[3830] ARRLDX SSB N8II SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

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

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 28

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   19    16
   80:  117    46
   40:  210    63
   20: 1142   109
   15:  355    79
   10:   41    13
-------------------
Total: 1892   326  Total Score = 1,842,552

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

No offense to K3WW or any other dentists, but I had a crown lengthening
 Thursday and the pain was just enough to wake me up in the middle of
 the night, then I couldn't get back to sleep. That was coupled with
 another busy day at work Friday, so I was whipped at the start of the
 contest, even more so than usual.

   A pity, because the low bands except for 160 seemed to be outstanding
 the first night into Eu. I managed to keep the rate around 60/hour for
 about 3.3 hours and should have just kept going; when I got out of
 the chair fatigue slapped me in the face. I broke the pile-ups with ease
 on 20M to the south after a quick misstep onto 15 at the start, too
 late to work much. At 0045Z 20 was pretty well worked out, so I S&P'ed
 the monstrous signals from Eu on 40 (some were ridiculously loud!) and
 then ran successfully for about 45 minutes, then I swept 160 at 02Z where
 sigs were good from the south, followed by a repeat of 40 on 75M.
 5 QRP'ers were pretty easy copy on 40, and F5BEG QRP 5W plus M3RCV 10W
 called in on both bands! It was really a blast to be able to run fairly
 well on both bands; the time went by quickly!

 It was near sunrise when I returned to the living and started running
 on 20. My first attempt around 14280 yielded slow rates, so I moved
 lower and that was much better. The band was open to UA9 by just after
 sunrise and a couple of UN's called in as well. I had 3 100+ rate hours
 in a row , the best being 130 on 20 in the 12Z hour. During that run
 HR2JGG and HR1JC called at exactly the same time, what are the odds!
 I went up to 15 at just about the right time around 1330 and ran there
 til around 15Z when I took a short break, starving! During the run LY,
 9H, 6W, YL, RK2, 4U1ITU, ZS, CN, 4X and 9K called in which were pleasant
 surprises. By 1535, the band was closing to the point where only EA/F/I
 were loud and the running rate was too slow, so I S&P'ed AF and south
 for quite a few mults then picked off a  few deep SA LU/CX on 10 then
 dove back into the fray on 20M at 1556Z. The rate stayed decent all
 afternoon, but the QRM finally drove me back to 15 and 10 to hunt mults.
 Returning to 20 I heard Ken, K4ZW (congrats on the #1 USA score reported
 so far!) running high in the band, so I gave it a try and not only was
 rate good, I was called by TA, 3D2 (LP at 1948), V5 and ZS back to back,
 S9SS, VK, CN, V73RY, and ZL. In the 21Z hour 20 peaked to western Eu with
 even some of the QRp'ers becoming quite loud, rate was 92. I had worked
 about 750 Q's on 20 mostly all running during the day without worrying
 about JA's which I tried to run unsuccessfully around 22-2230Z. A quick
 trip to 15 yielded KG6DX and a couple of weak JA's which were a big
 surprise as well as VK. Then I went to 40 around 2245Z figuring that I
 could pick up more mults running and trolling down there before Eu went
 to bed than trying to run Asia or search 20. For a while, I had quite a
 few callers both simplex and QSX below 7100 kHz, and some goodies called
 in such as LY, 4X, T9, MU0FAL (tnx for 3 bands), CN and Z3. A quick sweep
 of 20 at 0025Z yielded only JU800 and a couple of UA0's + 1 JA from Asia.
 Condx on 75 were not as good as first night and activity was down; no Eu
 were heard on 160 and not much else.

   I decided I had to hit the low end of 20 for the Sunday morning run if
 possible and I established a spot pretty easily and the rate stayed
 above 80/hr til 1350 when I hit 15M. The problem was it had been open
 15-20 minutes (not open well at 1315Z) and it stayed open only long
 enough for me to run off 45 Q's at break neck speed before the band
 closed except to good old EA/F/I and my running times on 15 came to
 a screeching halt. 10 stayed dead til after noon, so back to 20 it was
 which I ran pretty well til 1733Z. All afternoon I ran 20 well
 only in short spurts, then only the really too weak ones would call.
 10 opened to deep SA around 1830. My daughter was "bored" and begged
 me to take her to Wal-Mart, so I did the time, 90 minutes. Upon
 returning at 2112Z to find 10 finally open to the Southern Caribbean
 and northern SA, but I missed the PJ2's despite a loud YV5YMA/QRP nearby.
 I added about 11 10M mults and would have caught a few more if around
 earlier. I shopped 15 and 20 for new mults and Q's and tried running to
 JA at 2230Z with no JA luck, but HL1CVO and 9M6DXX called. I hit 40 again
 for a run around 2245; the rate wasn't great, but I added a few more
 mults including 3A til the run dried up. Then on to 80 where I found
 C6ANM and ran about 3 Eu before I gave up.

  Several positive things occurred in the ARRL phone. I was able to hold
and run well on 20 and for the first time in any DX test I ran over 50
stations on 40M, about 140. It was a lot more enjoyable operating this
one than the CQ WW; there just seemed to be less stress despite the mob
on 20. Thanks for the Q's, and hope the solar flux doesn't drop more next year.


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