[3830] IARU K3FIV SO SSB LP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: K3FIV
Operator(s): K3FIV
Station: K3FIV

Class: SO SSB LP
QTH: CA CM88eu
Operating Time (hrs): 11

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:           1      1       1
   80:           8      2       3
   40:          69     10       5
   20:          77     22      18
   15:          19      9       6
   10:           5      3       2
-------------------------------------
Total:   0     179     46      35  Total Score = 39,609

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

For a long time, I've been spared by Murphy, so I was due.  Fired up the radio
to see what was around in IARU, and the few signals were so weak and watery
that I just knew it was finally time to replace that length of coax at the
antenna feedpoint that got wet a while back.  After half an hour, a nice piece
of low-loss coax was in place.

It didn't help.  

Band conditions were pretty bad, at least from this part of the west coast.  EU
was difficult, as always from CM88 with my 100W and dipole, but at least some of
the stations dug my signal out.  Others couldn't hear me at all even with no one
else calling.

Participation seemed light as well.  There were plenty of open frequencies on
all bands every time I looked.  Even 20SSB had space in mid-afternoon.  I can't
remember a major contest where that happened in the past couple of years.

Tried CW to see if it was better.  There seemed to be more activity, but all
the signals were pretty weak too.  Made 2 Qs on CW.  So, to make things even
more fun, in a fit of insanity I decided to concentrate on Phone as part of my
usual goal to "see what I can do with 100 watts and a wire."  I subtracted the
CW Qs from the score summary above, but I'll include them in the log.

This was mostly S&P, which I find to be more interesting, although I did take a
few opportunities to try some runs.  Holding a prime frequency around 14.220 in
mid-afternoon was a new experience.  It would have been even better if there
were more stations that could hear me!

It was fun though.  Even got some new DX.  I stumbled on Svalbard as well as
the Jan Mayen DXpedition, neither of whom had a pileup.  Very strange.  Also
found Guam, Midway, and a handful of VKs and other South Pacific.   Only
Caribbean I heard was ZF1A.  Only AF was Canary Islands.  JA was also
uncharacteristically absent.  Same with Asiatic Russia.  Usually they are
booming in here as the sun rises in Asia, but only a few this time.  20 was
open well after dark, and it was interesting to try to copy the VK/ZLs CQing on
the same frequencies as EU HQ stations who reappeared with the EU dawn. 
Worldwide propagation, but not a lot of signals.  Even 15 was open well after
dark from CA to VK with reasonably strong signals, but very few on the air on
either side.

W1AW/6 and NU1AW/5 made good "beacons" on all bands.   I convinced my 80 meter
dipole to radiate enough RF on 160 to complete a W1AW/6 sweep - 6 bands.

Still waiting for sunspots...

Thanks for the patience and the good ears out there!

73,
/Jack de K3FIV
Rig: Flex-3000, N1MM
Ant: 135 foot Carolina Windom at 35 feet
Loc: 400 feet up, 1 mile from the Pacific Ocean (nice waveguide to Asia...)

See you in the CA QSO Party October 1,2 from MENDocino county!


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