[3830] ARRL 10 KB9OWD(@W9BCV) SO CW LP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: KB9OWD
Operator(s): KB9OWD
Station: W9BCV

Class: SO CW LP
QTH: WI
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  175      
  SSB:  115      
-------------------
Total:  290    62  Total Score = 57,660

Club: Worldwide Young Contesters

Comments:

As of late in the day on Thursday, I had no plans to be half way serious in this
one.  Bottom of the cycle, living in the clutches of the black hole and no real
ability to go high power, I planned on making a casual qso or two throughout
the weekend.  I decided late Thursday to talk to Duane, W9BCV, who again had no
issues with the use of his station.  It would be low power category, which I am
used to and enjoy and at least a TH7 at 50 feet, a far cry from the wires at
home.  

Once the decision was made to make the couple mile trip to Duane's, I decided
to go half way serious in the low power category.  I decided that a good goal
was 120 qso's and 35 - 40 mults, which I thought would be a good weekend giving
all obstacles present.  

Friday night and Saturday were dismal at best!  Absolutely horrible conditions
all night Friday and all day Saturday.  I worked the first 6 hours, minus one
hour for dinner.  The first night for 6 hours, I racked in a total of 29 qso's.
 Every qso was a challenge, with everyone right at the noise level and about a 5
to 10 second span to work it before they were totally gone!

I called it a night just prior to midnight local time and drove home to sleep. 
As I passed the local Kohl's store, I was not suprised to see my wife's car in
the lot doing late night Christmas shopping.  This worked well, as I am not
much of a shopper and my evening activities gave her some free time to finish
this up!

I got back on at 8 A.M. local Saturday.  Saturday was a nightmare for the most
part, radio wise.  I worked the band for 5 1/2 hours to start, making a
whopping 18 qso's.  I did make the most of a virtually dead band and about
1600Z I decided to keep my sanity and ran down to 20 meters, point the beam at
Europe and run some DX.  I was growing impatient, not having alot of fun and
this proved to be a great asset to the day as I put a good run together,
working some good DX while scanning 10 for any signs of life in the other VFO. 
Even worked EL2DX in Liberia who called me for an all time new one!

The dead band proved alright as it gave me time to take a bit off and meet my
wife for an hour lunch.  I then came back for one hour, scanned the band non
stop and made no qso's.  This was again alright as I departed at about 2130Z
and was able to attend the birthday party for my god daughters.  We left there
and took one of the little ones to a Christmas light show about 10 miles down
the road followed by a visit with my family.  

When we got back to town about 0330Z Sunday, my instinct said go to bed however
my gut was telling me to go back and check the bands for a bit.  I decided to
and was it a great choice.  Some great openings out west!!!  Picked up mults
including UT, MT, NC, SC and CO.  Worked a good deal of other qso's and packed
it in when the band went out about 1 A.M. local Sunday morning.

I came back on at 8 A.M. Sunday morning and in hind sight, I should have come
back sooner.  The band was already in good shape and I quickly added mults such
as RI, NH, QC among others in the first 1/2 hour.  Sunday was dreary, rainy and
what not in WI and I was having a hard time waking up.  This cost me the ME
mult as I fumbled with the wrong button when calling the only ME I heard all
weekend. I got beat in the pile, he faded and never heard another ME again!

That being said, I was in the chair for 10 hours Sunday, from 8 A.M. local til
the end!  Coming into Sunday morning, I had 80 qso's in the first 38 hours. 
The last 10 would bring some great openings and a total of 210 qso's, almost 2
1/2 times the first 38 hours!

I was able to run at times and put some good strings together.  The band died
out for the better part of 2 hours Sunday afternoon, but came back with some
good openings out west.  For the last 2 hours, I thought I may have
accidentally stumbled upon the NM qso party.  I think I worked more NM stations
in that 2 hour period than in the last 2 years combined!  Then in the last hour,
the CO stations jumped on board, all strong and with no end to them in sight.

During these last 2 hours, I started to actively move stations.  Looking back,
I should have done more of this, if not for mults, just for the double qso. 
First off, it kept it active and made it alot more fun!  Secondly, I have to
give it up to the guys from NM, willing to ablidge and move on request.  I was
on 28030 and would move stations to around 28500, most with success!  

Many thanks to K9UA, N5PR, AJ9K, W9XQ, N7KA and W6RQR, all moves that worked
after I started keeping track of them for something else to keep my mind
occupied.  W6RQR was not instant but he found me later on SSB and made it work.
 Thanks also to K7BG for the try Saturday evening.  Matt was loud on CW however
NIL on SSB (although the entire SSB band was NIL at the time so it wasn't just
Matt).  Thanks for the effort.

Only mults I can think of that I would have liked to add were MI on CW and AZ
on PH.  I tried to move a couple of MI stations I worked to CW who were loud
with no interest or category restrictions.  I also worked several AZ stations
Sunday afternoon on CW however no luck in getting a move (most I believe were
CW only) and never heard an AZ on phone.

Considering some of the dread I brought to the weekend thinking how 10 may
likely be, this was actually one of my more enjoyable events in a good while. 
Sunday's good conditions left a great taste in my mouth and the finish bell
coming too soon.  That being said, I got to play radio, put up better numbers
than anticipated along with taking my wife out for friday fish fry, making a
birthday party and lunch with my wife on Saturday and visiting family, all in
between putting up some good numbers from this part of the world at this part
of the cycle.  Even awake enough to enjoy dinner Sunday evening with family!

Congrats to all the good scores out there.  Scott, NE9U up at W0AIH was a
beacon most of the time down here as was Gary, W9XT about 30 miles down the
road.  Both were in there about all the time, a great commitment noting
conditions from our part of the world.  I talked to Scott about midnight Sat.
night/Sun. morning.  If he kept adding to it, he is going to have an absolutely
impressive score noting our conditions!  W9XT was adding folks I could not hear
even 30 miles away!  Good work Gary!

73 and a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.  See you all in
January!


Ryan KB9OWD


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