[3830] CQ160 CW N5DX Single Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: N5DX
Operator(s): N5DX
Station: N5DX

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: AR
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1283  State/Prov = 60  Countries = 49  Total Score = 397,850

Club: 

Comments:

Very enjoyable contest here from Arkansas. Finding a frequency to run JA's was
ridiculous with wall to wall west coast stations.  Heard EU all the way up to
1870 Sunday evening. The rate was slow at times but the European opening both
nights gave me enough adrenaline to easily make it the full 30 hours.  In
addition the side competition between myself and my dad kept things interesting.
 

After the first three hours of 140, 132, & 142 I was feeling pretty good about
my performance.  Then I felt really good when K5GO checked in and I was beating
him by 100 Q's after three hours.  A few hours later we exchanged scores, and he
was beating me!  I quickly realized that this contest is not about running U.S.
but about working the 10 point Q's and finding multipliers.  

My dad operated from WD5R's house in Drasco, AR.  Doug has a very FB station
with a full sized vertical and something like 12 beverages.  Our station for 160
consists of a shunt fed tower (with two 7 element 15 meter beams for loading)
and beverages in the four main directions.  We have always felt like our signal
was good on 160.  So it would be an interesting to see how the signal from the
K5GO station (operated by me) and the WD5R station (operated by K5GO)compared. 
After getting beating out in several pile ups I do believe that Doug has us beat
in transmit signal.  

Conditions the second night were much better to Europe from here.  I found a
frequency low in the band and was able to run them from 0500-0700.  In fact,
this was the only time that I made up ground on K5GO.  After the band closed to
Europe we exchanged scores and I had made up around 10,000 points and was within
9,000 points of his score.  This gave me hope that I could pull ahead with a
good JA run, but it was not to be.  Heard lots of West coast and Texan stations
running JA's Sunday morning, but could never get anything going and ended up
working only three the entire contest.  I also missed ZL6QH who was apparently
loud into this part of the country.  

All in all I think the better operator won this mini Arkansas contest.  I
believe that Doug has a better setup than us on 160.  But my dad's ability to
find multipliers and timing in pileups was perhaps the difference in score.  I
remember the first time I beat him in basketball (age 5.. hi hi), the first time
I beat him in golf (age 18, hasn't happend since), but the first time in
contesting will have to wait (which is fine with me).  

As a side note, It's too bad that our culture doesn't assign more importance to
competions of intellect rather than competions of physical abilities. 

73
Kevin/N5DX


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