ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: K2AX
Operator(s): NY3B KE2D
Station: K2AX
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: New Jersey
Operating Time (hrs): 39
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 138 53
80: 402 80
40: 760 93
20: 1554 113
15: 1106 109
10: 157 52
-------------------
Total: 4117 500 Total Score = 6,172,500
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Overall we had a great weekend. We managed to meet or exceed the goals we set
for ourselves at the outset. Last year our raw score was just over 4m pts. We
wanted to see if we could improve that by 50% and we did. The math for the 6m
points number was easy; 4,000 QSOs x 3 pts each x 500 mults = 6m. We got
exactly 500 mults and were a little over 4k QSOs. At the moment, this score is
an all-time record for the K2AX station in this contest. If we’re lucky and
didn’t bust too many QSOs, those numbers won’t be decremented by much and
the station record will stick. Last year we only lost 1 mult when the final
scores came out so we’re hoping we do as well again.
Conditions seemed very good and certainly much better than last year overall
(and several preceding years). At the start of the contest the SFI was at 97
but by Sunday it had dipped slightly to 93 with the A index at 14 with a minor
G1 storm. Friday night seemed pretty good on the low bands with some very
strong and easy to work signals on 160m. I was able to run for a good stretch
on 80m while NY3B made hay on 40m and 160m off and on. However, conditions were
not what we would call perfect. Last year we had more QSOs on both 80m and 160m
by noticeable amounts. On the other hand, we had a few more mults on both of
those bands this year. We were really happy to see 15m open up both Saturday
and Sunday and are very happy with our totals on both 20m and 15m. Our band
goals were 1,500 QSOs on 20m and 1,000 QSOs on 15m. We exceeded both of those.
We were happy to get 52 mults on 10m and although the band had some activity
that was very welcome, it never really busted wide open like we were hoping for.
However, it did work well enough to work some DX there we haven’t worked in
several years such as KH6, VK, ZL, etc. We were also happy to work Japan and
some other Asian countries on 15m which is something we have not seen in several
years.
When Saturday morning came, NY3B was going solidly on 20m when I came in a
little while after and took over 15m. We managed more than half our total on
those two bands on Saturday. On Sunday we switched and NY3B had a solid run for
several hours on 15m while I took 20m. When I got on, I did a little S&P to
see how the band was and also to knock out some mults before picking a run
frequency and settling in. There were a number of northern Europe stations on
such as OH, LN, SM, and a UA9 so I had the beam set around 25-30 degrees instead
of the more typical 45-50 I would use for continental Europe. I had forgotten I
had set it this way when I started running but had no shortage of EU stations
calling in short order. Then I had two YB (Indonesia) stations call in, the
first one being a mult of course and the second one a spare. I thought “Wow!
That was cool”. Then shortly after an E21 (Thailand) called in.
“Amazing!” I thought. After that, a DU (Philippines) called also! That’s
when I noticed I had left the beam favoring the north more than normal. I’m
not sure this amounts to a strategy but getting those 3 mults was sure nice. I
might try this again in the future. Eventually, I did swing the beam back a bit
more to the northeast but the European stations were still only as loud and
plentiful as they had been. We worked hard not only on our rate but also
chasing down every mult we could manage. Late in the afternoon on Sunday we
were still 21 mults away from our goal of 500 and it seemed unlikely we would
reach it. Bit by bit we found new ones popping. We started counting them down
but it still seemed like 500 was not in the cards. In the last hour we managed
to add 6 more mults as some exotic places appeared on the bands and we worked
some by both short and long paths. These included 9M6, DS4, 9V1, and the
frustratingly difficult, yet so near 4U1UN (for an additional band). We were
shocked that we didn’t have EI yet on 40m when we worked one with only 12
minutes to spare.
As always we are grateful to our host Mark, K2AX, his wife Donna, W2DOB, and the
rest of their family for the kind hospitality, for letting us invade their home,
and the use of a great station. We’ll be back in a few weeks for the phone
edition to finish out another season. KE2D
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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