[3830] ARRL DX PHONE KL7Y M/2

[Dan Robbins]

2000 ARRL DX Contest Phone   KL7Y M/2


Band            Q              M

160               46            15
 80              250            38
 40              981            56
 20            1484            59
 15            2789            59
 10            2744            59

TOT         8294           286      =>  7,116,252

OPS:  KL7Y, KL7FH, KL9A, WA2GO, NQ4I & AL7PJ

Observations:

- Conditions to Europe were the BEST we have had in years.
Unfortunately, we can't work Europe in this contest.  Rick, NQ4I, was
between airline flights and stopped by to help out Friday night.  He
left thinking we ALWAYS have propagation to Europe like that.  Thanks
for the help, Rick, next time we'll even feed you. Nice try bringing
that two wheel drive rent-a-car up the icy hill.

- About 8 hours per day of 10 m being open to the states.  15 seemed
about an hour or two longer.  As near as I could tell, 20 was open to
W/VE for 48 hours straight, but most of that time that was really not
productive.  Seems like we could always hear K3LR or W3LPL or N6RO on
20, but couldn't really work any second tier stations except  in the
morning and late in the day.

- 40 wasn't too bad considering the propagation on 80 and 160 was poor.
Lots of non-amateur signals on 40 sure made it rough.  K3LR was loudest
I heard from the East Coast; of course that was still about 30 dB less
than K7EM.  80 did squeak out some East Coasters, but most of the time
it was W6/W7 only.  160 wasn't even that good.  At one point all I could
hear on 160 were  FO0AAA, KH7R, HU1A, HC8N, KV4FZ and several XE2s.  Oh,
and one statesider, N6RO, at the noise level.  At East Coast sunrise I
heard W4MYA, W3LPL, K3LR and K1ZM, but no QSOs.

- Really wanted to do a M/M but with only two ops there at the start, it
just didn't seem too feasible.  Congrats to 6D2X, a superior effort from
a superior location.

- No big equipment problems.  One headphone/boom mic had a problem, one
sticky T/R relay that healed itself and a couple of computer crashes.
Biggest problem was the times when there was a continuous string of DX
stations calling.   Had to actually program the voice keyers to call CQ
USA or Canada.  Several DX stations got upset when I wouldn't work them
and tried the extended carrier frequency jam.  We did work a few DX
(separate log) when things were real slow, but that quickly got out of
hand.  Attention DX stations - I did not write the rules, don't blame
me.  For you W/VE's who don't consider this a problem, just remember,
every DX station that calls me or KL7RA or KH7R isn't calling you.  We
need to do a better job of  notifying DX stations that KL and KH are DX,
too, and not workable in this contest.

- All in all it was a pretty decent time.  Didn't get as high as rates
as we had hoped, the low bands were lousy and the multiplier total was
shy, but we made lots of Qs, worked stations big and small, the expected
big geomagnetic storm fizzled and we even got more sleep than in the CW
contest.   Not bad at all.

        Dan KL7Y




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