ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N1UR
Operator(s): N1UR
Station: N1UR
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 42 32
80: 177 64
40: 409 77
20: 1204 87
15: 75 42
10: 3 2
-------------------
Total: 1910 307 Total Score = 1,741,536
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
It was evident that this contest was going to be a challenge for me in the fall
of 2007. I have spent the majority of my time in China since Sept and knew
that whatever issues might crop up between then and now would be impossible to
fix due to extremely limited time and winter weather conditions in Vermont.
Surprisingly, there was only 2 issues that emerged: my 40M beam has become
unusable for some reason and the coax to my NE beverage developed a problem.
The beam was unfixable with winter conditions and over 2 feet of snow on the
ground and an elevated ridge location of the tower. The beverage coax has over
5 feet of snow bank on it in places but a temporary coax on top of the snow
cured that.
So into the contest I went with my 40M number 2 antenna, an inverted vee at 65
feet, as the sole weapon. All else was up to the task.
I was feeling good going in and expected poor conditions for the first evening
and Saturday with hopefully noticeable improvement on the second night and
Sunday. I had really hoped to give a strong showing on 80M with my 2 el wire
beam and the lack of a beam on 40M. Unfortunately, 80M CQing, for the whole
contest was only mediocre and sometimes a waste of time for me. Yet, I could
break pile-ups and get first call responses all weekend long into EU with it.
I believe that many of the less serious contesters in EU gave up on 80M due to
conditions. 160? Well I worked VP6 on the third call but never even heard a G
station to call. Go figure.
40M, as expected was excellent to EU from about 1930Z to about 01Z and then the
MUF generally dropped below 7Mhz from up here in Vermont. There was prop pickup
at sunrise EU time on 40M but the activity did not materialize to drive high
rates for me. I spent waaay more time S & Ping and not CQing in the night than
I wanted to. 10 - 15 mins on either 40 or 80M CQing without a response is just
too much to make it worth it vs. the time management in SO2R. I find 20 - 25
rate or so about the min to make the trade worthwhile. The 40M beam would have
helped but it obviously wasnâ??t an option.
20M runs to EU from 11Z â?? 15Z were just fantastic both days. I spent most of
the time unmoved on a frequency and the rate meter well over 100 for hours on
end. I kept listening to 15 and hearing nothing to pull me off 20 even to grab
a few mults on Saturday. Unfortunately Sunday was barely better to EU so A LOT
of stuff went unworked. It will be interesting to see how I faired vs. others
on 15M mults. Sunday was much better to South America and Carib on 15M. 10M
was almost a wash out until about 17Z on Sunday when I finally heard and workd
2 LU stations and a CX station. 3 Qs and 2 Mults and much white noise were the
weekendâ??s result.
All and all, I was quite pleased with my end results. I had a handful more Qs
overall and just the same mults as last year. Given conditions and the lack of
a 40M beam, Iâ??ll take it. I was surprised to be able to hold a freq on 40M
for 3 solid hours Sunday afternoon and work EU at 60 â?? 70 solid rate with the
inverted vee. Just about doubling my 40M total Qs in the last part of the
contest.
My score was about 5,000 points higher than last year. Whoever wins the US/VE
LP CW category in 2008 will have earned the right. I was on for 43 hours and
did one heck of a lot of CQing with S & P on the second radio. The lack of the
40M beam left some Qs on the table and its hard to say how the K index affected
me in VT vs. other states but I went to sleep after the contest very satisfied
with my performance.
I will not be QRV for ARRL DX SSB so there will be a new winner for the LP
Combined plaque this year regardless of the outcome of this contest. I hope
that others will be motivated as I was and still am for that plaque. I was the
first â??wood on the wallâ?? that I had ever won in a major DX contest and am
quite proud of it.
73
Ed N1UR (on the way back to BY)
PS: Look for my wife Christine, KB1PQN, and myself from Spratly from 3/22 â??
3/30 including half of the WPX contest where we will be making an entry as
Multi-Op.
Check out the details at www.n1urspratly.com
Antennas:
160 Dipole at 60 feet and T vertical
80 2 el Wire beam NE/SW at 65 feet and half wave sloper south
40 Inverted Vee at 65 feet
20 4/4 at 70 and 35 feet and 2 el South at 55 feet
15 8 el NE at 30 feet and 3 el at 80 feet
10 5 el at 70 feet and 3 el south at 50 feet
Beverages: NE 900 feet and W 600 feet
SO2R with FT1000MP Mk V @ 150W and FT990 @ 100W
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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