ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 16.4
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 502
40: 198
20: 336
15: 36
10: 0
------------
Total: 1072 Sections = 82 Total Score = 175,808
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Another SS is history, my first was probably in 1973. It is not as much fun when
PA, NJ, MD, and VA are skipping over you almost all day Sunday on 40. The skip
zone shortened up a bit after activity moved up to 20, but only briefly. 20 was
also long enough that SMC was mostly in the skip zone. 15 was never open well to
CA, did have a fair hour or so into OR and WWA, The good news is that despite no
activity normally, 15 is open to AK apparently most days as KL7SB was loud there
again as on CW. Also, PAC and VI were there for hours. Conditions overall were
about as good as we can expect for SFI in low 70's, no disturbance over
weekend.
I got off to a reasonable start on 20, no sustained stretch of continuous run
Q's. By 23Z, conditions were fading fast. At 2340Z on 75, there was already
some skip zone, but my running rate was good through about 03Z when G0EVY?
rolled out bed and decided my frequency was his (not in DX window) regardless
of who was there first. The skip zone shortened to near nil by around 0045Z
which really helped sustain my run. The pattern repeated itself Sunday, but not
quite as well.
23Z is an excellent time for PVRC'ers to take a break on Sunday in times of low
solar flux because 20 is nearly dead, 40 is long and even 75 has a skip zone.
Trying to run on 20 and 15 is so much easier with higher flux due to shorter
skip on 20 and more than a few signals on 15. From 1530Z until 20Z my rate was
pretty miserable no matter what I tried. Then, I ran on 40 followed by a nice
run on 20 around 2045-2200Z.
Chasing sections was fairly easy except never heard PR. At 1443Z, I worked VI
on 15 followed back to back by NL and SK on 20 to hit 80 sections. NT was found
on 20 at bottom band edge (hope he worked a few up higher) at 17Z and AK on 15
later. My last stab at 75 around 0140Z was a big surprise, mostly ran another
68 Q's, plenty of activity!
NNY activity was HUGE especially compared to CW, worked 8 of them, equal to
NLI!
MDC led the way with 64 Q's, 50 from VA, 49 from MN, OH 42, AZ 34, and only 38
from IL.
Many thanks for the Q's and a mostly enjoyable time. The logging lids who have
trouble inputting info mostly seemed to have practiced a bit this year.
Hopefully, after one more year of low SFI, we will start up the slope again.
Take care and 73, Jeff
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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