[3830] ARRLDX CW N8II SOAB QRP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

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

Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): ~15.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    9     6
   80:   46    24
   40:   75    37
   20:  276    60
   15:  280    67
   10:   29    12
-------------------
Total:  715   206  Total Score = 441,870

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

So little time, so many loud stations! Besides having a very bothersome head
cold this weekend, my wife had dinner planned with the in-laws Saturday and a
show in Baltimore for Sunday; my last QSO was about 1550Z. The cold/tiredness
stopped me after 2-1/2 hours Friday evening. My goal was to make the top ten
QRP, probably accomplished.

I haven't operated QRP in a while. I was having pretty good luck calling
stations and getting thru on the first or 2nd call which was pretty amazing to
me on 40 the first night and at 12Z on 20 the first morning. 15 was pretty
tough sledding at the start and 20 was tough as well. I heard some good ops
like HC2SL (heard twice) and just couldn't break thru, but I did break some
big, not huge pile-ups with the right timing. HS0ZDY was heard S9 around 13Z
S&P'ing on 20M. I had really bad luck with continental Africa
(non-island)without a single QSO the whole weekend. I did look for AF on 10 a
few times with no luck; around 14Z Sunday IK0YVV, another I, and EE5E were
heard weak scatter path at about 75 degrees, but no hope of a QSO with 5W. I
also shopped for AF on 15 wihtout luck around 19Z Saturday. The great part of
the test was incredibly loud Europeans on 40-15M! 20 was about as good as it
can get during the daytime! 80 was about as good as it gets to EU at 02Z
Sunday; about 60% of the stations I heard, I could work with the cut-off being
around S8-9. OK2BYW/QRP was S6-7 on 80. Golden ears awards go to ON4UN and
SN3A(P?) for hearing me on 160; I heard quite a few other fairly loud EU in the
20 minutes I was there.
15 was extremely good into EU from around 13Z when I hit the band thru about
1530Z with loud signals all the way to UA4; I can't remember better EU condx
during that time period. Running was possible up in the ether zone high in the
bands, but the runs didn't last long. I'd guess I was spotted once on 20 and
once on 15M. The 20M run was great for about 15 minutes with the last 10 rate
meter peaking around 162/hr; 17Z hour rate was 83. HZ1PS and H2E answered CQ's
on 15. My advice to the non-QRP'ers is that your rate suffers if you run above
070 or higher on 20 or 15; I observed how the HP stations were doing, and it
wasn't great. Activity on 15 Sunday spread up to about 21125 KHz!  

Congrats to F5MUX for his 1921 QRP Q's from EU, outstanding! Sorry to the big
guns I may have slowed down with a weak signal, but at least you got the Q's.
There were some very good ops with great copying ability on crowded segments!
Some ops didn't give their calls often enough; there is a fine line between a
faster rate and more dupes! Some stations obviously just don't listen for
anything close to a weak signal with the auto CQ set to a short gap. Bad idea,
you lose a lot of Q's! Thanks for your patience and the Q's; it was a lot of
fun to have the ionospehere cooperate again!


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