[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: WV
Operating Time (hrs): ~20

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  330    48
  SSB:  384    41
-------------------
Total:  714    89  Total Score = 185,564

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Almost 1000 less QSO's than last year, at times it was real work to put
 the next QSO in the log. I realized early on, it really wasn't going to be
 enjoyable to scrape up every possible QSO, so when the rate dropped below
 25-30 an hour I took a break. I also managed to start decorating for
 Christmas during the slow times Saturday. Bottom line was it was still fun,
 even though it was a challenge at times. 10 especially at this point in the
 cycle is so unpredictable with short spotlight openings. The challenge
 makes it so much more fun than 160 which has its own different
 challenges, at least for me.

 A summary of how it went follows. Friday, band was dead except for 5 weak
 LU's, one of which managed to hear me. There was almost no enhancement
 of any sort and local activity was down a bit due to the lack of anything
 interesting to work. My best groundwave Q was probably up to Niagara Falls
 working VA3DX over many mountains; also caught K1KI. I did get about 3
 weak Texans on scatter.

 Early Saturday was also dead early except for a few FL, WJ9B was
 consistently the loudest from there. The ionospheric scatter which was
 enhanced by meteor bursts was best to the west, but I did manage to get
 a few Q's to the NE to pick up MA, CT, VE9DX + VE1OP. I'd be interested
 in what the explanation is for this scatter which normally peaks in the
 direction of the station worked, but the MUF is definitely below 10M.
 I found it pretty unproductive to call CQ. Most everyone who answered
 on scatter was weak but not much problem to copy, but they were few and
 far between. I worked out about as far as the sporadic E one hop zone
 logging GA, AL, TN, TX, OK, MO, NE, IL, IN, WI, MN, OH. K9BGL was a
 beacon. Very few scatter/meteor burst Q's were possible on phone, so I
 developed a big deficit of mults compared to CW. Finally, I heard XE1CJW
 with a decent signal at 1559Z, he gave me number 1. Found TG9ANF
 and on CW XE1ZW who was S9+40db; they lasted maybe 20 minutes. I was
 off as much as on during the afternoon, probably missed 50-60 Q's the
 whole contest due to breaks. N6NF in CA popped in at 2107Z; a few
 quick CQ's and S&P added zilch. Then at 22:12, KI4LRP answered a CW CQ
 and a string of Florida stations were worked. The opening expanded to
 TX with W5WP at 22:42, the first of what seemed like a Texan invasion.
 All of the states between here and Tx were added eventually including
 KY on both modes which is pretty short skip from here. MS was the
 sparest in activity and propagation, but managed about 3-4 on phone,
 and 2 on CW including a booming N4OGW. The opening extended as far
 north as MO and NE, but north of there was out in the cold the whole
 contest figuratively as well as literally in some cases with their ice
 storm. By 02Z the fun was over, but there were the usual loud suspects
 still piling in the Q's for 5-land. Late in the opening I worked WA7XX
 in AZ on CW and heard N2IC in NM weakly, but he just wasn't able to
 hear me. The highlight of the running the multitude of 5's on phone
 was having XF4YW call in with a good signal!

 My only rates over 60 were 64 in the 23Z hour Saturday and 67 in the
 16Z hr Sunday, a far cry from past years. There were much faster spurts,
 but then the callers would quit. Things can only go up from here, I'd
 guess. We always seem to have significant Es during this contest, hope
 that continues! Many thanks for the Q's and to the few who were loud
 enough to switch modes. I wasn't asked by many to switch, but always
 did so.

 Sunday, I didn't start very early, condx were much the same, but a very
 weak ZS1EL on CW called at 1312Z.  At 1456Z, D2NX and Z6WN answered the
 same CW CQ, further CQ's and S&P yielded nothing and I noticed VE1OP was
 loud so I switched to phone to look for all the Maritimes + New England.
 CQ's yielded nothing, I found K1WHS is ME. The band opened to Central
 America at 1512Z working TE2M and HP1APS on phone, and HP1AC plus HP1WW
 on CW. At 1539Z, another mucho grande opening to TX began which lasted
 until about 19Z. The real running on phone started at 16Z. I kept BIC
 until the rate got pretty slow working many new hams about 75% in TX.
 At 1703Z I found CX5BW loud on CW and found CW2C on phone, but no LU's.
 The phone rate was much better than CW and I missed an opening to LU
 during the run, but managed to finally put LW1E in the log on CW. At 1907Z
 NG7Z in WA called followed by N7UVH in ID who I couldn't resist moving
 to phone. In the next minute WA1PMA in WA and W7MEM in ID called, but
 that was all she wrote. W7LEA in WA was found for last west coast. By
 1930Z or so the band died until I quit at 22Z to go out with the family,
 but reports show I didn't miss an opening.

 Clearly, the mid-Atlantic was not the place to be for this years' contest.
 I guessed correctly that the big scores would come from TX; they got off
 to a huge start while the band was dead here. My only rates above 60 were
 in the 23Z hour Saturday with 64 and 16Z Sunday with 68, a far cry from 
 last year. There were a reasonable number of fellow PVRC'ers on for mostly
 short stints, glad there aren't really any Texas sized clubs down there.
 There is almost always significant Es during the 10M contest. We hope that
 trend continues and the West Coast and Eu revisit our logs soon.


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