[3830] ARRLDX CW ZF2NT SOAB HP

[zf2nt at candw.ky]

                     ARRL DX Contest, CW
                    
Call: ZF2NT
Operator(s): ZF2NT
Station: ZF2NT

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs  Mults
----------------------
  160:    353     52
   80:    539     56
   40:    710     57
   20:   1111     57
   15:   1081     57
   10:   1044     57
----------------------
Total:   4838    336  =  4,876,704

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

Participation from the US/VE side seemed to me to be way down this year 
compared to last year.  I found myself begging and begging most of the 
weekend...and getting very poor results to show for it.  I have no idea why 
this was, although we can all conjecture.  But I did get a chance to chat with 
P49V the other night, and Carl had exactly the same observation.  I also got a 
nice note from 8P5A--the likely winner for SOAB/HP--and Tom agreed completely 
with this.  Somehow or another, this contest needs a big shot in the arm back 
in the US and Canada.  People just aren't getting on in the same numbers I used 
to see.

160/80/40 had fantastic propagation--very quiet conditions with lots of strong, 
clear signals coming through.  On the other hand, 10 was in worse shape than 
I've seen in a long time.  It was extremely long, and the band was very noisy 
here.  I exchanged a few honest signal reports with people on the west coast, 
and all of them were way down from normal. People I'm used to hearing 20dB over 
S9 were only S7--and they said the same thing of me.  On 20, I had terrible 
noise problems both Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  It effectively shut me down 
on 20.  The noise blanker didn't do a thing for it, and I was convinced it had 
to be auroral.  Turning the beam around had no effect on the strength of this 
noise.  But when I checked all the usual propagtion pages after the contest, I 
could find no trace of auroral activity to account for this.  Plus, I haven't 
heard anyone mention it yet.  So it must have been local...I guess.

Bruce, ZF2NT
(QSLs to G3SWH.  NOT to N6NT.  NOT to N2AU.  NOT to N4YDP.  NOT to bureau.  
ONLY to G3SWH!)


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