ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N2IC
Operator(s): N2IC
Station: N2IC
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 45 34
80: 184 66
40: 1001 110
20: 795 114
15: 1439 126
10: 892 112
-------------------
Total: 4356 562 Total Score = 7,344,216
Club:
Comments:
Yes, UNLIMITED !
First time I have tried Unlimited (Assisted) as a single-op for at least 20
years. The feed from the RBN is a game changer.
I probably made a mistake not studying a few other unlimited logs ahead of
time. My primary strategy was to NOT be a DXer ! Run, run, run ! For the first
~20 hours I only went after the unusual multipliers, and unexpected openings
that popped up on the RBN. When you are drinking from the RBN firehose, it's
hard to stay focused on what is important to the final score. Beginning
Saturday afternoon, I aggresively went after any new mults, and by early Sunday
afternoon I went after anything that moved :)
Conditions seemed slightly down from last year. My total QSO's are down by
about 100. 10 meters never opened well to EU on Saturday. It was all scatter
from the southeast. With 15 so solid to EU, it seemed like a waste of time to
try much on 10 meters - It was all S&P and I had to wait after every
QRP/dipole east coast station before I had a chance. I just crossed my fingers
that 10 would be better on Sunday. And it was ! A solid 3 hour opening. 20 was
too absorptive in the afternoon to EU and did not open to EU in the middle of
our night. 40 was only good to EU for a short time after their sunrise. As
always, thank you JA/Asia for the great activity.
Will I try unlimited again ? I think the answer is yes. Let's face it - a big
score in any category is your ability to run, pick out calls quickly and
correctly, and being on the right bands at the right times. Being assisted
doesn't change that. I will say that in the last few hours of the contest,
having the RBN feed keeps it more interesting. There is always something to
work, and you don't have to keep tediously searching the bands on the 2nd radio
for the proverbial diamond-in-the-haystack of an unworked station.
As a side note, I wasn't at all sure my 9 year old, underpowered, single
processor computer could handle the RBN load. Thanks to the automatic duplicate
spot removal features of CC-cluster nodes, a few other filters I set up on the
cluster, and N1MM+, everything worked perfectly.
73,
Steve, N2IC
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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