[3830] ARRL 10 K5TR(WM5R) SO SSB HP
webform@b4h.net
webform at b4h.net
Mon Dec 12 16:08:50 EST 2005
ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: K5TR
Operator(s): WM5R
Station: K5TR
Class: SO SSB HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW:
SSB: 1749 97
-------------------
Total: 1749 97 Total Score = 339,306
Club:
Comments:
Station K5TR:
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr/blanco/k5tr_station.html
Kenwood TS-850SAT
Kenwood TS-850SAT
Ameritron AL-1500
Alpha 78
24' boom, 6-element yagi @ 60' rotatable
24' boom, 6-element yagi @ 30' fixed NE
4-element yagi @ 40' fixed SE
3-element yagi @ 20' fixed W
Half wave vertical, base @ 20'
Ameritron RCS-8V antenna switches
Heil Proset Plus w/ rubber-band boom mod
W9XT contest card
TR Log 6.78
Eskip is awesome.
I never imagined that I could top last year's QSO total and score.
I was getting a little concerned about even being able to start
the contest on time this year. I left work two hours before
the contest start, expecting to arrive at K5TR about an hour
later. Earlier in the afternoon, however, a squirrel apparently
got into an electrical substation and took out power to most of
southwest Austin, including the stop lights. Power had been restored
by the time I got there, but the traffic was still a total mess.
I got to the station with about 20 minutes to spare.
Friday evening was, I thought at the time, going to be a prelude
for the rest of the weekend to come. There was very little
propagation anywhere except South Carolina and a few other
stations scattered in the more southern U.S. latitudes and Mexico.
Australia was coming in from the get-go, and in fact VK4CZ was
my first QSO of the contest, but I could only put three Australians
in the log that first hour. The 0100 UTC hour didn't really improve
in terms of rate, but I did work a few New Zealand stations in
addition to more Australians. For the rest of Friday night,
the propagation never really improved, although I made two meteor
scatter QSOs to pick up Indiana and South Dakota. I finished
the evening with 99 QSOs total and a best hour of only 35 QSOs,
over 200 QSOs behind last year's running total.
On Saturday morning, I didn't get to the radio until 1250 UTC
or so, when it was still quite dark outside. I freaked out a
little when I put on the headphones and heard several stations in
Maryland calling CQ. I don't know for how long the band had been
open. I put seven QSOs in the log in the next ten minutes, all
in total darkness. The Eskip was there for the next hour or so,
and I picked up Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee, Illinois, and Kentucky. The skip faded out in the 1400
UTC hour, but I still picked up Wisconsin and Kansas on backscatter
and worked my first Chilean. F layer propagation to the south
started to pick up in the 1500 UTC hour, and together with the
thin Eskip, things picked up stateside as well. I worked a VE9
at 1543 on F2 propagation, which was still rather long at that
point. Most of the stateside stations were loudest when I was
beaming to the southeast.
The 1600 UTC and 1700 UTC hours are typically some of the best
in this contest, and I knew they were the best time to pick
up Europe short path if it could be done at all. The band
began to open up to statewide as well, and more and more stations
were loudest on their direct path bearing. I worked my first
European, an EA7, at 1626 UTC and then picked up a 6W at 1631 UTC.
I wouldn't work another station across the Atlantic until an EA8
called in at 1726. Other great multipliers I picked up in these
two hours included Guantanamo Bay, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and
Labrador. A 5U station called in at 1806 UTC for my third African
multiplier.
The rate slowed down in the 1800 UTC hour, and I was mentally
prepared for a slower afternoon. A station from Washington called
in at 1854 UTC, and then a British Columbian station called in at
1900 UTC, the first QSOs I'd had so far in that direction. By 1900
UTC, I only had 380 QSOs in the log, a little over half of the
running total I had at the same time last year, and (unbeknownst
to me at the time) still fourteen QSOs behind W5PR.
The next six hours, though, were amazing. The Eskip just got better
and better. The vast majority of my QSOs were to the northeast,
covering the entire span from Minnesota to Quebec to Florida, with
the occasional LU or PY calling in. I picked up all the remaining
needed W/VE multipliers in that direction except VY2 during this
opening. Conditions peaked in the 2200 UTC hour, when I worked
175 QSOs, and had the ten-minute rate meter at 240 QSOs/hour. I
have had bigger hours in this contest before, but not in several
years. I had six hours in a row with over 100 QSOs. Sometime in
the 2200 UTC hour was also when I (unbeknownst to me at the time)
finally passed W5PR's QSO total.
The opening faded around 0130 UTC, and the rest of Saturday evening
was spent working a scattering of stations out to the west.
The band had still not really opened up to the west coast for me
in any significant way, but there were stations to work, every other
minute or so, for several hours. This opening was mostly to
New Mexico, Arizona, and southern California, although I did
work a few in northern California and picked up the Nevada,
Wyoming, and Utah multipliers. I worked North Dakota on what I think
was meteor scatter. When I called it quits around 0600 UTC,
I hadn't made a QSO in 28 minutes. My running total was 1257 QSOs,
96 QSOs ahead of last year. Wow.
Having learned a lesson, I got on the air much earlier on Sunday,
just after 1200 UTC. Of course, there was no propagation at all
until sometime after 1300 UTC, and I didn't make my first QSO of
the morning until 1322 UTC. The next five hours were rather slow,
working Caribbean and South American stations, other Texans, and
other stateside stations that were also beaming south. It was not
until 1544 UTC that I made my first short path QSO to the northeast,
with a station in Maine - the F2 propagation was still quite long.
At 1650 UTC, a CU station called in and at 1658, I worked another
EA8. By the end of the 1700 UTC hour, I had 1347 QSOs in the log,
and for the first time in a while, I was now behind my 2004 running
QSO total.
At 1720 UTC, an OH station called in, and in the next hour, I
was able to work nine northern Europeans, including the SM, TF,
GM, and LA multipliers. OH6NIO gave me a three digit serial number,
but the other stations were all single digit or low double digit
numbers. I also picked up the VY2 multiplier at 1753 UTC. As that
opening closed, Eskip to the northwestern US and western Canada
opened for the first time in any significant way. I finally put
multipliers like Oregon, Montana, and Saskatchewan in the log. The
skip got to be very good, covering the entire west coast at the
same time that the F2 propagation to the east coast was beginning
to shorten enough to cover all of New England and as far south as
New York. I had two more 100+ QSO hours at 1900 UTC and 2000 UTC.
ZD8I called in during the 1900 UTC hour for my final African
multiplier. KH6/W5ZL called in for the Hawaiian multiplier and
VP9/K0ARY called in for the Bermuda multiplier in the 2000 UTC hour.
I would eventually work a second KH6 station, as well. By the end
of the 1900 UTC hour, my QSO total was once again ahead of last
year's pace.
The opening faded during the 2100 UTC hour. I actually went for
fourteen minutes, from 2135 UTC to 2149 UTC without a QSO. There
was still some skip to the west, principally to California, and
the occasional South American would call in. My last new multiplier
of the contest was a station calling from the Falkland Islands at
2154 UTC.
The contest ended with three hours of 39, 42, and 32 QSOs
respectively, which were a lot better than the last three hours
of the contest last year. Almost all of those QSOs were to the
U.S. southwest with the occasional South American or Mexican
station as well.
In the end, I finished with six fewer multipliers, but 247 more QSOs
and a claimed score about 29,000 points higher than last year. I had
eight hours of 100 or more QSOs this year. That's amazing to me.
I've noticed this contest season that there are a lot more Mexican
stations operating in the phone contests than there were just last
year. I worked sixteen XEs in the contest. Last year, I worked
only two. I always wondered why there were so few XEs in the
contests - I wonder what has changed? I think it's awesome that
there are more active stations there now.
I never did work Asia in this contest. I knew from previous
years just how narrow the potential short path opening to Japan
was likely to be. (Un)fortuntely, that possible opening on
Saturday coincided with my 175 hour, when I was highly focused
on the east coast. I listened hard in that direction on Sunday,
but never heard any stations in Asia or even in Alaska.
George hooked up the station so that almost all of the antennas
were available on the left radio. The switching arrangement
allowed me the flexibility of combining almost any combination
of the antennas I could need, although some of the combinations
including the fixed west antenna had moderately high SWR.
The right radio was connected to a half-wave vertical, mounted
about 20' up in the air, that George was borrowing from KI5DR.
It was very useful for finding new stations to work while I was
calling CQ on the other radio. About half of the time, I was
able to get through on the vertical, but the other half of the
time I'd have to quickly QSY the run rig and use the yagis.
I did occasionally make an S&P pass with the yagis because not
every station I heard on the yagis was also audible on the vertical
and vice versa.
I'm really happy with how the station performed. There were no
mechanical or electrical issues all weekend long, and I think
the station really gets out well on ten meters.
Rate Sheet:
HR 10 CUM TOTAL SCORE
-- ------ --------- -----
0 35/8 35/8 0.00M
1 20/2 55/10 0.00M
2 33/1 88/11 0.00M
3 7/2 95/13 0.00M
4 2/1 97/14 0.00M
5 2/0 99/14 0.00M
6 --- 99/14 0.00M
7 --- 99/14 0.00M
8 --- 99/14 0.00M
9 --- 99/14 0.00M
10 --- 99/14 0.00M
11 --- 99/14 0.00M
12 7/2 106/16 0.00M
13 20/6 126/22 0.01M
14 7/3 133/25 0.01M
15 49/20 182/45 0.02M
16 52/9 234/54 0.03M
17 81/9 315/63 0.04M
18 65/4 380/67 0.05M
19 110/2 490/69 0.07M
20 109/0 599/69 0.08M
21 127/2 726/71 0.10M
22 175/2 901/73 0.13M
23 142/0 1043/73 0.15M
0 102/0 1145/73 0.17M
1 38/1 1183/74 0.18M
2 32/1 1215/75 0.18M
3 29/2 1244/77 0.19M
4 12/1 1256/78 0.20M
5 1/0 1257/78 0.20M
6 --- 1257/78 0.20M
7 --- 1257/78 0.20M
8 --- 1257/78 0.20M
9 --- 1257/78 0.20M
10 --- 1257/78 0.20M
11 --- 1257/78 0.20M
12 --- 1257/78 0.20M
13 15/1 1272/79 0.20M
14 16/1 1288/80 0.21M
15 18/2 1306/82 0.21M
16 28/1 1334/83 0.22M
17 13/4 1347/87 0.23M
18 64/5 1411/92 0.26M
19 100/1 1511/93 0.28M
20 125/3 1636/96 0.31M
21 39/1 1675/97 0.32M
22 42/0 1717/97 0.33M
23 32/0 1749/97 0.34M
D1 1043/73
D2 706/24
TO 1749/97
Unique callsigns worked = 1749
The best 60 minute rate was 184/hour from 2148 to 2247
The best 30 minute rate was 194/hour from 2216 to 2245
The best 10 minute rate was 240/hour from 2238 to 2247
The best 1 minute rates were:
6 QSOs/minute 2 times.
5 QSOs/minute 15 times.
4 QSOs/minute 40 times.
3 QSOs/minute 142 times.
2 QSOs/minute 265 times.
1 QSOs/minute 546 times.
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
4 581
5 718
6 439
7 3
8 4
9 4
Continental Distribution:
USA calls = 1491
VE calls = 90
N.A. calls = 48
S.A. calls = 76
Euro calls = 11
Afrc calls = 6
Asia calls = 0
JA calls = 0
Ocen calls = 27
Total calls = 1749
Multiplier Distribution:
1. Ca 129
2. Oh 104
3. Fl 93
4. Mi 81
5. Il 79
6. Tx 71
7. Wa 62
8. In 57
9. Wi 55
10. Ny 46
11. Pa 45
12. Nc 45
13. Ga 41
14. Tn 40
15. Mn 40
16. LU 39
17. Va 36
18. Ky 33
19. Al 31
20. Nj 31
21. Sc 30
22. Or 30
23. Md 28
24. Ma 28
25. Mo 28
26. Co 27
27. Bc 27
28. Az 26
29. On 21
30. Ia 19
31. Ab 18
32. VK 17
33. Ks 17
34. XE 16
35. Ne 16
36. Ct 15
37. Wv 12
38. PY 12
39. Me 12
40. Nv 12
41. Nh 11
42. KP4 9
43. Nm 8
44. Sd 8
45. CX 8
46. Ar 8
47. Vt 8
48. ZL 7
49. CE 7
50. Qc 7
51. Ns 6
52. Ok 6
53. Ms 5
54. De 4
55. Nb 4
56. Nf 4
57. Nd 4
58. SM 4
59. YV 3
60. TI 3
61. FM 3
62. EA8 3
63. Ri 3
64. La 3
65. KP2 2
66. PJ2 2
67. HI 2
68. Dc 2
69. KG4 2
70. HP 2
71. VP5 2
72. Wy 2
73. 8P 2
74. OH 2
75. Hi 2
76. P4 1
77. EA 1
78. 6W 1
79. YN 1
80. HR 1
81. Lb 1
82. 5U 1
83. Ut 1
84. PZ 1
85. FY 1
86. HK 1
87. CU 1
88. TF 1
89. Pe 1
90. GM 1
91. LA 1
92. Mt 1
93. Sk 1
94. ZD8 1
95. VP9 1
96. Id 1
97. VP8 1
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
More information about the 3830
mailing list