ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1996
Call: VP9DX Country:
Mode: SSB Category: Multi Single
BAND QSO QSO PTS STATES/PROV
160 426 1278 51
80 1374 4122 59
40 489 1467 49
20 2226 6678 58
15 414 1242 41
10 2 6 2
-----------------------------------
Totals 4931 14793 260 = 3,846,180
All reports sent were 59 KiloWatt, unless otherwise noted.
Operator List: VP9ID, N2MZH/VP9, VE7GAS/VP9
Equipment Description:
TS850S/AT
ALPHA 76A
20-10 Mosley CL-33 @ 60ft
40 1/4 Wave sloper (first night) & Force12 EF140S (second night)
80/160 1/4 Wave sloper (ALPHA DELTA DX-A) @ 60ft
Band by band story:
160 - Best showing from this station on 160m yet. We decided to start the
contest
here due to some TVI issues - log shows we were here for about 4 hours and made
the
bulk of the 160m q's during the first night. lots of loud signals - It was
wonderfull watching the propogation swing out long over the time on this band.
The
goal was to beat last year 160m q/mult totat and we did it by almost 100q's and
10
mults.
80 - this was the money band for us this year - the sloper was working really
good.
we should have tried some split activity, but seemed like we never had a problem
getting something going on this band. almost 400 more q's and 2 more mults over
last yea r. We finished the contest on this band as 20m closed down early on
us...
worked many ZL's on this band sunday am and to the one big gun station (u know
who u
are), you are welcome!
40 - down almost 100 q's and 3 mults - This band has not treated us very good
from
vp9. We were ready this year with a new antenna, but took until the second
night to
have this ready. Must have hit the bands when most folks were down on 80/160 or
asleep ! The force12 dipole works great... good solid reports from all who
were
asked and at least 3 S units better on receive with less static/hash, so better
signal to noise ratio! around 0700 the second night, 40 was wide open all over
the
states from vp9 and the band quiet. where were all the stations to work?? 1
1/2
hours of slow rate 30-40 hr was all I could take :-( Back on 40m (1300z - knew
I had
to try!!) and folks started waking up... another 20minutes and 5 q's - We were
here
trying hard, but good bye 40m! We actually came back @ 2315Z in the last hour
of
the contest, but could only drum up one qso with KE2C - thanks! Perhaps next
year,
40m will be better...
Sample spot:
7040.8 VP9DX 3-Mar-1996 1232Z qsx 7.253 <WA2MZX>
20 - always a good band from vp9 - very crowded conditions, and lots of fun.
one
time, w3lpl was working EU down low (156 or so) and we were working stateside @
150+
hr on the same freq - could barely hear them, so figured they could barely hear
us.
gotta love those large monoband yagi's!! total q count down about 200 and 1
mult
from last year, most likely due to our dismal attempts at finding some activity
on
15/10m!! Oh ya, we finished last year on 20m, but the band closed with a little
more than an hour to go...
15 - what happened here? last year we did tremendously here on 15m. Very weak
W1/2/3 opening on Saturday and otherwise the texas pipeline with a lots of
6/7/0 - A
couple of W4's were to be had on Sunday - We had to call in to them for FL and
NC.
No other W4's in the log this year. down over 800 q's and 15 mults. The
running
joke was when hitting 20m hard on Sunday, I kept saying gotta go to 15 - So,
they
let me try 15m an d when they came back after about 20minutes, I was running on
20m
again. So from then on, they kept flashing a paper reading: Time for 15m!! I
will
not live this down too soon :-)
10 - again, propogation was not to be found. I want to thank K2MR for pointing
out
a new propogation mode for me: Meteor Scatter. I was on 160m in the wee hours
and
doing some business, but K2WR says: Wanna try something fun? Well, K2WR and
N2NT
are the only two VP9 10m qso's and the only two 6 band qso for us this year!
K2WR
was S4 direct path on meteor scatter, great fun! - N2NT had good sigs too! I
hung
around my required 10 minutes with no other takers - curious if anyone else
tried us
up there? down 630 q's and 38 mults! Did anyone else get any other VP9's on
10m??
28444.0 VP9DX 3-Mar-1996 0551Z TRYING METEOR SCATTER <K2TR>
The rate simply were not there for us this year - we met the simple goal of
better
than 100q/hour over the 48hours, just barely! Know I know why the big M/M
efforts
of yesteryear will not be resurected @ VP9 until some sun spot return!!
0420: 6 per minute (360/hr)
1417: 46 per 10 minutes (276/hr)
2049: 233 per hour
Total Qs: 5076 Average 105 per hour
So, in closing, if you have made it to here, you are a die hard contester and we
appreicate all the q's! The station was active for the full 48 hours with only
some
distortion problems on 40m (later [read: after the contest] found to be a
corroded
elbow on the switch box). Alpha power is cool and reliable. Special thanks to
VP9ID and VP9JG for their hospitality and to VE7GAS/VP9 who I talked into
helping
out - he had a great time and was a fantastic addition to the small multi team.
QSL is again via WB2YQH and will be 100% via buro or Direct/SASE to Bob's call
book
address.
73 for now,
-jeff, n2mzh/vp9
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