ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: WB0TEV
Operator(s): WB0TEV
Station: WB0TEV
Class: SO SSB Unlimited QRP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 11:06
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW:
SSB: 158 42
-------------------
Total: 158 42 Total Score = 13,272
Club: DFW Contest Group
Comments:
UGH! Operating QRP in a phone contest is like bringing a knife to a gun fight!
I can't recall having ever entered a contest in the QRP category before, but I
would recommend it highly to those who have a masochistic streak. Naturally it
was 99.4% Search and Pounce.
I tried running a few times, but with one exception (bless you VE7XT) never got
a reply. LU's and PY's accounted for almost 1/3 of my QSO's at 12% and 19%
respectively.
My first QSO Friday night was ground/wave/line of sight with fellow DFWCG
member WA5FWC about 90 miles away. Thereafter had a short Es opening into Ohio
that was good for 3 QSOs plus one more local before everything folded and I
called it a night.
Things were better the next morning and would have been better still had I not
gotten a late start. Best 60 minute rate was between 1644 and 1744Z when I
managed to eke out 28 QSOs.
Though it was a real slog, I did figure out a few QRP strategies that seemed to
work for me. When operating assisted, use the bandmap not to tell me who had
been spotted, but rather who has not. I would tune up and down the band and
give priority to calling run stations who had not yet been spotted, as their
piles wouldn't be as deep and my weak signal had a better chance of not getting
drowned out. Once I saw that the station was spotted, I'd store it to the band
map for hopefully a later visit and move on. Given that 10m often exhibits
what some might call "spotlight" openings, once I worked someone in a
particular area that came through well I would quickly chase down their
neighbors while that spotlight favored me. That explains back to back QSOS
with HI3TEJ, HI3CC and KI8K all within 12 minutes, KP4RV and WP4PGY in the same
minute, ditto a couple of VE3's and several other examples. While some of that
phenomenon can be attributed to sorting the Available Mults and Q's by Azimuth
and working stuff in that order, that can't explain all the sudden
"lifts" in propagation. Ah, propagation, that great equalizer that
can make ones pipsqueak 5 watts move the other guys S-meter more than a KW
coming from the skip zone.
There sure were a lot of Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands stations on, I
worked 7 and 3 respectively. Where were all of them during SS I wonder?!
Did have a number of pleasant surprises. I managed a QSO with Sam Ford, ZS6BRZ
who I first met on my trip to Swaziland as part of the 3DA0ET DXpedition in
2013. Being able to snag VE8NSD in NWT and breaking through the pile to VK4KW
was also gratifying.
I seemed to have better luck chasing packet spots later on Sunday after the big
guns had worked down their piles.
Throughout, my old Dentron MLA-2500 amp sat cold and sulking in the corner
awash in schadenfreude, snickering at me when I made the umpteenth call to
station who would either work someone else or CQ in my face. I think it got
pouty when I actually managed to work someone. It's day will come.
Rig: TS-590 turned down to 5 watts.
Antenna: Mosley PRO-67B at 63 feet.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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