[3830] ARRL 10 K5NA SO CW HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: K5NA
Operator(s): K5NA
Station: K5NA

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 32

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW: 1011    87
  SSB:           
-------------------
Total: 1011    87  Total Score = 351,828

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

This contest started off with some great openings on Friday evening.  I had a
130 first hour and a 90 second hour. The QSOs were rolling in. By midnight I
had about 400 QSOs which was 300 ahead of what I had done the year before.

After midnight I thought I should stop for the night because I was getting very
tired and because I planned to get up an hour before sunrise. But the band was
still open though I was only doing about 20 per hour at that time. I went on to
bed not realizing that on Saturday there would be times that I would have wanted
a 20 per hour rate back again.

The next morning started a little slow but it peaked up to an 80 hour during
1400 to 1500Z. After that it was all downhill. The rates were very slow on
Saturday with what appeared to be sparotic E skip coming and going and moving
the focus around all day long. There was lots of quick QSB where missing an
exchange during the first try might mean you never could hear that station
again.

The low point of Saturday was around 2300Z when I went an hour and 22 minutes
without a QSO. It wasn't as though I wasn't trying, because I was. But the band
came back a little and I worked about 15 per hour until 0400Z when I called it a
night. At the end of operating on Saturday, I was now 150 QSOs BEHIND last
year.

Sunday was more of the same with my averaging about 20 QSOs an hour for most of
the daylight hours. By the end of the contest I was 300 QSOs behind last year.
To say conditions were disturbed is an understatement.

But the contest was fun anyway and I managed to read all of Larry McMurtry's
newest novel "Telegraph Days" on Saturday.

73, Richard - K5NA


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/