ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: 8P5A
Operator(s): W2SC
Station: 8P5A
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Barbados
Operating Time (hrs): 47
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 297 50
80: 808 56
40: 2159 60
20: 2601 62
15: 2278 60
10: 872 45
-------------------
Total: 9015 333 Total Score = 9,005,985
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
The poor propagation toward Europe made the Caribbean a prime location most of
the weekend. Rates were good most hours despite 10 and 15 being sub-par.
The contest had an odd start as 20 was closed within 30 minutes and I had to
move to 40, where I made my next 1000 Q's. It is uncommon for me to log that
many consecutive Q's on a band, and probably the first time ever on 40.
An Saturday night, I noticed that the receive array did not have any
directivity. I went out to the far field with a flashlight to look around and
I found that the wire from the element to the base box was broken, likely by
the guy who maintains the fields who decided to cut the grass around the
antenna that day with a weed wacker. Since the wire broke off at the box, the
repair was not so simple. My primitive fix, in the dark, did manage to make it
through the night, but I lost 20 minutes when the rate was 200/hr
I knew all weekend that maximizing whatever opening there would be on 10, would
be key to my final standing. The first day was decent on 10, but I only had 44
mults. All day Sunday I kept probing the band for an opening, but it was not
as good as the day before. There finally was a late opening with very loud
signals, but not many people were still on the band. I finally had the opening
I wanted, but there was no rate I only added about 250 Q's and 1 mult on
Sunday.
There is nothing like a goal to maintain excitement up until the end. I pushed
hard to the close and crossed 9K Q's and 9M in the final five minutes.
Hats off to N6MJ at ZF2MJ for an awesome effort despite minimal contribution
from 10, My extra 30 mults on that band were the difference
Did both modes from 8P this year for the first time. Went back home to
California between weekends. It was draining and not sure I will do it again,
but wanted to give it a try at least once.
Thanks for all the Q's. Thanks to my wife for the support. See you all in the
next one, likely WPX SSB.
Also was great to have KG9N and OE2VEL stop by on Monday for visits. VEL got
on and ran for a while on 20
73. Tom W2SC
QSL via LoTW or NN1N
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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