ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: K5ZD
Operator(s): W4PA
Station: K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MA
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 98 58
80: 515 83
40: 1127 98
20: 1081 105
15: 1073 97
10: 407 79
-------------------
Total: 4301 520 Total Score = 6,706,440
Club: Tennessee Contest Group
Comments:
New W/VE single op, high power record. The question is, am I the only one?
Haven't seen too many SOABHP scores yet on the 3830 'net.
Let me be the first (or third, or 20th) to say what a class thing it was for the
guys in Dominica to use J7OJ as the callsign this weekend. I thought that was
really cool, a great way to pay tribute to Jim.
Contest: Well...after getting the high claimed score for CQ WW CW this year,
and having been disappointed in how I did in ARRL DX CW in 2003 I decided I was
going ALL OUT for this one. Randy helped the cause immensely by getting a 4
square up on 80 meters and a second 160m transmit antenna that is definitely
improving the K5ZD signal to the Caribbean. K5ZD has gone from calling...and
calling...Carib mults on 160 to pounding the pileup first or second call almost
every time.
I decided to be extra aggressive in gathering multipliers and made a couple of
changes in mult technique that really paid off this weekend. I started the
contest CQing on 40m and was able to pull off working 11 mults on 160 in the
first hour in between running on 40. I had 40 multipliers on 160 when the sun
came up Saturday morning.
My plans were simple, operate all 48 hours without a break, maximize band
openings, aggressively hunt down/move multipliers and manage the radios the way
I wanted...meaning the Orion was the run radio 99% of the time and Randy's
FT1000D was the mult radio. The only exception to this was using the Orion to
hunt multipliers on 160, and I would just use the 1000D on 40 or 80 to CQ while
doing. Except for 160, hunting mults is generally not a weak signal affair - so
having the radio that was going to allow me to best copy weak signals complete
callsign the first time, every time as the run radio was most important to
maximizing the score totals. With the BW set at 400 Hz or so the whole weekend,
I never heard anyone or anything else in my passband but callers on my run
frequency the entire 48 hours. Man, did I ever work a lot of 5 watters on 80
and 40 meters this weekend!
I went the first 33 hours without getting out of the chair except to run
(literally) to the bathroom in the next room. I pre-planned a break for when I
usually get to be losing it a little bit from sleep deprivation, around 4 a.m.
local Sunday. 0908Z Sunday I got up for a 15 minute break, ate some food, made
coffee, changed my clothes and then was at the radio non-stop to the end.
So that's the story. I regret 10 meters didn't pull a strong opening to EU on
Sunday or I think 7,000,000 would have been realistic this weekend. Thanks for
all the Q's - I am again doing the writeup for QST magazine to appear in the
fall for this contest. Your anecdotes and pics always welcome.
73
Scott W4PA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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