ARRL 10 Meter - WB4HFL SO/LP/Unassisted

[HENRYPOL at aol.com]

Call: WB4HFL   Category: Single Op/Low Power/Unassisted
Mode: Phone only
Score: 6656
QSOs: 104
Sections: 24
DX: 8  

Station: TS850SAT, Heil HC4 BM/Radio Shack Nova 44, MFJ-949D, JPS NIR-10,
Ameco PT-3, 4 elements at 45 ft fixed South, 3 elements at 40 ft fixed West,
stacked Extended Double Zepps at 45 ft fixed N. East/S. West.

Friday night started off good with 34 QSOs by 0330, mostly meteor scatter,
ground wave and tropo(?).  This was the only time I heard and worked any
Caribbean stations.  Saturday morning started fairly good with about 20 more
QSOs, including K5LZO/MM and 5 countries.  Then just as the band started to
open to the west and southwest around 1700, I had to leave the shack (see
excuses below).  When I returned at 1900 the band was dying; managed one CA
and one XE.  The rest of Saturday afternoon/evening saw only a few locals and
two FLs around 0100.  At 1200 Sunday morning worked AA8PA in MI who was S9+
and quickly worked several other stations from all directions.  So started
running and quickly worked another 20 stations.  This lasted until 1422, then
there was a knock at the shack door (see excuses below).  When I returned at
2010, things were beginning to fade; worked several CAs and ZL2DX.  Then the
band died again; only managed two more QSOs, the last one being the toughest,
with WA4ZXA at 2309. 

Best DX was ZL2DX; did not hear any Europe, Africa, or Asia, and only 2
Caribbean (VP5JM & ZF2DR).

Longest QSO was working Jim, WA4ZXA (after several attempts) groundwave, 125
miles away, THANKS Jim.

Overall, only managed to run successfully for a short time Sunday morning.
 Most of the time it was search and pounce for the high power station.  The
only benefit of running when the band was dead were the occasional local
ground wave contacts.

VANITIES:  Wow!  There were a lot of stateside 1x2 calls this time.  And with
conditions the way they were this weekend, it sure was nice not to have to
deal with a couple of extra syllables.  So, the vanity calls really help both
sides of a QSO.  The only downside I notice is that, come WPX Contest time,
there may not be as many unique stateside prefixes as before, i.e., all of
those wonderful 2x1 calls.  Maybe someone can convince the FCC to let the
original licensee use his old call during WPX, at least until it is reissued.

EXCUSES:  As luck would have it, I missed most of the 2 major bandopenings.
 Early Saturday afternoon (wife was working) I had to take daughter to
friend's birthday party - lost 1.5 hours.  Then Sunday morning, as band was
opening to the West, I had to take family to son's first hockey game of the
season - lost 5 hours.  About 15 minutes after I got back to the rig,
everyone disappeared.  I listened to several new multipliers fade away into
the noise as they continued to work midwest stations.  Next year I will have
to find a way to get the family out of town, or find a "temporary father
agency" :-).

See you next year!

73,
Henry Pollock - WB4HFL
henrypol at aol.com

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