[3830] ARRL160 K1ZM SO HP

[k1zm at aol.com]

                     ARRL 160-Meter Contest
                    
Call: K1ZM
Operator(s): K1ZM
Station: K1ZM

Class: SO HP
QTH: EMA Section
Operating Time (hrs): 33
 

Summary:
          QSOs  Sections  Countries
Total:     950     25       70      =  190,000

Club/Team: YCCC

Comments:

Arrl 160M Soapbox - K1ZM

First, let me congratulate my friend Bill Fisher, W4AN, on a really superb
effort in this contest.  I think even under NORMAL condx, Bill would have been
hard to beat - so congrats to both Bill and W8JI, Tom Rauch, for producing a
huge score!

As anyone North of NYC knows, the Northeast was under a total RF-absorption
blackout this past weekend - caused by what appears to have been a swooping
down of the auroral ovals from the North.  All I can tell you is that I spent
the whole weekend thinking I was inside a hot air balloon and trying to punch
my way out to make contacts!  

I should have realized how bad it was EARLY ON and simply taken my wife out to
a movie - but I hung in there - which was a huge mistake.

Europe???  HA!!!  Forget Europe!!!!!  I worked 3 stations shortly after the
start of the contest Friday night and then only worked IV3PRK who was an almost
ESP-Qso about 04z.  I never heard Luis so puny weak before.

It was not until about 07z that I managed to penetrate the RF cloud and make a
contact West of the Mississippi River.  The entire first night produced only
one (1) - count 'em W6 Qso with the LAX section.  At the end of the first
night, I believe I had only worked 48 sections total.

The second night was a little better - but barely.  I did manage another 6 Eu
qso's and through careful S & P tuning managed to find many of the missing
sections I needed in order to scratch out 70 total in all.

Sections I never heard were:

WTX
EWA
SF
ND
SD
VE6
VE7

Forget VE8/KL7/VO1-VO2

Here are a few highlights that are memorable:

1) Calling N6RO for 20 minutes and then needing 5 minutes more for Ken to copy
my exchange!

2) Calling tom Schiller, N6BT, in SBAR section on and off for more than an hour
and NEVER raising him (nor getting a QRZ!!)

3) Calling K6SE for about 20 mins before he started hearing me PFW (dunno what
PFW means?  It means Puny F...ing Weak!!!) After awhile, Earl managed to copy
my 599 EMA exchange...

4) Hearing KH6ND quite well - and needing about 10 mins for him to copy my
exchange.  We did it on a series of QSB peaks.....

And so it went.....

Analysis & Commentary

Several years ago, a good friend suggested that the NE has a "lock" on the ARRL
and CQ160M contests - and in many respects this can be true.  However, it is
also true that we can experience condx like those of this past weekend.  And,
when these condx occur, stations in the South and Midwest are going to be able
to run the table to BOTH coasts while the normally favored stations in New
England are going to be shut out from multiplier-rich Europe.  That's exactly
what happened this weekend and we in the Northeast could only sit by watching
it happen and not working very much.

A similar propagation anomaly occurred on a *milder* scale during the CQ 160M
CW contest in January 1999.  Aurora oval absorption that year limited our
"reach" into Europe during much of that contest and while we ended up with the
MOST QSO's and MOST Mults of any entrant in the contest, we lost on QSO point
distribution and actually finished THIRD!  Team W2GD won the contest and Team
W8JI came in a close second.

Anyway, that's what makes contesting and 160M exciting.  You just **never**
know what you will find and you must play the hand you are dealt.

Again, my congrats to W4AN on a super-effort.  Even under ideal condx his score
stands pretty tall - he seemed to be everywhere this weekend and was always
LOUD - even during daylight hours.

Congrats also to K5GO, K5NA, AA1K and W4MYA for putting up some FB numbers.

See you the next time under hopefully different condx in the NE.

73 JEFF

K1ZM at aol.com


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