ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: W6PH
Operator(s): W6PH
Station: W6PH
Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: Lone Pine CA
Operating Time (hrs): 20.3
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 183 72
15: 443 86
10: 620 83
-------------------
Total: 1246 241 Total Score = 900,858
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
K3S SPE 1.3K-FA DXLog
Cushcraft A3S at 40 feet
I had planned to be part of the ND7K crew but was stuck at my NH QTH until a
couple days before the start of the contest. It didn't give me enough time to
get back and drive down there before the contest. I didn't have an opportunity
to raise my contest antennas. I only had the 30 year old A3S in the air on 40
feet of Rohn 25. I decided to do a limited effort and make a DXCC as my goal
for the weekend. I didn't even go out to the shack on Friday evening.
On Saturday morning my friends on the east coast reported a SFI of 346. I
didn't believe it. I went out to my unheated shack (30F ambient) dressed warmly
to check out the bands. Twenty meters had some watery signals from big stations
in Europe which is sort of normal. I then went to 10 meters and the P3 was full
of signals. The Europeans were loud. I have never run Europeans from
California. I found a clear frequency (28.115) to try a CQ. I thought I was
back in W1 with a continuous stream of callers from Europe. It was absolutely
amazing. The band opening was reminiscent of Cycle 19 back in 1957. The band
started to fade mid-morning and I went to 15 meters with the same results.
Later on I tried 20 meters but there just wasn't the volume of strong signals
from Europe. So it was S&P until the bands opened to JA. Sunday was a
replication of Saturday.
My antenna is directly above the shack and I could only run about 900 watts or
the RFI would lock up my logging computer. That happened a number of times and
resulted in a 3 minute delay while I rebooted the laptop and DXLog. I don't
have this problem when using my contest antennas on AB-577's about 50 to 80 feet
away.
In retrospect I wish I had been more motivated to get my contest antennas raised
for all six bands. This weekend would have been one to remember. I did achieve
my goal of 100 different countries even though the volume of multipliers was
down quite a bit. There were no specific highlights, Just a fantastic
propagation weekend.
73, Kurt W6PH
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