Hi all,
Well, what to make of that contest? Conditions were not so good at times,
and it was hard work to begin with.
I had plans of staying up past my bedtime, but that plan soon got scrapped!
At 1800, 10 and 15 were dead, which was what I expected, but 20 looked good.
There were plenty of W's around, and they all seemed loud, so I expected to
do OK. Sadly, they weren't hearing Europe, but I did manage to work a few
before going down to 40. The low bands were slow, and it was hard to be
heard with my low power and small antennas, so I decided to quit and get up
early on the Sunday morning.
I made it into the shack for about 0645UTC, which was later than I had
planned, but early enough to try and work W/VE on 80.
I was able to hear N8NR, W4CBX and W4RM quite easily, and they all had good
signals (S8 - S9), but they weren't hearing EU. Then I came across George
W1ZT with a much weaker signal (S5) and he heard me first call! Thanks
George! That was my first W on 80m RTTY !!!
I had then hoped to work a few W/VE on 40, but there was next to nothing to
be had. 20 was open by 0715UTC, and I managed to work JA and ZL, but no VK.
The rest of the morning was mostly EU, and finding those extra mults, and it
wasn't until after 1230UTC that W/VE started to come in.
As the mother-in-law was coming for lunch, I took a break, and after that,
went on 10m just to see what was happening. K4WI was there with an excellent
signal, so I worked him, and then found a clear place to call CQ. I managed
to bag 12 State/province mults in the next 30 minutes, and had great fun.
I also got called by W6DSQ, but after sending the exchange, nothing! I
called QRZ? and he came again, but after the exchange, nothing again. Sorry,
I did try!
It was also a great pleasure for me to work Dick KS0M on 10m - Thanks Dick!
A bit later on, around 1730UTC, 20 was open nicely to the west coast, and I
managed to work KE7AJ, W7EJ and W6YX reasonably easily.
At times, it seemed as though some folk hadn't realised that mults count
only ONCE, as I had a few that tried to break the mini-pile up I had. Not to
worry, as you get a point for the QSO, but I wouldn't have bothered trying
to break a pile for it.
Anyway, here is my effort............
(More QSO's than last year, but way down on mults!)
QSO States Prov DX
80 49 1 0 15
40 34 1 0 13
20 93 10 1 13
15 92 4 4 7
10 32 12 0 1
Totals: 300 28 5 49
Claimed Score: 24600
Op time - about 14 hours.
Oddly, Writelog 10.44b didn't produce this band summary in the Summary
sheet! I had to copy it from the screen.
Thanks to all for the points, and for the fun. All contacts will be on LoTW
later this month.
Very best 73, and HNY to you all
de Phil GU0SUP
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