[3830] ARRL 10 N8II SO Mixed LP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

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

Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 25

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW: 1118   134
  SSB:  581   119
-------------------
Total: 1699   253  Total Score = 1,425,908

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

I started the contest with not the best attitude and condtions didn't help, band
was dead Friday evening except a lone PY; finished 2 hours with 95 Q's.
I was up early enough Saturday to catch the beginning of propagation at 1130Z.
Both days the Balkans were the first area to come thru (S5,9A,LZ) well before
the band opened direct elsewhere. As the band opened Saturday, it was obvious
there would be plenty of EU activity, even CW was packed full. I sturggled to
run on CW and even more so on phone, so spent some time S&P'ing both modes,
should have done more! The guys in EU were smart and mostly in run mode. Around
1545Z or so, I discovered my antenna were about 25 degrees farther north than
indicated, the wind had moved it which explains a lot of the frustration (first
time this happened in a long time). Around 16Z, I finally got a decent run going
on CW with an 89 hour. EU faded out fast in the 17Z hour, but kept beaming there
until not much was left but a few EA's. The opening to the west was very
frustrating, it was like the "big one" (earthquake) had hit CA and dropped them
into the Pacific. I worked a handful of CA on CW, but first CA on phone was W6TA
at around 2040Z and he was a struggle. Condtions were great to MT/WY/CO/NM with
skip short enough to only briefly work ND/SD/KS. VE4-VE7's were loud, but VE4
activity was low. AZ was booming (many active!), but strangely no NV was logged
on SSB until Sunday afternoon. Finally around 2145Z (our local sunset), the
flood gates opened up to CA for a 123 hour on SSB. Over half of my total CA Q's
for the contest were worked in that run which lasted about an hour. Conditions
to JA were marginal as expected and the opening was maybe 45 minutes. I never
heard KH6 on phone and KH7Y on CW was down from usual.
There were several ZL's on CW, but VK was sparse and fairly weak both days. I
moved E51NOU up for a Q whike he was S&P'ing on CW. Around 18Z, found VP8NO
calling someone, so called CQ up 1 kHz and got him, then moved to SSB for his
NR 5 and 6.
Sunday, the band opened earlier to the same Balkan area, managed to find T7 on
phone. By about 1215Z, there were many loud signals, so I moved to CW and
managed to land a prime spot low in the band for a great run that lasted until
1545Z. QRM was never much of a factor and at times the pile-up was deep, who
needs the amp? 13Z rate was 137 and 14Z 132 with many more Russians logged than
expected. Put together the 52 EU Russians and 46 Ukrainians and I was only 10
Q's short of the 108 CA Q total, it was weird! VU2GBS called in for my only
central Asian QSO. The run was too good to abandon, so the EU CW and phone
mults suffered. 
This year's contest featured the least amount of Es I can ever remember. We had
almost no propagation to IA, MO, AR, TN, AL. Even FL was barely worked on SSB,
the band never opened there on Es. So, it was a wild struggle trying to fill in
the missing states on Sunday afternoon. We had some brief spotty sporadic E
finally late Sunday afternoon which enabled me to catch AR, IA, LA, and MS on
on SSB. First NE was also worked Sunday and 2nd NE KT0K moved to CW. OK had not
been worked at 21Z, so was very happy to move 2nd SSB OK, W5LE to CW where AA4V
in SC found me for next QSO, then moved back to phone to give us each a double
mult. K1WHS in ME was finally logged on CW after hearing him several times late
afternoon giving him his last state; he graciously QSY'ed to SSB. I probably
should have S&P'ed south more Sunday, but gave that area some effort Saturday.
VE1/VE9 were skipping over me most all of the weekend, so only logged VE9AA and
VY2ZM on CW backscatter. Considering the line noise which was about S4-5 towards
EU and S3-4 on phone, I did pretty well on domestic mults, it has never been
such a struggle with conditions so good, but lack of Es and LP made it that
way. I worked 6 XE states on each mode. Most common mults: 
DL - 142  CA - 108
G  -  56  AZ -  82
UA1-  52  MD -  52 
UR -  46  WA -  46
F  -  43  CO -  43
OK -  47  VA -  40  
EA -  40  TX -  28
I  -  40  PA -  28  
SP -  35 
PA1-  28  
Not so rare states unless you are in EU:
ID - 26!, MT - 18, NM -18, UT - 17, OR - 17

This was my best LP effort ever; take away the extra 10 XE mults and it is
about even with 2002. About 800's on not so good Saturday and 800 more on much
more enjoyable Sunday. Conditions in 2002 were better; EU activity in 2011
probably much better. At the start in 2002, the band was open to the west coast
and a few JA's, and a few SA with some Es thrown in in several directions,
finished Friday time with over 200 Q's as opposed to less than 100 locals this
year. The Es was also much more plentiful that year. Thanks for all the Q's and
digging me out.

73, Jeff N8II


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