ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: K1RX
Operator(s): K1RX KC1KUG N9NC K1ZR K8CN
Station: K1RX
Class: M/M HP
QTH: W1
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 240 57
80: 697 81
40: 1227 96
20: 1942 115
15: 1610 112
10: 208 59
-------------------
Total: 5924 520 Total Score = 9,208,680
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
What is going on here?
I have dreamed of having a mega station with multiple towers, stacked yagis, and
a nice 6 position station (oh, in an earlier life I did have that) but today I
am puttering along with a single tower with 6 yagis somewhat strategically
placed to maximize the contesting fun. (You know, that downsize thing) Turned
out the placement of the 10 M yagi (just 5 ft from the 20 M yagi) was kind of
bad. Lots of local QRM, harmonic and other things happening - bandpass filters
were in line and helped somewhat. With that kind of environment, it is tough.
Ten meters was just not that great for us and having to deal with local grud
made it a real challenge to make points. BUT, no worries when you bring in some
very competitive ops, and ears that seem to just filter out that junk and still
turn in a decent score- can't complain. "All around Contesters" is
the term I would us here. Great with the high QSO rates, great with the low and
amazing with the low and the crud. My compliments to my crew; K1ZR, N9NC,
KC1KUG, K8CN - covered the 48 hours nicely. Some were part time, others full
but all present and accounted for - Thanks!
However, the MVP award goes to my XYL Judy who told me once, she loves taking
care of the ops with excellent food. She prepared several courses highlighting
a range of DX locations including BY, I, W and XE (nice to note, all were
actually worked during the weekend!). The best one served was some amazing
cookies she just happened to find the recipe that Saturday morning.
Oatmeal/Walnuts and some other items that turned out to be the BIG hit for the
contest period. (For those interested, I can send you the recipe) BUT may have
topped that immediately following the contest, she served up my favorite deep
dish apple pie and vanilla ice cream! She said afterward, never seen anything
disappear so quickly.
Back to the contest, the group choose to go MM rather than M/2 just to take away
the band change challenge, making the weekend that much more fun. Joined the
Contestingonline.com/scoreboard crowd and that's when the action really took
off. All through the weekend, a battle was raging as shown just under that K3LR
guy in the MM category (you know him, an entirely different universe). K1TTT
and K1RX were bouncing between 2nd and 3rd places in the US the entire time.
Did I mention that Mega station? K1TTT has quite the station with 5 towers,
stacked stuff, etc. vs. my little station :) All good fun, truly a pleasure
doing battle on the score board with an outstanding competitor (Dave - your crew
kept us busy - hopefully we had you guys worried). Clearly a log checker
determination for this one!
To add to the challenge, unfortunately the station and band selection did not
make for an ideal MM setup. My layout was as follows: 80/20; 40/15 and 160/10
so you can see the problem - more than 3 bands open at select times over the
weekend. Not having more stations did give us a small handicap. But what the
heck?
Had several strange moments in the contest like working SM2M & SM2EKM on 10
late in the afternoon while pointing NW well after EU was gone. Last Q on 80 was
the 8Q7, and finding 15 M wild in the final hour to Asia! (took the 40 M EU time
out of action but it was all good fun). Speaking of 40, the op took a bio break
at one time and another op stepped in. The parting words were the band just
went quiet, sigs are gone. Maybe the sun was killing the band? Nope, the RX
antenna button got pushed inadvertently causing the op to think, this band is
now dead (no RX antenna on this station). Hey things happen but all good when
the next op stepped in, found the problem and back to running.
Great time with great people (both in the shack and around the world). Thanks!
73, Mark, K1RX
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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