[3830] W4AN ARRL DX CW SOAB HP Unassisted
Bill Fisher
bill at concen.com
Wed Feb 24 12:18:19 EST 1999
band QSOs points mults
-----------------------------------
160 34 102 27
80 208 624 55
40 827 2481 77
20 659 1977 82
15 847 2541 87
10 903 2709 80
-----------------------------------
TOTAL 3478 10434 408 SCORE: 4,257,072
I've been very QRL at work this month and hadn't much of a chance to get on
a radio. On Wednesday N5TJ called to tell me all the bands went in the
toilet. My first thought was that it might actually be good timing. The
bands normally come back from a solar event quickly and with good results.
Luckily I was right and the weekend turned out to be very good.
What I wasn't counting on was the thunderstorms that were to my northeast.
A tornado touched down just over the Georgia line in South Carolina on
Friday night. With cooler temperatures predicted for the weekend, I was
hopeful that I would finally get to operate an ARRL DX with out a
thunderstorm. Unfortunately, it was not to happen. Friday night was a
total waste for me on the low bands. Even 40 meters was being pounded by
S9 static crashes. 15 minutes in to the contest, I left 40 meters to run
JA's on 15 meters because of the static on 40. Doing two radios is
difficult. Doing it with static crashes is almost impossible. The
concentration and energy required make it impossible to do for a long time
in a 48 hour contest. I did it Friday night and paid the price by over
sleeping Saturday morning.
It seems I may have made some very serious mistakes in this contest. I
have seen many posts stating how good 40 meters was to Japan on Saturday
morning. I tried getting something going that direction a few times, but
may have tried too early and too late. Europe stayed in for me until
0900Z. Actually I think I could have worked them all night if I really
wanted to do so. It was amazing.
The other mistake was also made on Friday night by missing an opening to
Europe at their sunrise on 20 meters. There is a chance we might not have
gotten the opening. I'm hoping K4BAI will fill me in soon as he was the
operator at NQ4I on 20 meters. K1TO reported having a good run of
Europeans from south Florida at this time. When I listened to 20 at 0800Z,
I noted a few of the big guns but mostly not very strong signals.
Generally, for this opening to work the signals have to be very loud
because most of Europe doesn't expect the opening. They are beaming
somewhere else.
I almost quit when I woke up. It was very disheartening to have missed the
11Z hour because I was sleeping. I went straight to 15 meters and started
running. Luckily I got a good frequency and instant rate. Had anything
gone wrong at that point, I probably would have packed it in. I hate
saying that, but Friday night was no fun at all and by February I'm
thinking more about what new antennas to put up than what contest to
operate.
One interesting note while operating Saturday and Sunday was that though I
was running good rates on 10 and 15 meters, when I would S&P and call a
European I was getting beat by just about any NE station. Generally when
this has happened in the past five years, I get trounced on the band in
question. This year my numbers are pretty much on par with the rest of the
pack.
Normally the end of the contest is spent on 40 meters. I just couldn't get
anything going there. I scanned 10 meters and noticed a JA that was 20DB
over S9. I immediately went down the band and began working 5w JA's.
Something I rarely get to do. Conditions were fantastic. Unfortunately
there were very few to work. I might have logged 60.
Thanks to the guys who actually managed to send QRL, DITDIT DIT, or ?
before calling CQ. No thanks to the guys who did not including W2AA, WX0B,
Break Down
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults W4AN ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM
TOT
0 ..... ..... 46/20 5/4 51/4 ..... 102/28 102/28
1 . . 81/12 9/7 . . 90/19 192/47
2 . 6/5 44/5 9/5 . . 59/15 251/62
3 . 33/14 7/1 1/1 . . 41/16 292/78
4 . 21/6 22/10 2/1 . . 45/17 337/95
5 7/5 3/0 65/2 . . . 75/7 412/102
6 . 22/3 43/2 . . . 65/5 477/107
7 . 8/7 60/2 . . . 68/9 545/116
8 3/3 3/2 47/2 ..... ..... ..... 53/7 598/123
9 . 9/7 29/6 . . . 38/13 636/136
10 . . . . . . . 636/136
11 . . . . . . . 636/136
12 . 1/0 . . 72/26 8/8 81/34 717/170
13 . . . . 75/5 51/21 126/26 843/196
14 . . . . 10/1 126/10 136/11 979/207
15 . . . . 7/2 135/11 142/13 1121/220
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 46/4 73/4 119/8 1240/228
17 . . . . 120/4 11/1 131/5 1371/233
18 . . . 23/15 86/4 . 109/19 1480/252
19 . . . 86/14 21/0 9/6 116/20 1596/272
20 . . . 91/8 5/2 7/3 103/13 1699/285
21 . . . 81/3 16/6 . 97/9 1796/294
22 . . 29/0 32/1 2/2 11/5 74/8 1870/302
23 . 11/1 39/2 . 17/3 7/0 74/6 1944/308
0 ..... 16/2 2/0 19/5 19/1 ..... 56/8 2000/316
1 1/1 32/2 12/1 . 17/1 . 62/5 2062/321
2 6/4 6/1 5/2 1/0 13/0 . 31/7 2093/328
3 3/3 8/0 . 29/5 . . 40/8 2133/336
4 8/7 18/1 . 4/1 . . 30/9 2163/345
5 1/0 . 62/1 . . . 63/1 2226/346
6 . . 71/2 1/0 . . 72/2 2298/348
7 1/1 4/2 56/1 . . . 61/4 2359/352
8 ..... 2/1 63/0 1/0 ..... ..... 66/1 2425/353
9 . 4/1 22/3 . . . 26/4 2451/357
10 2/1 . 6/0 . . . 8/1 2459/358
11 . . . 19/0 . . 19/0 2478/358
12 . . . 63/2 7/0 10/0 80/2 2558/360
13 . . . 6/1 3/2 103/2 112/5 2670/365
14 . . . . 18/1 77/2 95/3 2765/368
15 . . . . 55/2 45/1 100/3 2865/371
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 5/2 112/0 117/2 2982/373
17 . . . 1/1 90/4 19/0 110/5 3092/378
18 . . . 32/1 40/0 9/2 81/3 3173/381
19 . . . 65/2 19/4 . 84/6 3257/387
20 . . . 48/1 4/2 11/3 63/6 3320/393
21 . . . 27/3 27/3 3/1 57/7 3377/400
22 . . 2/1 4/1 1/1 48/0 55/3 3432/403
23 2/2 1/0 14/1 . 1/1 28/0 46/4 3478/407
DAY1 10/8 117/45 512/64 339/59 528/63 438/69 ..... 1944/308
DAY2 24/19 91/10 315/12 320/23 319/24 465/11 . 1534/99
TOT 34/27 208/55 827/76 659/82 847/87 903/80 . 3478/407
--
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