ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N1UR
Operator(s): N1UR
Station: N1UR
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 55 36
80: 288 65
40: 687 77
20: 815 81
15: 386 80
10: 20 12
-------------------
Total: 2251 350 Total Score = 2,330,866
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
My goal was to beat last year?s score despite the declining sunspot cycle. It
was a race to the finish but I succeeded in beating my score from last year by
50,000 points. Especially gratifying after you hear what happened.
The contest started off great. Best opening hour ever as I found and held a
7000.5 start off frequency and started with an 83 opening hour. Switched to 80M
in the second hour for a methodical S & P and then some further run. By the end
of the third hour I had 215 Qs in the log and was already 50 Qs ahead of last
year. By 11Z, I actually had more Qs and mults on 160 and 80 then the whole
2005 contest. Needless to say I was feeling great going into the morning
runs.
I started coming done with a very nasty cold on Thursday and I knew I was in
trouble for the contest. The cold was getting progressively worse so I decided
I would try and stay up as long as I could early because I knew I would need to
sleep more for this one. A 30 min Nap over the first night, helped out
immensely.
The early morning 20M run started about an hour later than 2005 but was
excellent once it started at 0915Z. 2 and half hours of 100 + rate and it was
off to 15M for 90+ rates for a couple of hours. Suddenly my 15M antenna has
infinite SWR. That is NOT GOOD. Quickly I realize that all 3 15M antennas are
the same. I am convinced that the relay box is shot on the tower. No 15M
antennas for almost the whole contest? I don?t think so? The weather is clear
but the outside temp is 9F with a 10 ? 15mph wind (the remnants of a massive
cold front which brought huge winds across the whole Northeast on Friday and
which turned my 80M wire beam into an inverted vee for the contest). I decided
to ?go for it? and climb to the 50 foot level of the tower where the relay boxes
were. I would kill the 20M south dipole slot and put the 3 el 15M antenna into
that and would hard wire the 8 el EU antenna with the feed line (sacrificing the
15M south antenna). I was only on the tower for 20 minutes but it was
unbelievably cold to hold onto with my warmest gloves. I successfully made the
switch and came back in. Turns out that the really box was probably fine as it
was the main 15M feed line which is shot since the 15M EU antenna is still with
infinite SWR and hard wired. But at least I am back on 15M with 3 elements so I
decide that enough is enough. 1 hour of prime time lost and not a good way to
hold of sleep later on.
15M never sounded great after that but apparently conditions never got as good
as that first 2 hours. I spent more time on 20M than 15M. Constantly checking
10M all day. Grand total on 10M after day 1? 1 QSO with PS2T. Despite the
tower climb, I was still over 100Qs ahead of last year at the mid point but only
1 hour of sleep and I could feel that wasn?t going to last much longer. I had
finished a solid 3 hour 40M run of almost 100 hours and had swept every band by
02Z, including a nice Asia opening on 20M at 2330Z. Decided to take a 90 min
nap. Got back up at 0330Z and solidly S & P?d for a few hours on 160 ? 40. I
could tell I was still dragging and I figured that the 20M opening wouldn?t open
any earlier Sunday so I decided to take a 3 hour sleep at 06Z in the hope that
it would carry me for the rest of the contest. It almost worked as I took a 30
min nap at 19Z.
20M was kind again at the start with a couple of 80+ hours. 15M never had the
rate of Saturday morning. Classic spotlight propagation into EU. Some very
loud stations but no real depth. I enjoyed methodically S & Ping 20M on radio 2
as I held a 50 rate on 15M for about 3 hours. Again sweeping 10M frequently.
Caught 6V6U on one of those sweeps for QSO number 2 on 10M, then picked up a
couple of LUs. Later in the afternoon a number of the Carib stations showed up
and I worked 80% of the ones that I heard (just have a 2 el wire beam to the
south at 40 feet). Decided to go back to 40M for a mult sweep including
possible Long Path JA. I did hear one responding to a CQ with S6 sigs. So I
camped out on 40M CQing. Never got a JA but had another great EU run and bagged
a few mults on 15 and 20 as I did including KL7DX who was quite active. Heard
JA on 15M but could not work them. Ended up the contest on 80M for the last 2
hours which ended up being a great move. As station after station called me, I
could see that 75% had me on 15 ? 40 and only needed me on 80. I could here
extremely well with my beverage and logged 6 QRP Qs on 80M (very nice job OMs).
6 new mults called in on 80M in that run which was very nice as well, including
ZA!
I thought activity was solid for EU. If anything, US pile-ups seemed smaller.
Couldn?t tell if it was propagation or less activity. Activity from Japan was
low but sadly that was expected. In spite of the great 20M opening Saturday
night, I only worked 10 JAs and none responded in 15 mins of CQing ( I did get a
KL7 though?.). Pacific was light. Never heard a VK. Worked ZL, KH6, V7.
Other than 6V6U, Africa was also surprisingly light with a ZS, S9, 7X, ST and
that?s about it.
Despite the severe cold and unexpected tower climb in sub-zero wind chill, I
still had a blast. Very fun contest. Thanks for the Qs.
73,
Ed N1UR
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|