ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: EA5ON/M
Operator(s): EA5ON
Station: EA5ON/M
Class: SOSB/15 HP
QTH: Valencia
Operating Time (hrs): 17
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 765 57
10:
-------------------
Total: 765 57 Total Score = 128,763
Club:
Comments:
Short: When the band got so crowded and there was nowhere to call, deep
depression. When the north europeans left the band and I could start running
again, pure delight!
Long:
Rig: IC706 mk2G
Amp: Ameritron ALS500M, 400w
Antenna: MFJ screwdriver with 10' whip
Location: Parked over 40' deep salt water, looking stateside
Laptop with N1MM logger
BM10 ic headset
I had been checking 10 all the previous week and it became clear that in spite
of a reasonable propagation forecast, 10m monoband just wasn't going to happen
this year. I didn't fancy spending the whole weekend in the car doing SOAB and
didn't have enough battery power to run HP for that long either. So SOSB 15HP
was the logical decision. It's the first time in a long while that I've had to
come down off 10 and boy did I miss the space to run.
Saturday was OK, right off the blocks I managed a good run on 21260, resisting
other europeans, but finally got ousted by N2MM. From there on in, s+p until the
band cleared up a bit and I could resume running. Paid the price of being too
liberal with the amp and ran the first battery dry rather quickly, only to
discover the second battery wasn't properly charged! I spent the last 2 hours on
saturday on 100w, surprisingly keeping a decent rate (by my standards anyway).
Sunday was hell. Every single kc was occupied by at least one station. I worked
447 stations on saturday and it seemed that each one of them occupied half a khz
between 21200 and 21450 when I hit the band on sunday. Again, I had to wait
until things cleared up a bit before managing to run again. My run was truncated
by a phone call from home... "come in EA5ON, your time is up!"
A couple of new additions to the station this time around: a narrow filter for
the 706 made things a little more bearable if used judiciously together with the
if shift and the dsp. The MFJ screwdriver also gave a good account of itself in
spite of not tuning to much below 2:1. I think I've gotten past the point in the
curve where further station improvements will cost a lot for very little further
gain. A rig with a better receiver, a motorized antenna, an antenna that covers
top band, kw amp, extra alternator to keep the batteries topped up....
As many have already pointed out, in spite of 10 being dead, 15 was excellent.
It was a real joy to work so many west coast stations with east coast and
midwest interspersed all the time. Thanks to all who took the time to pull me
out of the QRM, and special thanks to those who stopped by to give me a
multiplier.
As in all contests there was a surprise visit from Murphy, although this time it
was just a fright: parked on the sea wall on the inside of the harbour, the sea
is normally calm, however as the fast ferries to the Balearics whizz past, they
create large waves.... guess who had the window open? Luckily I got wet from the
waist up, no damage to the laptop or the rig!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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