[3830] ARRLDX CW K5NA SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K5NA
Operator(s): K5NA
Station: K5NA

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   48    35
   80:  177    67
   40:  467    81
   20:  768    97
   15:  182    64
   10:   22    12
-------------------
Total: 1664   356  Total Score = 1,741,908

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

This was a pretty good contest for me. This weekend I used what I have learned
about SO2R as effectively as I have ever done. But I still have a long ways to
go to be really good at it. 

The sun spots and high band conditions were as low as I ever remember hearing
them for this contest. 80M and 160M propagation was superb on Friday night but
a front coming through Texas made the bands were extremely noisy. This cut back
temendously on the possibilities for the low bands.

I was hoping that the front would move on through quickly, but it didn't
happen. Saturday afternoon I had to shut down, remove coaxes, and disconnect
cables for the thunderstorms that were passing through the area. I lost about
an hour and 40 minutes of operating because of that.

Saturday evening, the static crashes were just as bad as the night before but
band conditions were not as good. The static and noise didn't start abating
until about 0900Z in the morning here.

At 1100Z, I thought I should take a nap in my operating chair for about an
hour. Usually when I do this with my headphones on and the volume blaring, I
will wake up in about 45 minutes and get back to work. But this time I must
have been too tired and I slept for over two hours and it was after local
sunrise when I woke up. Maybe my new operating chair made me feel too
comfortable this time.

I worked hard on the high bands and spent a lot of time CQing on 10M and 15M
while trolling the other bands with the second radio for QSOs. This was fairly
effective and I got some unexpected surprise QSOs on the CQing radio. I worked
really hard with the second radio going up the other bands and trying to
identify calls in each QSO that I tuned across.

I had a pizza bet on this contest with my buddy, N3BB, who is also in the
Austin area. We ended the contest in almost a dead heat with him beating me by
less than one QSO. I have already bought him his pizza at a contest wrap-up and
discussion gathering. If the log checking reverses our order of finish, then he
will owe me two pizzas back. No problem since more pizza is always better than
no pizza.

Even with the crummy conditions, I enjoyed doing this contest. That's what it's
all about, right!

73, Richard - K5NA


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