ARRL RTTY Roundup
Call: P49X
Operator(s): W0YK
Station: W0YK
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 267
40: 818
20: 1120
15: 782
10:
------------
Total: 2987 State/Prov = 60 Countries = 64 Total Score = 370,388
Club: Loma Prieta Contest Club
Comments:
Well, despite enthusiasm for the sunspots that emerged in December, band
conditions were not what we all wished for. From my perspective in Aruba,
overall conditions were significantly down from last year. My QSO number was
also down ... by 7.2%. It was even more discouraging Saturday night at 05Z,
though, when I was off by 14.3%. That pissed me off, so I really buckled down
and scraped for every QSO during the rest of the contest. I compounded the
problem by a self-inflicted logger setup problem that shut me down in the first
few minutes while I straightened out the logs on my three networked computers.
Fortunately, I closed the gap by the end. At my 24-mark, my raw QSO count was
second only to 2009 out of the past six year, since I've been doing Round-Up as
SOHP from Aruba. And, my highest clock hour ever was in the second hour of the
contest, 19Z, with 216 QSOs. Even so, I felt limited by the shallow pileups
and was calling a lot more CQs than I would hope for (lull in the pileup).
Total mults have been nearly the same as well as the continental breakdown. If
(no, "when") solar activity returns, we should see the number of mults go up for
everyone, as well as QSOs.
The bands just "felt" punk the week before Round-Up and nothing surprising
happened during the weekend. There were times when it was really painful and
that had one bright side, because it grounded our expectations for the two "hot
periods" that I experienced. The first was during the 06Z hour when my rate of
143 exceeded my 18Z start hour. The 143 QSOs in that hour was exhilerating.
40 and 80 just "came alive", like all the hams in the world stopped whatever
else they were doing and got into this contest! The bands sounded "hot" during
that hour and it was sweet payback for the preceding eleven hours.
The second hot period for me came Sunday fom 16-19Z when 20 and 15 came alive
and my two pileups deepened. The rate popped up to an average of 135/hour with
149 in 16Z.
Notwithstanding the disappointing band conditions, this has been another
enjoyable trip. The station is working well after the antenna/tower
replacement project we did this year (between CQ WPX RTTY and ARRL DX CW).
has improved not only the reliability, but also the performance, on both
transmit and receive. It was hard work for two weeks, but seems to be paying
off. Thanks again to John, P40L/W6LD, and Andy, P49Y/AE6Y, for sharing their
wonderful stations with me.
Carl (P49V/AI6V) and XYL Sue (AI6YL/P40YL) are here at their new cottage
station and a great delight to hang out with with. Sue entered the SOLP
category in this one and is having a ball! (My 24 hours ran out two hours
before hers, so she just finished up a few minutes ago.) I think she
experienced her all-time high rates in RTTY contesting this weekend. So, I
need to close this out and get cleaned up for our post-contest dinner.
As always, my sincere appreciation to the thousands of stations that call join
into the contest, the vast majority of which will say they are not contesters,
but take the opportunity to operate their station with the high activity of a
contest weekend. Without them, there would be no contest and most of them will
never see these reports. It's also great to work all of you regulars who do
surf these 3830 reports. Thanks again to everyone for attending the "party".
Ed - P49X (W0YK)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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