP with my own call and Victor EA5KV did a
relaxed 10LP with reduced operating time as ED5T. Also EB5KT came up during the
night and continued his experiments with the pennant and coaxial loop antennas
for 80 and 160m.
I rolled up on Saturday at 1015 local and we wound up the tower with the 15m
stack on it. I switched on and heard VE8EV in NWT and just about ripped out the
heaphones from their case in the anxiety to work him before the pileup got out
of hand! Managed to work him while the amp was still warming up but Victor was
not impressed about how I treated his cans :(. No other activity on the band so
I had an early lunch and Victor headed off to work. Band was slow to start and
took a while to get going. Fortunately I had a good run frequency and managed
to keep it for quite a while and get a whole load of mults worked between run
and second VFO. As usual it wasn’t until the band dropped out in the rest of
EU that I was really able to run, and the band stayed open until after 11pm
local! I finished the first day with 1090 qsos and 60 multipliers. I don’t
remember having ever had so many mults at that stage in an ARRL before.
Sunday the band was slower to start and I spent most of my time swinging the
top beam to EU so encroaching stations could hear I was there. I missed having
the Optibeam for that task so I wouldn’t have to use a rotator but we decided
it wasn’t worth cabling up the 10m stack for Vic’s limited effort so he had
the Optibeam on 10. A real tough time, QRM levels very high both from USA and
EU stations and I regretfully missed copying many weak stations who were
getting clobbered by my neighbours. It wasn’t until late again that I managed
to get a run going. The band was still open at 11pm, while I was in the advanced
portion of the band. I decided to QSY up to a clear spot to see if I could work
some generals. The result was immediate and I got a reasonable run going until
I had to go QRT about half an hour before the end of the contest. What a blast!
I do apologise to all those who I caught partials of but couldn’t complete.
Also quite a number I got the call but not the exchange. No autofill for this
operator, and I’m glad, I think this year its more noticeable than ever that
people licenced in one place end up someplace else and I prefer to copy the
exchange than risk getting dinged. In spite of what the solar numbers might
indicate, I found Saturday to be better than Sunday, although the late night
opening on Sunday almost made up for the rest of it.
As usual, a contest full of fun moments. Early on Saturday, got a call from
VK7FRJG giving me a nice report from Tasmania on the long path. Also “out of
contest”, got a call from Fred NA2U, I was all ready to hit “AZ” in the
exchange when he said no, he was in Hawaii and he’d just stopped by to say
hello! Good to contact with folks I know personally (K8IA, K7WP, N7IR, K1TO,
K0LUZ….) and folks I know on the air (VE8GER, WW1WW, K1TN…) plus many
familiar calls from other contests and the CQ Contest reflector.
Just one murphy attack, several times on Saturday the PC lost power for a
fraction of a second and rebooted itself. So I just logged on paper and filled
in when it came back on again. Otherwise everything worked just fine.
Congrats to José Ramón EA7KW at EF7X for the rivalry on the band (seems he
beat me again) and some other good scores turned in by fellow EAs.
Rig: FT1000MP MkV field
Amp: AL1200, old and tired like the op, still manages a KW if you kick it but
mostly running about 800/900w.
Ant: 4 over 4 monoband www.eantenna.es on a tower that’s even older and more
tired than the AL1200
Thanks to everyone for the QSOs!
73 de Duncan EA5ON
www.ea5on.com
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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