ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: KA1IS
Operator(s): KA1IS
Station: KA1IS
Class: SOSB40 HP
QTH: ME
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40: 1545 102
20:
15:
10:
-------------------
Total: 1545 102 Total Score = 472,770
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This may be the last season operating from a tent. We're building a small cabin
on top of the hill - now, in the middle of winter. Cabin is looking great, but
everything else is a mess. Frozen mud, ice, construction debris, stumps, etc.,
It doesn't have that pristine look of Bouvet Island. Although from time to time,
the neighbors report seeing penguins.
Due to the construction, I decided not to re-connect all the antenna switches
because of having to remove everything again from the ground again in a few
weeks. 40 meters seemed like the best option. Its also a favorite band of
vampires.
Conditions seemed surprisingly normal on Friday evening despite geomagnetic
hype. After getting burned by suddenly declining propagation on 40, during CQWW
CW, I decided to collect multipliers early. Whenever the rate dropped I would
run down the packet cluster. With single-band, you're mostly competing with ops
at MM stations who are essentially working single-band. The multiplier scrums
are not for the faint of heart. But it helps to channel K1AR when busting
pileups. Also the lucky rabbits foot.
After EU sunrise Saturday morning, there were good openings to Asia and the
Pacific. Worked V85, JT1, BD1, HL2, and YJ0. Most surprising was E29 and DU3
long path around 1200z. These openings would not return the next night because I
fell asleep and missed local sunrise.
Sunday morning there were good openings to JA early, but it was difficult to
hear the 100 watt stations.
Not many stations from SA or Africa in the log. Not even an HK or ZS.
Weather was rough on Friday night. Sleet, snow, gusty winds - then the
temperature dropped - freezing the ground into an abstract ice sculpture. That
fizzled out by morning and the rest of the weekend was cold but calm. Antennas
were dancing but nothing broke. The live motion of antennas, in wind, makes
signals louder on the other end. Similar to the psychoacoustic loudness boost of
vibrato with opera singers. Yeah ok, I just made that up.
By Sunday afternoon it was clear that I had overfished the pond. At times the
cluster window was blank. This is the downside of the SB category. Nobody's
answering CQ's. The guys from New Hampshire are running huge pileups 1 KHz up,
and all you can think of is "I wonder if 10 meters is open?". Until
you have to forcibly restrain your arm from the band button like Peter Sellers
in Dr. Strangelove.
Then it starts raining duplicates. So much so that you get paranoid, thinking
that someone is out there mangling your call on the packet cluster. Can you
imagine how crazy things would get if contests lasted an entire week? Late in
the contest I called a dupe DL1 station, who replied, "had QSO" - but
because I can't tell S from H when I'm tired - thought he said "sad
QSO".
Key clicks are still a thing.
After hours behind this computer screen, it occurred to me that radio contests
are a computer game that would still keep on going if they took away the
computers. Like Christmas after the Grinch took away all the stuff in
Who-ville.
Antennas: 4 element wire beam NE, 3 element wire beams SW, SE, NW - all at
around 40 to 50 ft high.
73,
Tom
KA1IS
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