[3830] ARRLDX CW N8II SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): ~16.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   43    33
   80:  302    68
   40:  175    55
   20:  562    64
   15:   61    28
   10:    0     0
-------------------
Total: 1143   248  Total Score = 848,904

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Thanks to my busy unavailable teenage daughters, dad had to help with the chores
including massive grocery shopping Saturday; I was off from 1520Z until 0140Z.
Actually after a very intense run of 80 minutes ending with a pile-up still
calling on 20 Saturday morning, I really didn't feel like operating all day
anyway. I cherry picked the times and bands in which I was most interested.
I'll say this again, CW contesting is alive and well! There was plenty of
activity from EU on the bands even in the dead of night EU time. I am loud on
20, no doubt. The pile-ups calling were huge on 20, and even had some big ones
on 40 and 80 thanks to the spotters, both good and bad. I had plenty of
practice managing the impatient mob, just like being DX without the travel,
Hi!
An inexperienced op in a rare state would probably have thrown the big switch
or QSY'ed, or S&P'ed when faced with the 10+ callers. Sunday, I probably went
over 90 minutes without needing a single CQ and that was on 14075! I didn't
want to squeeze into a prime spot and ruin a contender's run. Best last 10 rate
was at least in the 160's. When I hit 500 Q's on 20, I figured that was a good
run stopping point.
80 was the best I've ever heard it in any contest! I raised my 1/4 wave
vertical a few feet which seems to have helped its performance a bit. I had
some really good runs for the first time ever. I could have worked over 450 Q's
on 80 with a full time effort, I'd guess. I felt like I was working down to the
"garbage level" weak Europeans, a few QRP's called. Only a very few were just
too weak to pull thru and EF8M was S9+  The rarest non-Eu to call in were PY2,
RT9S and V51YJ (also found V5/DJ4SO) no really big surprises. Caribbean
stations were pretty hard to come by on 80. T27A and KG6DX (Guam) were nice
catches Saturday morning. JA's were weak, better on Sunday with about 5-6
logged; also, KG6DX was loud with no takers at sunrise. I worked all of the G
mults on 20 meters and most on 80.
 I might submit as a single band 80 entry; I'll see how low down the totem pole
the score goes. Thanks for all of the Q's and to the Eurpoeans who kept calling
until I heard them; if you gave up, you probably were weak and zero beat to the
pile-up. Part timing does have it advantages, I'm not wiped out today and the
the dog got his walks both days which made both of us happy.


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