[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): ~20

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  528   106
  SSB:  433    68
-------------------
Total:  961   174  Total Score = 518,172

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Well, I wish I could say that was fun, but condx held down the joy a bit. There
were fun moments, but the almost total lack of prop to the W0 heartland (no ND
or NE, missed MO, SD on SSB) and lack of backscatter running and S&P Q's were a
let down from some of the marginal years of the past. The phone band was a sea
of inactivity during the lean hours. Condx to W0  were the wrost I can ever
remember. Total Es time and coverage were near the worst ever. I don't think
I've worked much harder to get mults, than in this test. Biggest mult failure
was not trying to move EU stations between the modes, but time was pretty
precious (Sunday EU run was a whopping 4 minutes long from 1507-1511Z working
EA, F, and I) and total EU Q's were pretty low. I also had to take off from
1503-1525Z to jump start my daughter's car while band was still open to SW EU.
By times logged, here are a few of the highlights and mult successes. 0028Z
T48T logged, first DX, also logged VP5CW who was heard often and ZX5J first
night.
WE had weak Es to TX and LA from 0055-0125Z, not any volume run or S&P. 1238Z,
K4CIA/QRP in NC logged, first out of local area QSO Saturday. 1332Z V5 logged
on CW, first DX of day. 1354Z, PJ2T calls for first DX to south of day, 1421Z G
is logged for first EU followed by F, OE, G's, HB9's; total EU on CW about 9
before
dealing with the battery. I could hear W1's and W2's running EU inaudible
here.
1435Z found ST2, not as loud as in WW, 1531Z found CN. I ran a trickle of
mainly CT2's and couple of EA's from 1533-1551Z on SSB. 1558Z, WE6Z calls on CW
from CA, start of something big, naw! I did log a few from NV, UT, OK, CO, AZ
mainly on CW and had an AZ SSB run 1724-1730Z (everything was pretty fast and
fleeting!). Last west coast of the day was a CA mobile at 1732Z. 1740Z 9Y4VU
calls in on CW who I met in Curacao years ago, he kindly switches to SSB. All
afternoon loud signals are present from SA and at times from CM, VP5, etc.
Activity from there was pretty good, but not like a good west coast run. I
pretty much worked out the SA/Carib mults working CM, CX, VP8, OA, CE, PY, LU,
HK, HC, PJ2 on both both modes and J3, KP4, V3, and P4. First XE QSO was not
until 2203Z and total XE mults were 6 on CW and 5 on SSB.

Sunday was really slow with rates in the teens except 15Z hour. I was about
ready to bag it in when WA called in at 1656 on CW followed by a booming VE6 at
1700Z, we moved to SSB, next QSO was VE7, followed by loud VE5, back to CW. Most
of the 17Z hour was spent on CW with first opening of the contest to WA, ID
(moved SSB to CW), OR, MT. From 1830-1854, I had a great phone CA/AZ/NV only
run with 23 CA stations in a row worked. The band died to everywhere almost
completely at 20Z after a good but brief opening to XE. Never give up, worked
VE9 on CW and VT both modes in last 5 minutes!

I enjoy the challenge of this contest, you have to keep evaluating your
strategy 
as propagation and activity dictate. Thanks for the Q's and let's hope for some
major action next year.

73, Jeff


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