[3830] IARU KA1ARB M/S HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: KA1ARB
Operator(s): KA1ARB, WB1ADR
Station: KA1ARB

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Chapel Hill, NC
Operating Time (hrs): 23.75

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:                           
   80:   35       4     8       2
   40:  120     183    26      25
   20:  352     761    38      41
   15:  123      82    19      17
   10:   20      56     4       8
-------------------------------------
Total:  650    1086    95      93  Total Score = 956,168

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

I was unexpectedly able to team up with Lee, WB1ADR, for a multi-single effort
this year, and we had a great time.  Condx stunk on the low bands, but having
openings on 20m for much of the night was very cool, and we enjoyed working EU
on 15.  This was by far my best DX contest effort – it certainly helps having
Lee’s CW prowess at my station.  By the end of the weekend, I was actually
able to run at over 20 wpm, but only with the fixed exchange (sorry to all of
you that tried to send me an extra message!)

I used this as my excuse to finish building two-direction beverages for NE/SW
and NW/SE, but the S9+10 noise and high MUF limited our time on those bands, so
the jury is still out on whether I’ve got them working.  The catenary for my
40m delta loop to EU came crashing to the ground sometime this spring when a
storm took down half of a tree, so we had one element on the ground, one
element at 10’, and one element at 25’.  It still loaded up, though, so we
just went ahead and used it.  Our new addition was an 80m vertical with 4
raised radials, and making permanent the “temporary” 160 inverted-L.  

We “discovered” just before the contest started that I didn’t have a
keying interface for my computer (I’ve always just sent by hand), so after
gathering some parts, I started the contest 15 minutes late while Lee cooked
one an interface.  He was ready by 14Z, and I’m now a convert to computer
keying.  It took me a long time to get warmed up S&P on 20m and 15m before
finally having a good run at the end of 13Z hour.  We alternated running and
S&P, struggling to get any rate to EU.  Finally, around 17Z, Lee decided to
just run the US, and our rate soared to 113 and then 142 in 18Z.  Things dipped
for a couple hours until 20Z when things took off to EU with a rates over 100
for 3 of the next four hours.  We got so wrapped up enjoying our runs that we
missed out looking south for mults on 10 and 15, but we had fun!

Lee did the heavy lifting for much of the night, but I did have a 4 straight
mults call me on 40m at 09Z: HK6P, E51CG, OC4HQ, and 8N3HQ (SA, OC, SA, and
AS!)  I was certainly awake after that!  (And so was Lee, after all my
yelling.)

In all, a great time – thanks for all your Q’s.

73,
   Rob, KA1ARB


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