ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2020
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 23.2
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 575 75
SSB: 415 57
-------------------
Total: 990 132 Total Score = 412,896
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
I had a busy Friday, out most of the day. PY, CE, and LU went into the log on TE
in the first 12 minutes. Sporadic E started here right around 0030Z into W5 and
Mexico and at 0106Z my rate suddenly vastly improved. It was a pretty wild ride
through 0450Z with probably the most intense widespread long lasting Es I have
ever experienced in over 40 years worth of 10M tests! There was very short skip
as close as SW VA, NC, KY, TN, and MI with the biggest volume coming from MN.
For quite a while I could work all 4th, 5th, and 9th area states, and most 0's
at the same time! Starting 0206Z I easily worked W1's on Es backscatter (quite
rare on 10M) a sign of very intense Es. K0RF in CO was the first double hop Q,
but the double hop improved at 0247Z on CW adding NM, UT, ID, and SK (VE5 very
rare from here on 10). At 0304Z I found a VK4 and got through right away (that's
about 5 hours 15 minutes past sunset) via Es to F2.
I didn't get any double hop on phone, but the QSO rates were great with a 106
hour at 03Z. There were still signals at 0450Z with over 390 Q's in the log, but
activity and strength of signals drastically declined.
Saturday was a struggle, there was morning Es into the Gulf Coast area and TX,
but many had already been worked. The best rate all day was 42 at 13Z. I started
working Central America at 1410Z (TI,HP,TG) and worked V51 on both modes with a
real struggle on CW (never heard ZS). I also found a local D4 on phone. Most of
the afternoon was spent struggling to be heard in SA especially on phone, mucho
grande pile ups on many. There was a fleeting weak West Coast opening around
1930Z working WA, CA, NV, and ID. TE to SA persisted through 24Z, but with few
new Q's, and there was no evening Es. 260 Q's were added by evening.
Sunday was a better day. PI4DX was heard but never worked. From 1338-1403Z on CW
I S&P'ed LZ5, F6, OQ4, 9A3, DL2, DK6, and 9A5. At 14Z there was intense F2
to the south, but it did not last very long. J7 was logged on SSB and a KP4 was
30db over 9 on CW. At 1430Z there was some weak Es into W1 and VE9, and some
good Es that persisted most of the day into WI, IL, many IA, NE and MN, SD, MO,
KS and OK. The big event was a good west coast opening starting around noon
(17Z) which started with AZ. Some of the Q's could have been double hop Es. I
logged many CA, NV, and WA stations along with CO, OR, ID, UT, AB, and BC.
Despite efforts to move stations, no western VE's were worked on SSB. I stuck to
those 4 point CW Q's as much as possible and there were quite a few. Best hour
of day was 60 at 17Z. Some signals were loud, most were not. 340 Q's were
added.
We were indeed very lucky to be blessed with so much sporadic E. The solar flux
was only low 80's which should have severely limited F2 openings. Many days it
has been impossible to work the west coast and SA was weak in the past week. The
only non-local signal at 20Z one day post test is a weak LU beacon.
It may very well be that next year's results will be worse than 2020. Leave it
to great activity to make so many Q's possible. I think activity from MN, NE,
IA, KS, and MS was an all time high for this test. Too many ops repeated way too
many times during exchanges. Also, lack of phonetics on phone slowed things
down. Many thanks for the Q's and pulling out my sometimes weak signal.
73 and Happy Holidays, Jeff
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|