ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 16.2
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 327 56
SSB: 161 49
-------------------
Total: 488 105 Total Score = 171,150
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Well narrated by Nate, N4YDU, a blast Friday night and Saturday, typical almost
dead band grind at bottom of cycle most of Sunday. The start was much better
than last year, just as I thought it was going to be a dead band night around
0050Z (only one lone QC on Es), sporadic E appeared to MN/WI/SD. then it
spread to ME,NS,NB. Then later from FL across the Gulf Coast to TX. At 0220Z
there
was brief but strong double hop into CO. FL stations were still in at 0420Z but
fading when I quit for the night with 133 Q's went into the log.
Saturday started slow, not much but weak FL and AL plus a few big guns on meteor
and/or ionospheric scatter. W0AIH win the awards for being there many hours on
scatter. Then sproadic E popped in from MN and WI with the opening moving
southward to IA/MO/NE/AR/TN/KY/TX and across to FL. A few northern SA stations
appeared followed by deep SA later and then just as I was thinking lunch break,
AZ appeared at 1833Z and activity erupted on F2. I worked TX & OK (Es?), NM,
CO, NV, and CA (southern). I had some good runs on CW, not so good on phone.
But, I made sure to move all the mults I could while the band was open which
hurt the rate, but improved the score. The K index was at least 3 and conditions
were just disturbed enough to raise the MUF, but not a peep was heard in 7 land
north of AZ/NV. A local worked UT. The immaculate reception highlight was a VK2
finding me on CW at 1851Z, very early! By 2035Z, the band was pretty much
closed. Several Mexican stations on each mode had good signals here. I was also
able to pretty easily work the big guns on backscatter around 19-20Z including
ON,IL,IN,MA, and NH. Saturday evening was mostly FL stations, often weak and
weak scatter. Miraculously, around 02Z (4 hours after sunset) a ZL6 appeared on
CW, worked first call. This was a much better day than I thought would be
possible, for sure ending with a total of about 375 Q's in the log.
Sunday started with promise, very loud FL right up to Jacksonville, but barely
worked a GA on phone, and no GA on CW until later after FL had faded. Activity
on phone from FL was disappointing, plenty of CW activity, but most already in
log. I caught a CO2 on Es. Finally around 16Z, YV, P4, and PJ2 appeared for 3
new mults.
They faded fairly fast. All day long, signals from southern SA were never very
strong (considerably weaker than Saturday); best signals were in the 19Z hour.
SA was gone by about 20Z. After that it was locals and scatter only.
Overall, phone activity was much lower than CW; many more phone Q's could have
been made if ops just tried harder. The scoring structure discourages phone. 10
put on quite a show for the bottom of the cycle at least until Sunday. Many
thanks for all of the calls and digging me out of the noise. Glad to help with
the WV mult; I worked several WV locals and 2 on the other side of the
Alleghenies.
73 and happy holidays, Jeff
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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