ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: NA5NN
Operator(s): N5BO
Station: N5FG
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MS
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 22 17
80: 51 32
40: 138 61
20: 512 80
15: 362 83
10: 1197 97
-------------------
Total: 2282 370 Total Score = 2,533,020
Club: 599 DX Association
Comments:
For me this felt like the longest contest I have ever participated in. The lack
of rest before the contest and my body still recovering from overseas travel
turned into a struggle Sunday afternoon. A part of me hated to see the contest
end, but I admit it was a relief to have it end!
Anyways, my work commitment keeps me pretty inactive, so inactive that I was
actually away from ham radio for almost six years before I participated in the
CQWW SSB in 2013. I honestly don't remember the last time I did anything in a
ARRL DX contest so I didn't really have much of an idea, or game plan going
into it. With that said it didn't take me long to realize that this wasn't the
CQWW contest and if I couldn't muster up some kind of run it would be a long 48
hours and a poor score. So I echo N1UR's comments and if it weren't for the
spotty runs I was able to produce I would have a much lower score.
I knew going into the contest that I would have to take advantage of 10M as
it's the best band I had at the station and I think it's pretty obvious I did
that by looking at my QSO totals. With that said, other than the first hour on
10M running around 100 JA's it was S&P until I could finally establish a run
frequency on a crowded 10M band around 1300z. This lasted for around 2 1/2
hours with a steady stream of callers and at times peaking 250+ rate until I
had to start tuning the bands again. 10M produced a few more smaller runs
during Saturday, but overall Sunday may have been more productive throughout
the day.
As for 15M, I could never find a clear spot to CQ on at all during Saturday and
it was actually pretty disturbing to see my QSO/Mult count on the band going
into Sunday. The signals from the larger stations in EU were so loud that I
found it hard to find new stations after a few sweeps of the band and finding a
run frequency just wasn't happening until Sunday when my luck changed. I found
a small sliver of an opening around .400 when I started to CQ with many
unanswered calls until I was greeted with an almost unmanageable pileup trying
to get the MS mult. 30min into the run on 15M I was run off by an HP station,
the band sure felt unforgiving as a LP station. I had a few more short lived
runs on the band that sure helped my mult count and a late afternoon sweep of
the band towards the end of the contest looking to SA/Carib netted a handful of
easy ones that I was missing to bring my mult count to a more respectable total.
Overall I think 15M could of been better for me, but like I first mentioned 10M
was going to be used as a crutch to make up short comings elsewhere.
20M, for me this is usually a tough band with LP, but Sunday around 0750z the
band seemed fairly empty so I found a nice clear spot to CQ and found myself on
the end of a respectable run of very loud EU stations for nearly 3 hours that
averaged around 150 an hour at the start with a short peak of nearly 200. I
honestly don't remember how the bad was on Saturday during this time, but I'm
kicking myself if it was the same! Overall I didn't do much on 20M after 1200z
Sunday because each time I checked the band out I couldn't find a clear spot to
CQ, nor any new stations when searching the band.
40M, not much to expect out of the band with a yagi being blocked by trees and
keeping it from turning to EU and down to the Carib/SA. I just try to work as
many as possible and feel I was able to pull out a decent mult count
considering the circumstances.
80/160, two wires and no RX antennas mixed with LP, I don't think I need to say
much about my activity there. I would however like to thank all of the stations
that did work me on these bands, especially the few EU stations I worked on
their sunrise Sunday. EI7M actually told me I was loud, but he was doing all
of the work!
Thanks to V26M, P40L, P40P, 8P5A, PJ2T, PJ4G, TI8M, XE7S, KP2M, and VP5H for
Q's on all 6 bands.
I think the lowest reported power I received was 500mw from a EU station.
Overall I feel very good about my effort. I do feel there are a few things I
could of done differently, but I don't make a habit of thinking about the past
and will use what I learned during this contest in the future. Also, it looks
like the W5 record will be at the mercy of the log checking robots, congrats to
N5AW on a great score and I look forward to seeing the final outcome!
I'm at the mercy of my work schedule that has me out of the country, so I'm not
sure when the next time I can participate in a major contest. Good luck to all
in the future.
Justin
N5BO
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