[3830] ARRL 10 W0SD SO SSB HP

webform at b4h.net webform at b4h.net
Mon Dec 15 20:15:56 EST 2008


                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: W0SD
Operator(s): W0SD
Station: W0SD

Class: SO SSB HP
QTH: SD
Operating Time (hrs): 33

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:           
  SSB: 1060    60
-------------------
Total: 1060    60  Total Score = 127,200

Club: 

Comments:

"IT IS ALL ABOUT Pride"

First the multipliers and rates are at the end.

W0SD has been blessed to be in the top 10 of the 10 meter contest every 
year staring in 1997 with the exception of 2003.  I have been operating it 
myself most of the time, mostly SSB but Joe W0DB did a mixed and CW entry as
well.  Here are are results:

1997 3rd
1998 10th
1999  7th
2000 op W0DB 10th
2001 op w0DB  7th
2002 op W0DB  5th
2004 4th
2005 3rd
2006 1st
2007 3rd
2008  ?

I have always said to make the top 10 five years in row is very hard to 
do.  We had a 6 year run from 1997-2002 between Joe W0DB and myself.

I have a 4 year run going and had great hopes of making it 5 this year.

The challenge began on November 15th when Joe who was here for SS spotted 4
elements broken on the 10 meter beam on the 195 foot tower.  This is not a good
thing this late in the year.  I got the aluminum ordered on Nov 17th and we had

a nice day on Nov 26th the day before Thanksgiving and Bill N0ARU and 
Edith W0OE my XYL were the ground crew and we got the 4 broken elements fixed.
WOW! That was a blessing.  That is the nicest WX I ever remember being on a 
tower that late in the year.  Earlier this summer I got the rotor fixed 
on the 5 el 10 meter at 105 feet.  I had a rotor plug problem that did 
not want to make a connection sometimes.

During SS we discovered SWR on the 10 meter phasing lines.  I checked 
the antennas and found they were OK.  Early last week i got that all 
fixed and we got the K3 with the "SUB" rcv going just in time for the 
160 contest so I spent this past week learning how to use the "SUB" rcv 
and more importantly set the audio up on the K3 on transmit with the 
help of N0ARU and WD0T.

When Friday night of the contest came I was ready to roll.  Things 
started about as normal and the line noise was low and the 195 foot 
5 element played well with the least noise but the other antennas did not 
have a lot of noise.  The one sporadic "E" opening on Friday night was 
to the NW otherwise it was meterors and likely very, very spotty 
Sproradic E.  Anyway we ended up with 152 Q's and 34 states.  The Q's 
were very low as we have been getting a good Sporadic "E" opening the 
first night for several years but given only the opening to the NW where 
there is not a lot of activity I was OK with it and 33 states/provinces 
is good by bed time.

Saturday started out OK and by noon we had 290 and 38 states and 
provinces.  Not very good but again we really did not have what I would 
call a real Sproradic "E" opening yet so things looked reasonably OK.

THEN IT HAPPENED!  I think is was a big solar wind blast that hit. 
Anyway I though last year on Sunday afternoon was bad but that was 
nothing.  Look at these totals:
1800  12 Q's
1900   2 Q's
2000   1 Q
2100   1 Q
2200   1 Q
2300   0 Q
0000   2 Q

Can you believe it in 7 hours I made 19 QSO's.  From 1 pm until 7pm local I 
only made 7 qso's.  I sure could of used some local QSO's but they did 
not happen then<grin>.  WHAT A GRIND!!!!  Pride says you do not quit!

Finally at 0124z I slowly started making QSO's and ended up at 360 Q's 
and 40 states and provinces but zero DX.  I went to bed late but the Meteror
shower was not what I had hoped for and thought the top 10 five years in a row
is "NOT GOING TO HAPPEN".  I really had done all I could but there just was not
any sporadic "E".  Maybe there is a "SLIM" chance the same has been true for
others.  However with the terrible DX I really don't see any hope. There was
absolutely no DX in the log which has never happened, ever!!!!.  The 40 states
and Provinces is pretty good and was the only bright spot.

I rolled out of bed before 7 am and looked out at the raging blizzard in 
the dark and I knew what I was going to hear would not be good.  Well it 
was even worse!!!!  I had S-6 snow static on the 195 ft. high antenna and S-9
on all the others.  With the K3 NB sometimes I could get it down to S-3-4 
on the high antenna.  I hooked up the 40 meter quad and tried the 80 
loop and they all had worse noise than the high beam.  Even the low beam 
at 55 feet was horrible.  I listened to NOAA WX and it was supposed to 
blow 40 mph at times and snow on and off and never be much below 20 mph 
winds all day!  The temperature was -2 and going to drop.

"WELL IT IS OVER"  The smart thing would be to just quit and go back to 
bed and watch the Vikings in the afternoon.  However we have a saying 
around here about contesting and that is no matter what happens we 
finish the contest if it is a serious effort.  Well this was a serious 
effort so I am going to finish.  I knew I could not work hardly anything 
I had been working the day before as they would all be well below the snow
static but I could call CQ moving the high antenna in different directions "IF"
I could get it to move in the wind and hope to catch a Sporadic
"E" opening sometime during the day where signals might be over S-4. I 
remember during the night laying in bed when I should be sleeping and if I
averaged 1 minute a QSO all day I might come close to last year but I would be

short on DX.  Well 1 QSO a minute on 10 meters is a "DREAM" during this 
part of the cycle for all day long, roughly 10 hours straight so there 
is just no way I would catch last year.  Now it looked like I would be 
fortunate to work anyone more.

I really could only hear a couple of signals on the band and they were 
distored with the noise and NB.  I started calling CQ and I was able to 
copy a station coming back so after awhile I had a fairly good rate 
going on with a Sporadic "E" opening out east and picked up some new states. 
I found out when ever possible if I could leave the NB off and the 
Pre-amp off the snow static did not mess things up.  Something was 
really distorting the audio.(late in the day I am nearly positive the 
problem is a loose connection on the high antenna with the horrible wind). 
Anyway in about a hour it apparently stopped snowing and the high antenna was
above a lot of the blowing snow so most of the time it was not to bad for
noise. The rest of the antennas were totally un-useable!   I thought to myself

you know another advantage to TX and other places to the south is they don't
have to put up with blizzards, ice and fixing antennas in the winter 
and getting rotors to turn a sub zero and SNOW STATIC!!!  They do have to deal
with hurricanes which we don't.

I plugged away and was really fighting what sounded like terrible 
distortion on some signals but not on others.  It caused me to have to 
ask for repeats more than I cared to.  I thought it was the SNOW STATic 
messing up the signals.  As I said late in the day I am pretty sure it 
is a loose connecton on the antenna.  Today I confirmed this.  As the day wore
on there was less snow flying around and it appeared to not be 
snowing at all, just blowing like crazy.  Well the opening moved south and I
got all be Maine up north and then I think I worked every ham in NC and 
eventually I started working DX and the opening just kept going and 
going and going.  A few times I got splatter but by moving a little I was able
to keep a good frequency.   The K3 really is good and the NB is good and the
Pre-amp really helped when the snow static was down.  It is the best radio I
have ever used on 10M.  The amount of time having a clear frequency I would
call way above average from previous contests.  A station who IDed as 3 Broken
Arrow tried to work me.  I asked for an amateur call and he said he was a CBer.
 That was a first for me in the 10M contest.  Anyway by mid morning the noise on
the high antenna was quite low and the rate meter was looking good. The
distorted signals often came at the worst time but I dealt with it as best I
could.  By noon hour I had 684 Q's and 49 Multipliers.  I thought WOW!   At
least I am working people way above yesterday but it typically is about as long
as an opening runs so I just won't be able to work as many as last year.

The good news is the band never did close and I worked AR, NM, AZ, CA 
and NV and late in the contest OK so I worked all 48 other than ND and 
ME.  I also worked 10 dx stations.   The QSO rate started to slow down 
but I got into the 900 range and I thought I might have a chance at last 
year as impossible as that had seemed around noon.  The opening hung in 
there to the south and I kept working stations on the average of about 1 
a minute.  Here is where I discovered how good the high antenna is.  It 
just "KICKs BUTT"  I would go to the 105 ft. high antenna because it did not
have the loose connection and the resulting distortion(breaking up of the 
signal) but much of the time I could not even hear the station on the 
105 foot antenna.  People all day long were wondering how I was so much 
louder than anyone else!   I know I seen the rate meter over 200 QSO's 
an hour for awhile.  I really never had much of a pile up thank goodness.  It
would of been tough with all the weak signals to do with a pileup.  I probably
heard 200 + stations that were just to weak to copy and also many others I
would get a meteror burst but they never were heard again.  It is extremely
tiring and takes huge concentration with things like they were Sunday but that

is a 100 times better than the disaster Saturday afternoon!!!  I hope I 
never experience anything like Saturday again.  When it was all over I ended 
up with 1060 Qs, 50 states and provinces and 10 DX for a score of 
127,200 which betters last years score of 105,788.  I have no idea if 
this will make the top  10 but it goes to show the importance of pride 
and not quiting!!!.

I need to see what the deal with the loose connection on 
the high antenna is and what I can do to prevent that from happening again.

I will say this recovery would of been "TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE" without the 
high antenna.  It gets above the small amount of power line noise I get
sometime and now I find if it is not snowing real hard it gets above the snow
static of blowing snow.  As you know when it is ZERO or colder snow is very dry
and the snow static is fierce.

To those that worked me thanks so much!!!  What music to the ears to 
hear you calling in!!!  It is the toughest contest I have ever done.  I 
will confess to thinking about quiting when I listened to the snow 
static on Sunday morning but then I said to myself.  I did not call CQ for 7 
hours and work just a handful of stations just to quit. It is "ALL ABOUT
PRIDE"!

73, 
Ed W0SD

      10M CW 10M PHO   Total

    CX              1       1
    HI              1       1
    HK              2       2
     K            988     988
   KP4              2       2
    LU              6       6
    PY             17      17
    TG              1       1
    VE             35      35
   VP5              1       1
    XE              5       5
    ZF              1       1

QSO/Sec+Dx by hour and band

 Hour    10M CW  10M PHO    Total     Cumm    OffTime

D1-0000Z  --+--   22/11   22/11     22/11  
D1-0100Z    -     31/11   31/11     53/22  
D1-0200Z    -     27/1    27/1      80/23  
D1-0300Z    -     24/2    24/2     104/25  
D1-0400Z    -     26/8    26/8     130/33  
D1-0500Z    -     21/1    21/1     151/34     14
D1-0600Z    -       -      0/0     151/34     60
D1-0700Z    -       -      0/0     151/34     60
D1-0800Z  --+--   --+--    0/0     151/34     60
D1-0900Z    -       -      0/0     151/34     60
D1-1000Z    -       -      0/0     151/34     60
D1-1100Z    -       -      0/0     151/34     60
D1-1200Z    -       -      0/0     151/34     60
D1-1300Z    -     15/1    15/1     166/35     17
D1-1400Z    -     43/1    43/1     209/36  
D1-1500Z    -     27/0    27/0     236/36  
D1-1600Z  --+--   22/1    22/1     258/37  
D1-1700Z    -     30/0    30/0     288/37  
D1-1800Z    -     11/2    11/2     299/39  
D1-1900Z    -      2/0     2/0     301/39      
D1-2000Z    -      1/0     1/0     302/39     
D1-2100Z    -      1/0     1/0     303/39    
D1-2200Z    -      1/0     1/0     304/39     
D1-2300Z    -       -      0/0     304/39    
D2-0000Z  --+--    2/0     2/0     306/39     
D2-0100Z    -      6/0     6/0     312/39  
D2-0200Z    -     13/1    13/1     325/40  
D2-0300Z    -     17/0    17/0     342/40  
D2-0400Z    -     12/0    12/0     354/40  
D2-0500Z    -      3/0     3/0     357/40     44
D2-0600Z    -       -      0/0     357/40     60
D2-0700Z    -       -      0/0     357/40     60
D2-0800Z  --+--   --+--    0/0     357/40     60
D2-0900Z    -       -      0/0     357/40     60
D2-1000Z    -       -      0/0     357/40     60
D2-1100Z    -       -      0/0     357/40     60
D2-1200Z    -       -      0/0     357/40     60
D2-1300Z    -       -      0/0     357/40     60
D2-1400Z    -     31/1    31/1     388/41     13
D2-1500Z    -     61/0    61/0     449/41  
D2-1600Z  --+--   85/4    85/4     534/45  
D2-1700Z    -    145/4   145/4     679/49  
D2-1800Z    -    105/2   105/2     784/51  
D2-1900Z    -     91/3    91/3     875/54  
D2-2000Z    -     53/2    53/2     928/56  
D2-2100Z    -     51/2    51/2     979/58  
D2-2200Z    -     36/0    36/0    1015/58  
D2-2300Z    -     45/2    45/2    1060/60  

Total:     0/0  1060/60


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