ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: N5FO
Operator(s): N5FO
Station: N5FO
Class: SO CW HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 1001 101
SSB:
-------------------
Total: 1001 101 Total Score = 408,408
Club: Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
Comments:
Wow, what a difference from last year, and I guess the future of 10M for years
ahead!
I was on the fence about doing this one at all, but had a new StackMatch II
switchbox to try with the addition of the 2nd tri-bander this year (an old
Cushcraft X9 "Big Thunder"). So, I took a casual attitude about it
planning to take more breaks and work less than I did (18hrs). Last year I
worked over a hundred stations in the first hour and the band stayed open to JA
for another hour. This year only 29 Q's in the first hour, not a single JA but a
couple VK's.
Saturday morning at 13:30 the band was "dead". By 13:40 I barely
heard K5GO with terrible flutter. I got thru to WJ9B first contact of the
morning at 13:50. I did get a nice run 1600-1700, with the highest hourly rate
for the contest at just over 150. The surprise of the day occurred at 21:22
when out of the blue, OG6N called from over the pole! He was followed shortly
after by two other Fin's and it was over. My first JA came at 22:02, but only a
handful followed. (so much for our JA "advantage") VY1AAA was a nice
catch at 22:34, but in the 2300 hour only 2 Q's so I pulled the switch. By
Saturday's end 655 Q's & 88 Mults seemed a long way from my goal of 1000
& over 100.
Sunday morning opened with KA7T at 13:51, terrible flutter for the first 30
mins. In spite of trying, the little run I had Sat could not be repeated,
things slowly chugged along... 17:16 brought IZ8EYP & EF8O so much for a
"big" Euro run, ha! By 19:15 the rate had dwindled down to 11/hr, so
I quit, went out for a drive and fresh air. At 893 Q's the goal of 1000 seemed
impossible. While driving away from "home", N2IC and I were talking
on the local repeater. He talked me into not giving up and going back for the
last four hours. Great decision! Thanks Steve! To make a long story short, I
ended up breaking 1000 at 23:55 and picked up a few nice mults along the way
bringing that total to 101. I worked V73D at 23:17, but he didn't send his
number? A couple calls he just sent 5nn, then he was gone!
So, it was long and slow, but gave me plenty of time to practice SO2V with the
two tri-banders, and the StackMatch worked flawlessly. My score would have been
considerably less without the capability of beaming two directions.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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