[3830] K5MDX ARRL 10 M/S HP

[Ray Rocker]

K5MDX ARRL 10 M/S HP score:

Band    QSOs   DomMult  DXMult
------------------------------
10CW    1210      60      65
10SSB   1810      61      77
------------------------------
TOTAL   3020     121     142     2,224,980 points

Operators: W5UE, WQ5L, N5FG, N5ZX, KD5CQT
Hours Operated: 35
Rig: FT1000 + Alpha 77
Antenna: C31XR @ 50'
Section: MS

In sixteen years of operating this contest off and on
(mostly on) I'd never before this time seen a great 
sporadic E opening in a high-flux year. It always seems 
to be either-or. 

The annual MDXA dinner banquet was Saturday evening at 
0000Z. Randy, W5UE volunteered to skip it to keep working
the contest. I kinda felt bad later, chowing down on fried 
catfish and ribs while he was probably CQing on a dead band. 
Boy was I wrong. Returned to the shack three hours later
to find him still running on the same frequency and 400+ 
more QSOs in the log. I will lobby hard to get the banquet 
rescheduled next year.

Before calling it a night, a little after midnight local
time, I was surprised to hear LU5VV on CW with a nice
signal. Crazy.

DX conditions were good, but not great. Signals from
Europe, especially Eastern Europe, were on the weak side.

This was our first contest with the C31XR, replacing a much
smaller Hygain 3-el tribander. It did quite well I think. 
3000 Qs was WAY beyond my expectations. None of us had ever 
even broken 2000 Qs in any contest, single or multi op.

Once we got the 3000 Q mark in our sights, Sunday morning
sometime, we quit chasing mults for the most part, and
worked more phone than we would have liked, to concentrate 
on rate. Made it just under the wire on the strength of a 
great run to W6/W7/JA in the last 30 minutes.

Domestic mults missed: VY1 and VE8 both modes, VY2 and VO2
on CW, and New Mexico (!!!) on phone.

73 & Happy Holidays,

-- Ray  WQ5L

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