ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: IL
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 12 10
80: 89 50
40: 294 86
20: 532 108
15: 249 103
10: 152 72
-------------------
Total: 1328 429 Total Score = 1,676,961
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
I had hoped to be at N0NI Multi this contest manning the 40M station (one op, 2
VFO) again (up all night, sleep all day), but technical difficulties arose
during the ARRL DX CW that put N0NI out of commission for this test. I figured
I’d just stay home and play around a bit, make a few runs and chase some
mults on the cluster. I usually run low power. Less to go wrong. But my
venerable Alpha 78 was just refurbished by Dick Byrd N4UQ this past fall and
waiting in multiplier pileups isn’t that much fun, so I decided to run QRO
this time. With a single tribander, 2el shorty 40 and wires my station is
hardly DX contest caliber, but I was going to put in a few hours and just have
some fun.
I put in more than I figured, but well short of a serious full time effort.
I didn’t even get on for the first hour and when I did sit down the bands
were hopping. 15 and 20 were still going well after dark so I eased into it
with S&P and mult jumping before trying some runs on 40.
The low bands were in good shape and I was pretty amazed at how well my 80M
wires were working. The beverages could hear well on 160 but my TX antenna was
definitely lacking and I called a lot that could not hear me. The single
tribander did OK running on 20 and 15 but I definitely need more ants in other
directions to effectively run a pileup. I remember how easy it was to work DXCC
in a contest weekend back in the 80s and 90s, and set myself a goal to work at
least 100 countries. Never thought I’d break a million points though. All
things considered I’m not at all unhappy with the result and may try a more
serious effort in the future.
You can clearly see how popular the assisted category is whenever a new mult
popped up on the screen and there was an instant pileup. This was especially
true on 20M at the end of the test.
Not so easy on 40M using a shorty and wires with a solid wall of loud DX every
3 Khz. I figured with QRO I’d hold my own but several times I’d wedged in
between two DX stations only to have them get irate right away then suddenly
get wide and splattery, but apparently they see no reason not to squeeze in and
just ignore my protests. And going above 200 and working split is a one way
street it seems. I’d find a clear spot to TX only to get complaints on my
listening freq that I was too close to “their” listening freq, however when
they got right on mine to call CQ and I protested I was ignored. Different
world when you’re not driving multiple stacks at a multi.
73 de Bob2 K2DRH
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