[3830] ARRLDX SSB OH4XX SOSB/15 HP (The Story)

[Mikko]

OH4XX SOSB 15 HP:

1710 q 60 m = 303480 pnts.


After few day recovery I thought to give some comments to soapbox.

Before the contest I was not sure which single band to go since K index was
going up and down.  I had two options; 20 or 15. I was hoping to go for 15m
since then I could have some sleep and yet I could still remember 1995 ARRL
SSB when we had big pileups on 15. I spent some time there just before the
start and band seem to be kind of OK. So  15 it was... First few hour were
not too busy; only 110 qsos. I took a quite long sleep since I knew (hoped)
that Saturday would be very busy day. I woke up 7Z and since 15 was closed
to NA I jumped on 20 M and gave some points with OH7M call. 20M was really
down at that time, all those big guns like KC1XX were just a whispers! After
11Z I started to scan 15 and did some S&P (KC1XX to be 1st..) stuff since
signals were not too loud. What I should have done is turn the antenna more
to SA direction ( I realized this on Sunday) Anyways 15 started to rock
around 12:15 Z (QSO nr 115) and sometimes it was quite wild ride until
16:30Z (QSO nr 590) Then band died for an hour and half (a good time for
short break) 18:30Z  (QSO nr 604) band recovered and then it was wild run
again!! My best hour was 190 Qs which is nice from this part of the world.
23Z (QSO nr 1171) rates started to drop and 00Z I was too tired to continue.
I knew that band was not totally closed for that day and I could have get
more qsos (maybe 100?) but I decided to have some sleep instead. So end of
1st day I had almost 1300 contacts and 59 multipliers. Not too bad.

Sunday band opened about same time as 1st day but then I discovered that NA
station were coming from SA direction for an hour or so. Whole afternoon
was very slow;I could not get any good runs and band was really packed with
stations. There was no change to find a good spot in order to hear weak
signals (below S2) Some stations really had they knobs turned to SE; audio
quality was poor and they were 5 kc wide. I did mention this to few guys but
I really do not know if they understood. 19Z I had only 150 Q more and  I
started to get tired for endless CQing.. Between 19Z and 23Z I got 300Qs
more so finally 1710 and 60 mults. Wish the second day would have been
better then I could have easily broke OH record but now I missed about 250
Qs for that.

I did record almost every QSO to wav-file so if someone wants to get his
"QSO" I can provide that , e-mail: oh4xx at sral dot fi (QSO on recording is
not complete since 90% of qsos my report is not recorded). This is one of
the nice features what N1MM Logger provides, so congrats & thanks  to Tom
N1MM and his SW team.

I did the whole contest without DVK which was a drag..so next one I will get
one for sure.

Thanks for QSOs and cu in next one!

73,

Mikko OH4XX

Rigs:
FT1000MP+ 2*3-500Z amp.
6 over 6 (up 42/32m)  monobander stack
KT34XA (up 21m)

Laptop running N1MM Logger (UFB ! )