ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: N1CC
Operator(s): N1CC
Station: N1CC
Class: SO Mixed Unlimited QRP
QTH: NTX
Operating Time (hrs): 15
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 173 52
SSB: 128 45
-------------------
Total: 301 97 Total Score = 91,956
Club: North Texas Contest Club
Comments:
Rig: Elecraft K3/100 running 5 Watts output. Antenna C3 at 64' fed with 350'
run of LMR-400 (@28 MHz 0.7 per hundred feet loss = 2.5 dB loss - 3 Watts or so
at the antenna).
This was not a Southern Midwest USA contest! Conditions were very poor
starting with an A-Index of 22 that improved to A Index of 12 by the near end
of the contest period. Normally, my log is full of EU and JA stations. Very
few EU this year, and although JA's were spotted I could never hear any of the
spotted JA stations.
I operated as ASSISTED class this year, and without that advantage my score
would have been even lower. The combinatIon of Es, TEP and very little F-Layer
activity befuddles the mind when you have to point your antennas much of the day
to the Es spot over the Western Atlantic to work anyone and then later towards
South America. Playing the concept of point and shoot to the propagation in
itself is a skill. Beats guessing what to do, if you want anything in your
log!
There were a lot of propagation events during the weekend that seems to cause
extra broadness of signals, deep fading, and outright unfavorable one-way skip.
Combine that with a new noise source locally to my SE, where I had to point
most of the time, gave me a S7 noise level on a band I usually see S1-2 noise
levels. The great NR feature in the K3 made many QSO's more than ESP, or
"I thought he sent .... right?".
The past two years I have run QRP and placed well, number 2 in the USA for both
QRP (2013) and QRP Assisted in 2014. While I may be top in WG and NTX I won't
be anywhere near the top bunch of folks nationwide, the East Coasters and the
West Coasters should have the run on the court this year! (Yes QRP is a
challenge in itself.)
Speaking of spotting there were a few behaviors going on that are puzzling, and
I hope the SYSOPs and the CAC can work on them. First, someone, or a group of
"ones", posted a number of DX stations in the Phone band, setting
them as "SPLIT" and RTTY" so that if you clicked and didn't look
your radio was messed up and would need to be reset. There were not any stations
on the frequencies that were posted. Second, at least one ham
"KK4(REDACTED)" was self-spotting. He/her/it should be disqualified
by that activity. (Sysop can prove if the "KK4(REDACTED)" was the
guilty party). Also there was a lot of "buddy-spotting" among some
groups in Texas, something that has always had a questionable virtue, right?
Friday night was fair, Saturday a struggle, and Sunday about even with both
Friday and Saturdays experience. No Asia QSO's at all! USA, South America, and
Canada made up better than 95% of my contacts. OC, EU, AF made up the balance!
Now that the slide of propagation has made its glide to lower Sunspots I guess
10-Meters will suffer, except for few bounces up along the way. Hopefully
these always will happen on the ARRL 10 Meter contest weekend!
See you all for the Christmas Carol Special Event
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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