[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): ~15

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  330    46
  SSB:  513    54
-------------------
Total:  843   100  Total Score = 233,600

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Bottom line, no matter how low the solar flux, there's always life in good old
10 meters! Sporadic E and meteor scatter saved the day along with suprisingly
good F2 + Es linked to F2 and TE to deep SA. The SA openings were better than
last year, I made 28 Q's with PY and 23 with LU.

I knew going into the contest that with Xmas on the doorstep, I didn't have a
free pass to play radio for the weekend. Also expecting dismal condx, I didn't
plan on spending much time in the test. Firday evening validated my decision
with the poorest start I can ever remember. The locals weren't on in big
numbers and there were only a few brief meteor scatter bursts to the west.

Saturday morning was much the same with better MS, and seem to remember Es to
VE1/9, QRT'ed from 1340-2100Z to chauffer wife around shopping, mainly for
groceries, lot's of toting around, you know the drill. I turned on the radio at
21Z to find Es in to Atlantic Canada and mucho grande strength PY's and LU's. I
even ran a few and added PJ2, P4, and VP5, KP2, KP4 via probably double hop Es
as the band was open to south FL on Es(rate was 69/hr). By 23Z, things were
pretty slow and the band nearly dead, I returned at 24Z to find some Es to what
appeared to be only south FL and still some PY's and LU's; they continued being
logged very slowly until around 0215Z! Around 01Z, the opening expanded to all
of FL, GA, AL, TN, LA, MS and a few 0's; I got a serious run going on phone
working mostly FL and finished up the 02Z hour with 77 Q's. 
   Sunday morning was a struggle early with almost no activity at 1215Z, fired
up in earnest around 13Z to find only some meteor scatter and locals. Just as I
was heeding the breakfast call, there was an Es opening into VE1/VE9/VY2 which
expanded to VE2; I started feeling a decent score coming on and moved first
station a VE2 on CW to phone. A CT3 called in for only AF. Then, just as things
started to get slow, the meteor scatter seemed to improve to the west You gotta
be fast guys to make a QSO; and sonetimes that doesn't help, barely missed
VE3UTT, sorry! Then some Es developed into MN (38 Q's total) and IA at first,
expanding into all of 0-land (just 1 ND Q and 3 VE4's, moved 1 to CW) except CO
eventually with many AR (worked about 18 total), east TX (33 Q's), IL (22 Q's,
WB9Z never made the Es opening). 16Z rate was 95. Around 17Z, I started
alternating CQ's between west working MN/IA and south (have 2 el Force 12 fixed
south) working FL. MN died down around 1730 and swung the "mighty" 5 el yagi
around to FL and considering the already large number of FL stations logged,
had an incredible run into there for 20-25 minutes. I was guessing the Es
footprint on this end was small, but K2PS was runnin' them same time, so guess
it was just loud sig + rare state on my end that brought them in (rate was
117!). Total FL Q's were 151! I operated thru until about 1845Z working 74 in
the 3/4 hour, and the opening to AZ/CA kept me going. The only decent strength
AZ was WA7NB who popped out of the noise to S7 1/2 kHz below my run freq. K6NR
was first CA (I think he has been first before) on CW; I stuck around about 4-5
minutes on CW catching UT, 2 weak AZ, and a few CA, then QSY'ed to phone to seek
my left coast fortune, but most signals were weak and after I quit getting CA
answers around 1840Z, a quick sweep from 28435 down to 28400 found no CA and
very few sigs. Total CA Q's were 27, I suspect via double hop Es as NE and KS
were booming in at the same time. Just a couple of CO were added during the
same period. After that it was QRT for Xmas tree and visit to mom's, I made
about 14 more Q's in 22Z hour including N5PR in NM, the band died around
2230Z.
   Again, as evidenced by the large turnouts from FL, locals VA (90 Q's and
could have milked out more), MD-68, and AL-20 and AR-18, contest activity seems
to be on the rise; 2000-3000 Q's are just around the upturn of the cycle corner
for this one! I had dumb luck taking Saturday daytime off and operating Sunday
when condx were better. New England activity seemed to be down and condx were
never open to there while I was on; I hope you all are warm and cozy again
after the ice storm. Try operating sometime with 3/4 inch of ice on the yagi,
10M yagis become a CB band antenna. Running on phone was more fun than S&P and
running on CW, so I stuck to phone whenever rates were good; phone activity was
very poor compared to CW during the "lean" hours. Compared to last year, my
score was up about 50K; FL and SA and a few more good hours made the
difference. Many thanks for all of the Q's; this fall season turned out not to
be the bummer I was guessing it would be.


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