[3830] KX9X IARU M/S--Score & Commentary

[Sean Kutzko]

HI folks--

Sorry for the delay in posting... busy week here.

KX9X IARU M/S Hi Power:


1611 QSO's
112  Zones 
   65    HQ Stations

1,160, 589 points.
22 1/2 hours on-air time


NO9Z & I have wanted to do this one for quite some time, but
schedules just never allowed it until now. We finally got it
together, and we decided we'd just get in it for the fun of it.
Lynn & I both agree... this contest is SERIOUS FUN, alright!!
With being able to work both modes and only getting half the
openings of the other major events, there is simply too much to
do in this contest; you're never left high and dry pushing F1
over and over. 

Several high points: 15 was NON-STOP. Worked EU in the morning
and JA/UA0's until 10:30 Saturday night. Simply spectacular! We
were even working JA's on 15 at 11AM pointed to EU. In one of
the high points of my life as a ham, I worked BV2B on 15m phone
at 1530z Saturday and worked him again on 15m CW at 0230 Sunday!
The same guy with 2 QSO's just 12 hours apart; opposite ends of
the same opening. That was really cool to me. Being called by a
VU2 on 15m at 1700 Saturday was pretty wild, too.

20m was stellar as well. Lots of good openings over the pole and
opening to the west all night long. Gentlemen, it has been a
LONG time since 20m sounded that good in a contest to me. It was
reminiscent of 1989-90. Beautiful propagation.  I only wish we
could have seen some action on 10m. We worked only a handful of
guys on 10, and just 2 Europeans.

Since there were only two of us, Lynn & I tried to split the
shifts up as best as possible. We also mixed up the CW to SSB
ratio pretty evenly. This led to me hitting EU on 20m SSB around
1030pm. It was one of the best runs of my life! Northern and
Southern Europe along with a good dose of UA9's and some Middle
East, combined with getting the "last 10" rate meter above 300
for the first time EVER as well at the "last 100" rate meter
above 200 for the first time EVER was just KILLER. This was one
hell of a run for me. Lynn continued the run at 1:30AM and kept
going until 4:30 AM, when the JA's were loud and Lynn simply
couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. We pulled the plug 2 1/2
hours early, exhausted but stuffed full of DX.

You can expect to see us in this one next year. Maybe we'll even
take it seriously this time. :)

Sean


  
  
Sean Kutzko, Amateur Radio: KX9X
Urbana, IL USA       Grid EN50vc
Homepage--http://hobbes.ncsa.uiuc.edu/sean
QTH Rental Page--http://hobbes.ncsa.uiuc.edu/sean/qthlist.html

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