[3830] WAE SSB WX3B(@N3HBX) M/S HP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    WAE DX Contest, SSB

Call: WX3B
Operator(s): KD4D,WX3B,K3RA,K3WI,N8IVN,KB3CS,W2CDO
Station: N3HBX

Class: M/S HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:  211   114   144
   40:  265   266   114
   20:  915  1019    96
   15:   98    40    50
   10:    0     0     0
-------------------------
Total: 1489  1439   404  Total Score = 1,182,912

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Many thanks to John Evans, station builder/owner for hosting us and providing us
the world’s best radio toys.  John has engineered a fine station with
extremely high performance antenna arrays and a nice quiet noise floor.   It is
easy to get spoiled with stacked monobanders on 200’ towers and delta loop
beams for 80 meters.  

Mark, KD4D did an excellent job managing the station and leading the effort to
bring in teams and make sure the station was fully operational.  Mark was also
our teacher and tour guide as this was a first operation for some us at N3HBX. 
 Thanks for letting team WX3B combine forces with team KD4D, Mark! 

This was the first time I got to try out Yaesu’s new FT-5000 in a contest and
I was very impressed.  
The radio is easy to learn (particularly if you are a Yaesu MP owner) and it
provides far more receiver functionality for fighting QRM than most Yaesu
owners are used to.  The receiver feel, and transmit audio is second to none
and the receiver is a measurable improvement over the 1000mp series.  The
receiver is also very quiet and pleasing to listen to for long periods of time,
even on the low bands.  

Our team included seasoned N3HBX veterans Mark KD4D (our leader), Rol, K3RA,
and Peter W2CDO.  Dennis, N8IVN and Chris KB3CS had their first contest
experience at N3HBX.  Bill, K3WI is both a seasoned N3HBX operator and team
WX3B supporter.

This was the first time Chris and Dennis had a chance to operate at N3HBX and
they certainly enjoyed themselves.  I had a chance to observe Dennis pulling
out weak signals on 40 meters and was impressed with how his hearing has
improved.  I also had a chance to observe the fact that Chris seemed to be
awake during our daytime shift, an interesting feat considering he was up all
night both nights.

The band conditions were less than stellar.  A solar event (CME) occurred just
before the contest and rendered 40 and 80 meters in laughable condition Friday
night.  Rol, Mark and Chris got stuck with a 3 hour time period of no activity.
 20 opened and Rol was treated to a good run for about an hour.  Bill K3WI was
able to get in the run chair just after 20 meters slowed down.  

15 meters never opened on Saturday for us and we only worked a few Europeans
using skew path over Africa.  Had we thought of that opening earlier, we might
have put a few more EUs in the log.   If there was a 10 meter opening to Europe
in this contest, we missed it.  Our expectations were very high because the
previous Friday afternoon sported an hour plus opening to the southern latitude
Europeans on 10.

Just as the night-time team thought things couldn’t possibly get any worse,
we had a 4 plus hour time slot of ZERO QSOs.  In this contest, 80 was often
better than 40.

We caught a modest 15 meter opening on Sunday and rode that horse for all it
was worth.  During one part of the opening signals were fairly good â€" we had
folks with 100 watts and verticals calling, however there was absolutely no
density of them.  It was as if everyone in Europe had written the contest off
and decided not to participate because of the challenging conditions.

The solar disturbance was perfectly timed to begin clearing several hours
before the contest ended…and that made for a fun last hurrah on 20 meters
followed by a few QSOs on 40.  

There were some tremendous numbers being put up this weekend from VY2ZM, K8PO,
K1LZ and others. I was impressed with everyone’s willingness to compromise on
run frequencies â€"and successfully stay out of each other’s way - the lack of
participation turned this into a very sportsman-like event on the non-crowded
bands.

Best story of the contest is credited to W3LL Bud, who knows WX3B has a new
(single) 6 element 15 meter monobander this year.  Bud exclaimed that this
“new 15 meter monobander” must be a magic antenna based on what we were
hearing.  I finally had to confess that this was no single 15 meter antenna,
rather a 7/7/7 stack on a 200’ tower…at N3HBX!

While the conditions were challenging in this contest, the event itself was
great fun.   It is nice that station builders/owners like John are willing to
provide such a fantastic place for us to compete.

Looks like CQWW is coming up fast and I’m even starting to look forward to
…. SWEEPSTAKES!

73,

Jim Nitzberg    WX3B
  
2011 Worked all Europe SSB Rates (Thanks to Pivot-table wizard KD4D)

Hour	20m	40m	20m	15m	Total
0	3	38			41
1	34	12			46
2	25	10			35
3	10	16			26
4	11	11			22
5		37			37
6		39			39
7		1			1
8	0	0	0	0	0
9	0	0	0	0	0
10			11		11
11			107		107
12			87		87
13			70	1	71
14			35		35
15			22	1	23
16			39		39
17			22		22
18			37	1	38
19			35	1	36
20			74	3	77
21		3	35	1	39
22		17			17
23	17	9			26
0	9	7			16
1	8	6			14
2	13	5			18
3	29				29
4	28				28
5	24				24
6	0	0	0	0	0
7	0	0	0	0	0
8	0	0	0	0	0
9	0	0	0	0	0
10			30		30
11			59		59
12			54	1	55
13			2	9	11
14				34	34
15				15	15
16				19	19
17			18	12	30
18			45		45
19			38		38
20			44		44
21			47		47
22		28	4		32
23		26			26
Total	211	265	915	98	1489


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