[3830] ARRLDX CW ON4UN SOSB/160 HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: ON4UN
Operator(s): ON4UN
Station: ON4UN

Class: SOSB/160 HP
QTH: Merelbeke
Operating Time (hrs): 15

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  467    46
   80:           
   40:           
   20:           
   15:           
   10:           
-------------------
Total:  467    46  Total Score = 62,928

Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Comments:

So far I found this winter season to have been one of the best top band seasons
since 1987. Apparently not all think like me; I read in Feb CQ magazine under a
title saying “Poor propagation on 40, 80 and 160” : “… the consensus is
that conditions are poor and there seems to be no explainable reason…”, in 
the propagation column written by NW7US (never worked that station, neither of
the high bands or any of the low bands in my almost 50 years career on the
amateur bands). Anyhow, I am not part of the abovementioned consensus! I even
worked a new country on 160, FW5RE (#305), and it was not easy from this far
West in Europe… All of this to say that I expected to have great conditions
in the ARRL CW contest, similar to what we had in the CQ 160M contest. But, it
turned out differently. This must be the proverbial exception that confirms the
general rule for this winter, that conditions have been great (on the average).

Three years ago I was able to set a new single band European record (70,000 
points) with 460 QSOs and 51 multipliers, which included all of the West Coast
states. 

What about 2009? Between the start of the contest and 0500z I worked 298
stations, which is exactly 1 per minute, not bad I think. But, on the average
signals were far from strong and thanks to me new Beverage system I was able to
copy a lot of stations which were extremely weak. But not too many stations from
inland: looking West my best contest were 2 stations in NM (N2IC, N5WBF), 1
station in WY (W7ZQ), one station in AZ (N7AP) and 3 stations in CO (K0RF,
K9BWI and W0ETT). No Arizona, no Utah, no Nevada, and of course none of the
coastal West coast states. And, where were you Jim, N7JW?  During the first
night I was called by K3BTK who gave me MDC as multiplier, I logged it as DC,
but apparently he is quite a distance from DC. Too bad, that makes me loose
another multiplier, as I never heard another real DC station.

The ARRL contest is a contest where Search and Pounce is totally meaningless
for the DX stations. I have remained on one and the same frequency all night
long, and was never bothered by invaders or “clickers”. Wonderful!  In
total I made 345 QSOs (12 dupes), and 45 multipliers the first night; so not
too bad. And as conditions ought to be better the second night, I was ready for
a new record. But deception: it became a very “boring’ night (not N6TR’s
Boring). After calling CQ for more than 1 hour I finally made my first QSO at
23:22z. It’s easy to make the rest of the short story very short: between
then and 05:00z I made 44 QSOs that is an average of 9 QSOs per hours (60/hour
during the first night). This time I used two different frequencies: 1831.5 and
later 1838. I moved to 1838 because two stations who ought to be stronger than
me in North America (a C6 and an EA8) came too close to me (for comfort), hence
my QSY.To avoid falling asleep, I read a good and interesting book: “Low Band
DXing.”… Fortunately the band picked up somewhat after 05:00z and I worked
51 stations in the next two hours, including one new multiplier 2 minutes
before my sunrise: Montana with KE7X. Out west not much: one station from NM
(NN5K), and my friend Wayne N7NG in Wyoming. Not a whisper from the real West
Coast. While I was able to work ND (KT0V), I never heard a station from SD
neither from (you won’t believe it) Kentucky! So I got stuck with only 46
multipliers (that versus 51 in 2006, when all of the real West Coast
multipliers were included). With a total of exactly 100 good QSOs the second
night, it really was a far cry from the first night. A real Boring situation.
BTW, never heard mister Boring…He would have been a multiplier too.

In the last hour of the contest, just around sunset on the East Coast, I worked
another 20 stations; the station furthest west was W5UN, Dave, in Texas. In
total 467 QSOs were made, and that includes 11 dupes. With 46 multipliers the
score is 62,928 points, about 90% of the 2006 score. From the “reachable”
multipliers I missed: DC, KY and SD. 456

So, no new record, but I really enjoyed digging for the really weak stations
and pulling them out. When conditions are really fantastic, it’s kind of easy
for everyone, when they are like they were this past weekend; having a good
station with really good listening set-up really pays off. 

Thanks to all of you who gave me a QSO, and sorry for those I could not pull
through. You can blame that on conditions. This time NW7US was right. But wait
until we’ll get out of the sunspot cycle dip, then we really will have good
reason to complain.

73, John – ON4UN -


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