[3830] ARRL 10 CE1/K7CA SO CW HP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: CE1/K7CA
Operator(s): CE1/K7CA
Station: CE1/K7CA

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: Huasco
Operating Time (hrs): 32.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW: 2728   149
  SSB:           
-------------------
Total: 2728   149  Total Score = 1,625,888

Club: 

Comments:

Great propagation this year.  Last year I had TEP to the Eastern US for 2 hours
after the start of the contest at 9pm local and worked 250 stations.  The next
2 days the propagation was mostly backscatter and I only managed another 500 Qs
the whole contest.  This year the propagation was so good to Europe that I was
unprepared for the huge pileups or should I say mobs.  I'm still not sure how
to handle them but I think maybe moving to a frequency above normal may help
thin the crowd.  You might think that having a huge EU pileup would be great
but try working a station with several other stations almost zero beat
continuously calling on top of the one you are trying to work. However, it sure
beats not having any pileup at all like last year.  I wonder if working split
would work for a contest. Saturday evening for a couple of hours I had what
seemed a bit like the pulsed radar signal I used to hear on 40m when the band
was open to Asia.  I think it was propagated because the level faded from about
S5 to about S1. Also, the direction was right out over the Pacific Ocean, about
100 meters from my antennas. Did anyone else hear this? On Saturday, I had
worked all the US mults except AR and thought it would be easy to work on
Sunday. I must have worked hundreds of W5's and kept hoping for AR but none
came.  Then, about 2 hours before the contest ended W5QP called in from AR. 
Then another AR called in shortly after that. A couple of ststions had echos so
bad that I had to move the antenna away from them in order to copy.  Murphy came
45 minutes before the contest ended with a power outage that lasted until after
the contest ended.  I was running at about 100/hr so if it would have happened
earlier it could have been much worse.  Maybe I should think about getting a
backup generator but this is the first time commercial power has failed here
during a contest, and I've operated about 20 in the last 6 years from Huasco. 
I built a 5 element yagi on a 27 ft boom for the contest which performed great
and complimented my 3el Stepper yagi well.  Both antennas are only 20 ft above
the ground so I'm planning on getting at least one up to 60 ft for next year. 
I wonder if height matters much on 10m?  Thanks for QSO's and hope to see you
next weekend in the Stew Perry contest.  73, Al CE1/K7CA


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