[3830] ARRLDX CW ZS6AA SOAB LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: ZS6AA
Operator(s): ZS6AA
Station: ZS6AA

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Johannesburg
Operating Time (hrs): 28

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:           
   40:  603    50
   20:  929    55
   15:  217    37
   10:           
-------------------
Total: 1749   144  Total Score = 755,568

Club: 

Comments:

ARRL DX CW was the first international contest I entered (in 2003 as ZS1AN with
131,100 points) and still one of my favourites. For me it is a bit more relaxed
than CQWW, WPX and IARU as the bands are not always open to NA, so it is
possible to spend some time with my family and still achieve a reasonably
competitive score. The pileups are also noticably better mannered than in some
other contests thanks to all the fine NA ops. 
 
Propagation was noticably poorer than last year for the first 36 hours of the
contest, with only 40m and 20m opening to NA. My new two-element beam helped me
to play on 40m, but I didn't hear even one NA station on 80m where I have only
an inverted L. After taking Sunday morning off, I knew that I would need some
multipliers on 15m in the afternoon to turn in a reasonable score. 

Fortunately the ionosphere smiled and I managed a nice run on 15m, and then
continued on 20m until about midnight local (2200 Z). For the last couple of
hours I was really struggling to put callsigns together in my head, so
appologies to those of you who had to give multiple repeats and thanks for your
patience. 

Overall I was satisfied with my effort, although I need to try to be a bit more
focussed next time (and get more sleep before the contest!).


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