[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: 
Operating Time (hrs): ~28

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  670  54/22
  SSB:  728  50/24
-------------------
Total: 1398    150  Total Score = 618,900

Club: 

Comments:

Another surprisingly wonderful weekend on 10 meters has come and gone
 with much better conditions than most could hope to have. It never ceases
 to amaze me that a band most including me don't even check often because
 there is little activity or apparent propagation springs to life. There
 always seems to be significant sporadic E and at some time the states
 from WI thru AL and everything west out to the Rockies gets a shot at
 my area. F2 wasn't a good as last year, but condx were disturbed. The
 main difference between this year and last were some very good hours
 in 2005 from 20Z thru 24Z with lots of Es to the mid west; this year the
 band was dead from 2045 until 0017 by which time a lot of the casual ops
 had given up for the day.
   Friday night the band was stone dead with virtually no meteor scatter
 until 0157Z when I was about ready to call it a night after 102 local Q's.
 First heard was PS2T, then the Es moved to KR4F in AL at 0203Z, C6DX and
 VP5D were worked on Es and some good volume came from FL, I quit at 0345Z
 with 200 Q's in the log.
   I heard YU2A weakly via a Es link around 1205Z, but he faded before the
 amp had warmed up and I couldn't quite make it. There was a smattering of
 Es to VE1/2/9 and a few stations were weak from FL/GA until 1308Z when
 5H3EE called on CW for my first F2 QSO. Backscatter F2 Q's started about
 1327, but sigs were quite weak for the next 20-30 minutes. LZ0A was found
 from S Shet at 1340 and DT8A shortly thereafter both with big sigs; at
 the same time I could barely hear LU. CW was the preferred mode of the
 multitude due to fairly weak backscatter; I could run a few on phone, but
 the run wouldn't last long and I worked fewer than last year. I did find
 ZS, 3X, and S9SS (first NA QSO) on phone and 1602 EC8DX was worked along
 with other EA8's, but that was the closest the band would open to Eu.
 At 1618Z NS9I in WI was worked for the start of some Es to WI, IL, and
 QSO rich MN.
    The first west coast QSO was W7VJ in WA at 1649Z, but the band didn't
 really open marginally until 1707Z when NG7Z in WA was logged. I logged
 131 Q's in the 17Z hour on CW until 1750Z when I switched to phone.
 The band didn't stay open to the Rockies for long at all, so it paid
 off to switch over. The 18Z hour was a continuous run with 134 Q's which
 was slowed considerably by line noise/QSB/weak signals after 1840Z. After
 19Z condx were much poorer and CW ruled; my last F2 QSO was at 1955 with
 CA. There was some strong Es to OK, west TX, and XE which died at 2044Z
 with WX4TM in AL being the last.
   Just a few locals were worked with many CQ's in many directions
including fruitless attempts to work OH and MI still needed on phone;
those WV mountains really hurt to the west. Finally at 0017Z, Es resumed
with W5PR in TX. ZL1CN was worked via Es to F2 link at 0140Z on phone and
the biggest surprise was KH6IN on CW at 0219Z. The band was open to CA
on double hop Es, but the footprint must have been small as only about
4-5 Q's were made. Stations from OK, KS, IA, and WI sure did their part to
keep the band active; I'd guess I worked a personal highest total from
those states.
   With the high K index, 10 was very slow to open Sunday and the locals
heard were basically all worked before. WB0UKX in SD was first Es of day 
at 1357Z; ZV5D at 1416 was the first F2 QSO. Backscatter was pretty
marginal, especially on SSB, but the west coast sprang into action with
K7SS in WA being first on CW at 1728Z. Rates were slower than Saturday,
but there was still plenty to work. CA was mostly weak all day. WA and
OR dropped out and a pipeline into AZ and NV ensued, there was lots of AZ
activity on phone. A35RK called on phone and several KH6's were worked on
both modes with booming signals. Skip shortened up into NM with record NM
activity. Thankfully the band stayed open a bit longer than Saturday with
last F2 Q being K6XX at 2109Z. There was very short Es around that time
into OH thru MN, but it was short lived with last Es QSO around 2210Z.
    I probably should have moved a few more of the rarer mults between modes
early in the contest. Attempts to move and willingness to do so were down
from last year. Missed ND on both modes thought I heard SD on Es often. There
was no propagation to AK and KY was missed on phone, WY on CW. I only
worked VE3,4,and 7 on phone and VE1,2,3,6,7,9 on CW. I probably should have
spent more time on CW with the double point advantage. Many thanks for the
Q's and the fun! By next year, F2 should improve.


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