[3830] ARRLDX SSB K7KR SOAB(A) HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: K7KR
Operator(s): K7KR
Station: K7KR

Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    1     1
   80:   11     9
   40:   85    40
   20:  179    68
   15:  125    49
   10:   31    14
-------------------
Total:  432   181  Total Score = 234,576

Club: Central Arizona DX Association

Comments:

Yes sir.  More fun than a root canal.

Even though this was just a casual S&P effort, it was clear that activity was
down and propagation was spotty at best.  40m was a disappointment with no
evident long path openings either day.

I thought 15m might be interesting as I'd noticed a couple of days before the
test that I could only hear ZS6DN among all the beacons.  For a long long time,
that beacon was quite loud even at the 100mW level!

Sure enough, on Saturday morning during the EU opening, the 15m band suddenly
got very quiet.  No EU AF or US stations could be heard.  For a minute I
thought we'd experienced a flare or something.  Anyway, tuning around I could
hear some SA stations.  Loud.  Every one of them.  Even worked a couple of 5W
stations that were well in excess of 20dB over S9...  Amazing.  The condition
lasted for maybe 45 minutes or so, then returned to 'normal' with a sudden rush
of background noise and splatter from all the US stations...

It was nice to hear 10m open for a change.  The band sparkled for a bit with a
tantalizing taste of things to come.  Next year should be better!


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