ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N7WA
Operator(s): N7WA
Station: N7WA
Class: SOSB/40 HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40: 668 78
20:
15:
10:
-------------------
Total: 668 78 Total Score = 156,312
Club: Western Washington DX Club
Comments:
This was the first major test with the new K3 and a panadapter. Gotta admit,
having a visual of the band sure helps. It also made me much more aware of how
the noise floor moves up and down throughout the night and how many idiots
there are out there (sweeping signals and jammers).
Since Saturday was committed to upcoming M&K fleamarket activities, I
could
only work the night shift. Even then, I needed "some" sleep Friday
night so I
wouldn't be a total zombie Saturday. I chose 40M single band. I thought the
band was noisy at the start. I worked mostly S&P'd HP Europeans, the Carib,
and South America when I could find them. About midnight local, the 100w tier
started breaking through and I could run but it was tough sometimes pulling
them out. Then you get surprised with a 5W South African coming in loud and
clear. (huh?) When the JA's started coming in, I was swinging the beam left and
right a lot. (A good problem to have.) I had to pull the plug at 2AM local
to get some sleep and couldn't be around for the sunrise. That was with 403 Q's
in the bag.
Saturday night was more of the same except the band was even noisier and all
the
HP stations had been worked. I spent 8 hours getting the next 100 Q's. I would
find a spot to call CQ and scan the band with the second receiver looking for
anything. Many Q's would come with that second receiver. About midnight local,
things perked up a bit and Asia coming in helped too but the body was flagging.
I decided to shut my eyes for 30 minutes around 2AM local. I managed to keep it
at 30 minutes too but I could have used more.
Working the European sunrise, I noticed what I thought was grayline
enhancement
on a lot of 100 watt stations. Certainly, I was surprised how long after their
sunrise, I kept working stations. I resolved to stay on past local sunrise at
least that long... and it payed off. I picked up a number of new mults after
the dawn had broken (I really wanted to go to bed) including Tanzania. Lo and
behold, a number of Chinese stations appeared as well.
I heard Dan W7WA on. I expect he was 40M S/B too and killed me as usual.
<grin>
I just keep telling myself... "I wanna grow up to be just like him".
It's good to have goals. Some of it was grind but worthwhile in the end - I had
fun.
cheers
dink
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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