[3830] ARRL 10 C4Z(5B4AIZ) SO Mixed LP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: C4Z
Operator(s): 5B4AIZ
Station: 5B4AIZ

Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: Mazotos
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:           
  SSB:           
-------------------
Total: 1367   180  Total Score = 844,920

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Comments:

Condx were spotty, somebody up there kept switching the lights on and off so it
was not easy to maintain a run. Skip was constantly changing, so there would be
a clutch of OK, YL & DL, a pause with an empty band, then next OH, SM, LA and
then F, ON, PA  & DL's, bless the DL's (((((.  On the other hand there always
seemed to be plenty of room to work, I never got bullied out of a slot. Not
much of an opening to JA either day, second day 1 weak ZL no VK's and only 1 YB
all weekend. HD2A & 3G3FZ window breaking signals cq'ing in my face and I didn't
get as much as a ? I was happy to get 35 mlts from NA, not a lot but more than I
was expecting with low power from here in the middle east

If there has been one outstanding feature of 10Mtrs this contest season it has
been the duration and strength of LP signals from SA over Asia. I have become
used to zones 11 & 13 being among the first stns in the log but this time they
were joined by zones 6/7/10/12 within the first couple of hours first day and
those latter ones are among the hardest to work from here on the SP due to
scarcity of numbers in those regions and intense competition from EU & NA. Same
path, opposit direction the KH6's have been consistantly big signals from the
south west, pity that there is little else to work from that area, just empty
oceans. LP to the south east  has not opened, if we can get SS numbers up that
should give us another hour or so band opening time into early evening and we
can look forward to some usa west coast stns at their sunrise, hopefully by
next year??? 

Rig - TS570 - 100W.  3 Ele Yagi up 15 Mtrs. Logging with 'SD' 


Contesting Physchology.

I concluded WWCW feeling that I had done all that I could. This time I knew
that I could, and should, have done more. When I reflect upon the why? I find
the reasons are many and they are, in my case, all in the mind. Ahead of the
event I considered that (A) as we share only 2/3 hours of daylight with NA that
limits openings only to the eastern seaboard with one or two W8/9 thrown in. (B)
There are now almost 90 mlts available in NA and my expectations were about
20/25 so there is no way from here we can compete with western eu  who have a
couple of hours more daylight.
(C) I do not do well into NA, there is a mountain range in that direction which
kills low angle, add to that low power tx does not penetrate the eu wall so
good.

Mental decision made to just go along for the fun, even though it  would be a
full time effort, I decided to do a mixed mode for a first time. I didn't enjoy
it, whereas with the cw, subject to propagation variations, there was some sort
of flow I just could not get going on ssb and mlts were hard to find. I ended
day 1 with 700 q's which I felt was a couple of hundred short of what I could
have achieved on cw alone. Going into day two therefore I had a negative
feeling rather than a 'can do' attitude, thought about just a cw only effort
from there on but it really was too late to change. In the final event I did
only one hour on ssb second day and never went back to that mode after 10.00
hrs local time. I see now that I should have made a number of s&p visits to ssb
as I only had about 40 mlts on that mode so there must have been a number of
easy mlts available if I'd had the patience, rather than wasting too much time
chasing the piles of DE, DC and Carrib stns on cw with little success. Post
contest I know that I should have realised that every contest is different, had
a more positive approach and planned a strategy. From the claimed scores seen so
far I could have had a competetive entry in this category. The secret for
successful contesting is remembering our previous mistakes. 

With thanks to fellow contesters for the contacts, not just in this one but
throughout the year. Have a happy, peaceful Christmas and enjoy good health
throughout the coming year.

73 Brian C4Z / 5B4AIZ.


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