[3830] ARRL 10 N8II SO Mixed HP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 27

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  708    80
  SSB:  969    87
-------------------
Total: 1677   167  Total Score = 797,592

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

For a change, I didn't hold much back, a serious butt glued to chair
 effort. Activity in this event can be truly amazing especially
 considering that most casual ops don't even tune 10M due to dead band
 condx. Even without the intense sporadic E Saturday from 20Z til after
 04Z, conditions were much better than expected.
   Conditions Friday night were the worst I have ever heard them, only
 a few meteor scatter sigs from the really big guns like N4WW and W9IU
 and local activity from the NE seemed down a bit. I made 130 Q's in
 2.25 hours (first hour rate 72) the most distant groundwave sigs were
 K8CC in MI to the west and a couple of CT stations including K1TEO to
 the East. Running HP helped put quite a few NJ in the log.
   It looked like a long weekend around 1420Z as the band had yet to open
 on F2 and scatter was very intermittent. I took a short break and by
 1450Z, just as the band was opening on CW I caught ZS1AJS, 9A3VM, then
 9H6A and CU2JT (sent # 1) answered CQ's. I found a few Carib/SA tuning
 around and then had a good continuous run of W/VE on backscatter beaming
 south on CW for 55 min. AZ and CA called in around 1520Z on scatter.
 Most surprising contact was ZL6QH booming in on CW at 1640Z = 0440 N.Z.
 local standard time! My best guess on when the West Coast would pop in
 was right on the money, swung the beam at 1705Z and started running
 CA/AZ on CW, phone note open yet. 15 minutes later, I switched to phone
 and had a fun time running the west coast. The propagation would shift
 back and forth from WA to CA/AZ. 18Z hour rate was 118. The Rocky mtn
 states were very spotty and I finished the day needing ID, MT, and WY
 on both modes still. Around 1945Z FL boomed in on Es mixed with west
 coast. Then around 2045 as the west coast sunk into the noise, the
 propagations gods shined on us in the Mid-Atlantic and we were treated to
 a tremendous Es opening to the midwest working beaucoups TX, AR, OK,
 KS, MO, NE, IA, MN (many), then shortening to WI, IL, IN. 20Z rate
 was 135 and 22Z 121. Two VE4's called in along with NE0A in ND who moved
 to CW along with VE4VV. 20Z hour rate was 135 about 85% midwest, 22Z 121
 almost all midwest. Eventually the opening shifted farther South losing
 the 9's and upper 0's and gaining TX and the southeast including many FL.
 By 0230 SC, GA, and TN were loud with even a few very close NC thrown in
 along with KW8N in OH, with FL still holding well.
   Sunday morning early was really slow with few new locals and poor
 meteor scatter. The band opened to the south on F2 around 1420Z. Since
 backscatter was poor I S&P'ed for Carib/SA and AF finding only 5U7JB from
 AF. Running backscatter was fairly slow with some very weak sigs and I
 was very grateful when the West Coast started coming thru with a gradual
 opening to AZ/CA starting in earnest about 1725Z . OR took a while longer
 and WA was much more marginal and later than Sat. I shifted running back
 and forth from CW to phone which kept the rate up. At about 20Z the west
 coast faded way down and after a search for mults yielding S9SS, I
 started running backscatter to the S/SW with a steady stream of callers
 for 45 minutes. Sigs were weak forcing repeats. Several LU's called in
 along with 4 KP4's for a new one, but none knew the code. F2 was gone
 by just past 22Z. At 23Z I returned to find loud sigs from the Canadian
 maritimes. Several VO1's were worked and I found Finland on phone and CW
 probably via auroral E plus moved VE1OP to phone for new mults. The rate
 was slow, but the effort was well worth it. TF4M was worked a couple of
 hours earlier on CW.
  You definitely needed to work the whole contest to get most all of the
states and provinces. I worked all states except AK on phone and also
missed HI and ME on CW. KH6GMP called on phone with tremendous QSB.
By mid-afternoon Sunday, I still needed NM, SK, NF, and NB as well as
VT and NS on phone. VE5ZX called on CW backscatter, moved to SSB. VE9DX
called on phone and moved to CW. VO1MP called on CW weak and moved to
phone.  KO7X in WY called on backscatter around 15Z and moved to phone.
I was lucky to get WY and SK; it helps to be in WV, Hi! I never heard
AK, PEI, LB, or AB. Many thanks to all who called in for a QSO and
especially those who switched modes.


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