[3830] ARRLDX CW W3EF SOAB LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: W3EF
Operator(s): W3EF
Station: W3EF

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 42.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   21    17
   80:  156    53
   40:  558    81
   20:  883    78
   15:  633    80
   10:   35    14
-------------------
Total: 2286   323  Total Score = 2,215,134

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

In Switzerland, where I work and spend half my time, there is no such thing as a
"snow day."  Snow is part of life, and they just deal with it.  Closing roads or
schools would be unthinkable.  Here in the Washington, D.C. area, however, what
might pass for unremarkable snowfall in HB9 (or even W1) has become, in the
last few weeks, what the locals are calling "Snowmageddon," and the fallout has
been extreme.

Why is this relevant to my ARRL DX score?  Because like the native
Washingtonian (rather than the HB9 visa holder) I am, at my core I still do not
know how to deal with serious snow.  I lost 12 trees, which caused not only the
blocking of my driveway but the destruction of three of my 80m verticals, most
of my elevated radials on 80 and 160, all 3 beverages, and the re-appearance of
an intermittent fault on my 40m beam.  With a lot of helpers, I was able to deal
with much of this, but hardly all of it, and I have to say it has been
exhausting (more on that in a moment).  Keeping the station going (like keeping
the schools open, which was a lost cause here) just should not be this hard.  I
think it is a question of what you are used to, and we W3s are simply not used
to serious snow.

So with unfinished antenna work still unfinished since November because of
weather and travel, here was the setup going into the contest:

10M -- 6-el Telrex at 136 feet. WHOOPS there is an underground feedline problem
I couldn't fix given the snow.  That means an A3S at 52'.  This probably didn't
make a huge difference this year, but my mult total is well below others', so
who knows?

15M -- 5-el Telrex at 46', which did a bang-up job into Europe.  The 8-el
Telrex at 96', however, is still limited to 110 degrees of rotation because of
the presence of a gin pole on the tower (see 20M, below).  And I still need to
get the phasing of these two beams done.  BUT 15m was incredible this weekend,
and I really enjoyed playing on it.  (I would be even happier with my results
on that band if they had been competitive with N1UR and N5AW, but it was not to
be -- nice work Ed and Marv!)

20M -- The top antenna in the stack has yet to be re-attached to the rotator,
and is being held up with the help of the aforementioned gin pole.  The work
was interrupted by a windstorm in November and it has not been possible yet to
fix it.  The 6 elements are pointing vaguely north (with a slight upward tilt)
but at least I can use it, and it is in phase with the lower 6-element fixed on
EU.

40M -- This is almost too painful to relate.  The KLM 40M4 that has given me
difficulty for years had been acting fine (mostly) since last spring, including
in CQWW.  With the snow, an intermittent in the phasing straps (I believe that's
where it is) came back with a vengeance, appearing some 80-90% of the time.  40
is usually my best band; this year it was well down on 2009 and I probably lost
about 200 Qs as a result of the problem with the beam. Ouch.  I know what I have
to do about this, but it is going to be excruciating.

80M -- We managed to get all 4 wire verticals, and a significant number of the
elevated radials, back up a couple of days before the contest.  Phew! I even
managed a short run into Europe, something I had been meaning to try and will
do again.  Sadly my mult and Q totals were down on last year -- see Operator,
below.

160M -- Amazingly, the vertical portions of the phased inverted Ls were not
damaged by the snow (or, more to the point, the trees).  However, all of the
elevated radials were.  When we finally got two radials back up on one element
and four on the other, the array loaded at 1.9 MHz rather than 1.83.  This may
also have had to do with the snow on the ground.  I put a tuner in line and it
played OK.  Conditions, however, seemed much worse than last year.

BEVERAGES -- the NNE beverage was repaired and worked OK, though it sounded a
little noisier than usual.  As is often the case from this location, I had to
use it to copy EU on 40M in the evenings, so it was essential for even more
than 160 and 80.  The NW was also repaired and seemed to work.  The W beverage
still needs to be put back into place.

OPERATOR -- Contesting is about antennas, sure, and about equipment and
software, of course, but like so many other competitive sports it is also about
physical and psychological readiness.  I have to say, I was pretty run down
(though not for lack of sleep) going into this, and more importantly, when I
realized a few minutes into the contest that the 40M beam was acting up, I had
some trouble staying motivated.  I mean, you want to be at your best, right? 
So while you never give up, when Murphy strikes, you make allowances. I had not
intended, for example, to sleep at all on Friday night, but when I heard
relatively little on 80 or 160 (both noisier than usual here) and realized how
tired I felt, I decided to sleep for one 90-minute cycle.  The second night I
took two cycles.  Looking at that decision now, it clearly cost me some mults
on the low bands and, in all likelihood, my customary 3rd place finish.  

It has to be said, however, that despite all this, I almost set a new record
for the third call area, and I had by far the highest number of QSOs ever in
this contest from this location -- If I ever get everything working I will be a
force to contend with!  

Congratulations to N1UR, K1BX, and especially N5AW -- knock 'em dead at WRTC,
Marv!

73 and thanks for all the Qs, espcially to all the EU and JA stations who keep
it going and humor us in this "it's all about W/VE" contest.

Maury W3EF


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