ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: VE4EAR
Operator(s): VE4EAR
Station: VE4EAR
Class: SOAB HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 22 21
40: 66 40
20: 305 90
15: 81 34
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 474 185 Total Score = 263,070
Club:
Comments:
Wow..A tale of two different days and how to work DXCC in a weekend. I worked
Friday evening with 400W on 80m and 40m but the rest of the weekend was spent
at 100W or less to appease my neighbor and his RFI problem.
Friday night I experienced the best conditions on 80m that I have ever seen.
For the first time I was able to work EU on 80m and picked up a bunch of new
contries. These conditions only lasted about an hour before EU vanished into
the noise. My 1/4 sloper seems to favor east and west so SA was tough on 80m.
As good as 80m was, 40m was just plain awful for me. Heard plenty of EU
signals, but they could not hear me. Zones 8-13 were worked easily. Noise was
low on both bands.
Saturday morning was another amazing day for me on 20m. EU opened early and
signals were strong. Even with 100 I had no troublem being heard by most
stations. Just moving up and down the band looking for mults was fun. It was
great to stumble across a VQ and A&1 stations before they had a pile up going,
likely no one had spotted them yet. Worked with first calls and 100w both
times.
15m was not great on Saturday. Weak openings to SA and the Caribbean. Nothing
spectacular. Very few stations from AF were heard.
Saturday night was not very productive on 80m and 40m. Lots of QRN and static
crashes, sounded almost like summer. Again plenty of stations heard on 40 but
anything on a path north of about 60degs, I could not be heard. )EU is about 45
degs from here) Maost of the signals,including other VE2 & VE3 signals had the
polar flutter as did all the signals from EU.
Sunday mornung about 1 hour after sunrise, JA, DU, and XU signals were booming
in here on 40m. All were S9 or above and most were signing 100W for power. Not
one of them heard me! Theywere working ND, SD, MT, NE, MI, MN...all around me,
but not one heard me. My noise was low, running 100 w into a 2 element yagi and
I can't explain why I was invisible to them. To be honest, I have never heard JA
so loud on 40m and I have never even heard the DU stations before. Can someone
explain this phenomena????
20m was not as good Sunday as Saturday but did try running a couple times. 100
W on 20m is kind of useless but below 14.150 there was some peace. Plenty of
polar flutter on most EU signals. The band seemed to close for about an hour
then it opened again. Really strange stuff.
15m was hot on Sunday to SA. Plenty of strong signals. I was worried early on
when the band seem dead and then around 17:00Z, it was like someone flipped a
switch and it came to life. The band was switched off again around 22:00. Ran
into at least 3 other VE4 stations on 15. Even heard a strong ND station on
backscatter but he did not come back to my pleas to work him for WAS.
On a lark I went to 10m and actually found some signals. OA4WW was audible but
since he was signing 1k and didn't move the S meter, I gave up after a couple
minutes of trying.
Bottom line was bettered my previous best of 230 Q's and 60K points in 2007.
The score could have been much better if I could have worked all that I heard.
Must solve the mystery of the weak 40m performance!
Thanks to the DX for being there and the patience.
73
Ed
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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