ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 29
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 1700 113
15:
10:
-------------------
Total: 1700 113 Total Score = 575,622
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
I broke two low band antennas on Wednesday trying to adjust 80M dipole
for the test and despite efforts to fix in the 15-20 degree wind chill
Friday, I gave up, too hard to grip the tower with ski gloves, Hi!
Without my Eu antenna on 40, an all band effort would have been a bit
foolish, so I decided on single band 20 M.
It looked like it might be a long weekend listening around the bands
Friday; 15 M never really opened except to F/I and I heard stations
working VP2V and VP9 on 20M during the late afternoon without a peep here.
As the contest started, conditions to the south had changed for the better
as VP5 was booming in as were stations in deep SA; later I noticed that
the closer in DX was probably loud due to sporadic E as NQ4I was S9+ here.
Caribbean activity was pretty good, but not too many were on from SA and
by 40 minutes into the contest the rate was dropping fast. I tried towards
JA and found AL1G and a whisper from JA8RWU who heard me, but further JA's
were hopeless. In the first 2 hours, only those 2, KH7X, and CU2M were
worked in a non-southerly direction. I did get EM1HO and R1ANC in
Antarctica. Several ZL's were added around 03Z. I quit around 0330Z with
a mere 59 Q's/31 DXCC.
The next morning I fired up at 1115Z expecting the band to just be
opening, wrong! Even Scandinavia was loud. I jumped right in on a choice
freq, IMHO and started running. The rate would have been over 100 if I had
been there the full hour. The 12Z hour was 144 Q's followed by 116 next
hour. Conditions to Eu were near perfect except even the big gun OH's and
SM's were weak and fluttery. The amazing thing was that the band stayed in
good shape to Eu all day long til about 2045Z! Rates were 97-15Z, 97-17Z,
and 98-19Z. Around 13Z the band opened over the pole and I was called by
many UA9's, and handful of UN's, EX2X, YB, and VU2. By 18Z, I was just
short of 800 Q's; there were always plenty of stations to work even
mid-late morning. I was sort of relieved when I finally couldn't run Eu
any more at a decent rate around 2045Z. The band was not full of new mults
unfortunately as I S&P'ed around, but there were still many loud big guns
in western Eu til around 2140Z. The JA's didn't come thru decently til
after 2230Z and it was very slow trying to run them til past 23Z, best
Asian condx were 2300-0130Z. However, I had good luck with mults calling
me including 2 HL's, 2 9V1's (a first), V73GJ, KG6DX, and VR2BG (good ears
Bret!), FS/K9EL, and FO5HR. I finished the day around 03Z with 1135 Q's/
96 DXCC. Total JA's worked was 95 which was good considering the marginal
condx here; it was a struggle to get them to call and there were only a
few CQ'ing.
The second day condtions were similar but less Arctic flutter and I
never had a fast rate for more than 15 minutes or so; good running started
about 1120Z. Best rate was 70 all day, but you couldn't relax and stop
CQ'ing. A couple of brief S&P's didn't turn up much of anything new in
countries or stations. I was called by 4K4A, A45WD, TA2DS, FR/F5TNI and
very late by GI0KOW for a sweep of the G countries. Each day, there was
good activity from northern EU as 2 OY's called in, as well as JW, and I
found 2 TF's during the JA opening and found 2 OH0's late the 2nd day.
Mult luck was in my favor the last couple of hours as I found SU9NC, 5H3HK,
and EA9EU back to back after a short break, then also YV1 & H7A. ZK2 and
VP8NO answered CQ's and I made it thru the biggest pile-up of the test
for VP8/LZ2UU after a few tries to finish it off with 1700 Q's and 114
DXCC. The antennas worked well, most pile-ups were very easy. Condx were
near ideal for 20M during the daytime, except the JA's which were very
weak again Sunday night, no production from CQ's. Many thanks for the
Q's and nearly endless Eu calls. Noteable Q's by country include:
DL - 251 (14.6%) OK - 89
G - 105 SP - 55 (poor condx 1st day it seemed, many new prefixes)
F - 61 UA -118 (had to dig hard for many of these,2nd to DL!)
HA - 61 UA9 -51
I - 84 UR - 55
JA - 95 YU - 40 (sporting many new prefixes)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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