[3830] ARRLDX SSB K5TR(WM5R) SOSB/15 HP
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Mon Mar 7 15:01:15 EST 2005
ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: K5TR
Operator(s): WM5R
Station: K5TR
Class: SOSB/15 HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 0 0
40: 0 0
20: 0 0
15: 1405 121
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 1405 121 Total Score = 495,495
Club:
Comments:
Station K5TR:
* Kenwood TS-850SAT
* Alpha 78
* Four element Cushcraft yagi, 20' boom at 70', rotatable
* Three element Telrex yagi, 17' boom at 30', fixed SE
* Ameritron RCS-8V antenna switch
* Heil Proset Plus with rubber band boom mod
* W9XT Contest Card
* TR Log 6.78
George invited me out to his station again to do a single
operator effort. I had spent the previous week travelling
on business, and returned to Austin late Thursday night
very tired. I decided to focus on a single band effort
rather than push myself beyond my limits. 15 meters seemed
like the most promising band, and it turned out to be a
really fun weekend!
Things started out really well with a 113 hour to mostly
Japan, but also the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand,
Indonesia, Hawaii, and Hong Kong. ZK2HA called in for a
very cool new multiplier, as well. I also worked
Mexico and a couple of South American stations before the
band closed. I found ZK1JD for another nice multiplier
after the band had closed to Japan, and I was able to
work Australians and Kiwis until pretty late - my last
contact of the local evening was to Australia at 0508 UTC.
Saturday local morning started off with a lot of searching
and pouncing on new multipliers. Right away, I started
filling in my list of Caribbean and South American
multipliers. The first trans-Atlantic QSO was with a
station on the Madeira Islands at 1247 UTC, but it was
quickly followed by not one but two stations in Niger
running small pileups not far apart from each other on
the band. The first European was a Slovakian at 1251 UTC,
followed pretty quickly by Germany, Spain, Poland, and the
Czech Republic all before 1300 UTC.
Most of the 1300 UTC hour was still search and pounce, and
the times I'd try to call CQ and get a run going were
unproductive. I did pick up a lot of mults, though,
including as far away as European Russia, the Ukraine, and
Greece. My first really good run of the morning was in the
1400 UTC hour, but even that was hard. There was so much
QRM that when I found a good spot to call CQ and began
getting a good run going, I would inevitably begin to get
crowded out by W1/W2/W3/W4 stations. I had at least four
different run frequencies during the European opening.
My best DX during the opening were a station in the United
Arab Emirates, one in Saudi Arabia, and one in Tanzania.
The 1500 and 1600 UTC hours were less productive for me,
and it felt like every QSO was a struggle because of the
QRM. R1ANF called in from the South Shetland Islands
during the 1600 UTC hour for a great multiplier. By the
1700 UTC hour, I had found a better run frequency with less
QRM, and things picked up again, although by now I was mostly
working central and western Europeans with only the occasional
eastern European station calling in. Cyprus was a nice
multiplier to pick up at 1726 UTC. Another great multiplier
to work was a station on Mauritius at 1809 UTC.
Things slowed down after the 1700 UTC hour, but I continued
to work plenty of Europeans well into the 2000 UTC hour. The
last new European QSO was a Finn at 2105 UTC, although I
continued to hear some Europeans calling CQ for almost another
hour. Most of the 2000 and 2100 UTC hours were spent working
the Caribbean and South America, picking up several new
multipliers such as EM1HO in Antarctica. The rain static
got bad on the top antenna around this time, but didn't
last for very long, thankfully.
The Japanese run began a little earlier than I was expecting
with the first QSO in the log at 2209 UTC. One of the first
Japanese callers was actually a JD1 on Ogasawara for a nice
new multiplier. Stations on Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia
also called in around this time. Unlike the night before, the
best I could do to Japan was an 80 hour in the 0100 UTC clock
hour, but I had over four hours of good propagation to East
Asia. I picked up only a few new multipliers like the
Marianas Islands, Korea, Singapore, the People's Republic
of China, and the Marshall Islands. I never did work Guam,
Asiatic Russia, Mongolia, Taiwan, or Alaska. The Japanese
run fizzled out around 0230 UTC, after which all I worked was
Australia and New Zealand. My last four QSOs of the evening were
all with New Zealand stations, and the last one was at 0357 UTC.
Sunday morning I woke up still needing a few obvious multipliers
like South Africa, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. South Africa
turned out not to be a problem, as I worked six ZS stations
in a matter of 17 minutes! I knew Europe would be no
problem on Sunday when I worked two Europeans before 1300 UTC, and
another 17 new ones in the 1400 UTC hour (as well as hearing many,
many I had worked the day before calling CQ.) The European run
was not quite as deep as Saturday, but in many ways was nicer,
as there was a lot less QRM from the East Coast and I was able to
maintain a clean run frequency for a long time without being
hassled. In addition to all the European stations I was working,
SU9NC called in during the 1500 UTC hour for a great new
multiplier! The propagation was very similar to Saturday - I was
hearing stations (most of whom I had already worked the day before)
as deep as European Russia and Israel, and I was working every part
of Europe from Norway to Bulgaria to Spain and everywhere in
between. I did miss Lithuania, though. If I hadn't already had
so many stations in the log from Saturday, I think my rate on
Sunday would have been better than the day before. The final
European in the log was a CT1 at 1850 UTC.
The rest of the contest was sucking wind. Even though I had
another two hours of propagation to Japan at the very end, the
number of stations on the air local Monday morning in Japan is
pretty slim. Most of the last six hours was spent waiting for
new stations to show up in the Caribbean and South America. I
did break one large pileup for a new multiplier when I found
KH8SI during a search and pounce pass through the band with
a lot of stations already calling. (Actually, the first thing
I heard was some W/VE station lecturing to the pileup about
using their receivers... I had to wait a little bit to hear
the station send a callsign.)
I think 15 meters was a great band to choose for a single band
effort this weekend. I had a lot of fun running JAs, and it
was great to see Japan accounting for over 1/4 of the contacts
in my log. I was also pleasantly surprised at how many ZL and
VK stations I worked - 70 in total. That's not bad at all from
two countries that together have a population comparable to that
of Texas. I made one Australian very happy - I was his first
ever contact with the USA! (His only antenna was an 80 meter
dipole five meters off the ground.)
I had a lot of fun. I thought the conditions were great for
this point in the solar cycle.
HOUR 15SSB TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ----- -----
0 113 113 113
1 43 43 156
2 11 11 167
3 6 6 173
4 6 6 179
5 2 2 181
6 0 0 181
7 0 0 181
8 0 0 181
9 0 0 181
10 0 0 181
11 0 0 181
12 22 22 203
13 34 34 237
14 105 105 342
15 77 77 419
16 66 66 485
17 92 92 577
18 75 75 652
19 57 57 709
20 27 27 736
21 16 16 752
22 54 54 806
23 64 64 870
0 63 63 933
1 80 80 1013
2 42 42 1055
3 12 12 1067
4 0 0 1067
5 0 0 1067
6 0 0 1067
7 0 0 1067
8 0 0 1067
9 0 0 1067
10 0 0 1067
11 0 0 1067
12 9 9 1076
13 25 25 1101
14 34 34 1135
15 65 65 1200
16 88 88 1288
17 36 36 1324
18 25 25 1349
19 14 14 1363
20 7 7 1370
21 6 6 1376
22 15 15 1391
23 14 14 1405
TOTAL 1405
Continental Distribution
N.A. calls = 57
S.A. calls = 69
Euro calls = 734
Afrc calls = 29
Asia calls = 28
JA calls = 367
Ocen calls = 121
Total calls = 1405
Multipliers Worked
3B9 C6 EA8 G HZ KP4 P2 TF VP2V ZK1/S
4X CE EA9 GD I LA P4 TG VP5 ZK2
5B CE9 EI GI IS LU PA TI VP8/H ZL
5H CM ER GM J3 LX PJ2 TU VP9 ZS
5U CN ES GU J6 LZ PJ7 UA VR
6Y CT EU GW J8 OA PY UA2 XE
8P CT3 F HA JA OE S5 UR YB
8R CU FG HB JD/O OH S9 V3 YL
9A CX FJ HI KG4 OH0 SM V4 YN
9V DL FK HK KH0 OK SP V5 YO
9Y DU FM HL KH6 OM SU V7 YU
A6 EA FR HP KH8 ON SV VK YV
BY EA6 FY HR KP2 OZ T9 VP2M ZF
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