ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: N3GXY
Operator(s): N3GXY
Station: N3GXY
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: EPA
Operating Time (hrs): 7.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 0 0
40: 3 3
20: 11 10
15: 49 30
10: 45 22
-------------------
Total: 108 65 Total Score = 21,060
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Well, as I said before, this has not been my season. Work and other concerns
have seriously cut into my contesting activities. I was looking forward to the
ARRL DX because things looked like they had settled down a bit, and I would
actually get to spend some time in the chair. Also, the ARRL DX is a really fun
contest. Where else can you realistically expect to earn DXCC in 48 hours?
Anyway, the week didn?t start out looking too promising. The threat of
inclement weather here in Eastern Pennsylvania meant that I would be seriously
constrained in the time I had to prepare my antennas for the contest. Happily,
the predicted snow storm did not materialize, and I was able to spend Friday
afternoon at lunch throwing up the multi-band dipole, and checking out the
R6000.
The contest started Friday night and I was off looking for Q?s. The bands were
not in the greatest of shape, but I managed a few contacts before calling it a
night. I resolved to get up early Saturday morning and start contesting in
earnest. Saturday morning came, and I was delayed getting on the radio because
of issues we were having with our son. The upshot is that I didn?t get on until
later that afternoon. The bands were okay, but nothing like last year. Ten
meters was open, but primarily north-south. Thankfully, Central and South
America were well represented and I made some points on that band. Switching to
fifteen found some Europeans coming in, so I stayed there for a while and made a
good show of it.
The rate meter didn?t climb much above 12 for me this contest, and it was a hard
slog to sit there and call a station for fifteen or twenty minutes until I got
through. But by late Saturday afternoon, Murphy materialized and threw a monkey
wrench into my contest plans. The water heater in our townhouse decided to blow
an element much to the chagrin of my significant other and the kids. It also
meant that my contesting was effectively over as I searched around trying to fix
the beast.
Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. Saturday evening was shot, and I
spent most of Sunday moving things around in the basement so I could drain the
water heater to replace the element. The most disappointing thing is that the
bands sounded pretty good on Sunday morning. Oh, well. The most disappointing
thing is that I did not do well for my club. I was hoping to make a good show
of it and add something to the club effort even though I was running QRP.
Hopefully next year will be better. I will definitely schedule maintenance on
the water heater the week before the contest. Thanks to everyone who worked me
during the contest and for having the patience to dig my signal out of the muck.
It is greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Joel M. Gilly
N3GXY
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