[3830] IARU KQ2M SO Mixed HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 13

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:                           
   80:    73     0     12      16
   40:   240    99     16      26
   20:   376   276     21      30
   15:   520   220     32      22
   10:    11     0      4       3
-------------------------------------
Total:  1220   595     85      97  Total Score = 1,351,350

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

I want to thank Mark, K1RX and Webb for coming down from NH to fix my 15 and 20
meter antennas and rotators in late June in order to make it possible for me to
operate this contest.  Although 40 and 80 were wires hanging out of trees more
vertical than horizontal, they at least let me get on the low bands and have
some fun.

I was extremely ill coming into this contest - In fact, in 10 days I will have
my Thyroid gland surgically removed, partly in an attempt to help save my eyes
from further deterioration and partly to spare my Liver from the effects of the
extremely dangerous toxic medicine that I am taking to control the auto-immune
Hyperthyroidism. Then, after it is out, I will be on replacement medicine for
the rest of my life and there are no guarantees that my eyes won't continue to
structurally worsen.  Very serious stuff.  You don't realize what the Thyroid
actually does until it is out of control.  Answer - it affects EVERYTHING in
your body directly or indirectly!

So, with IARU coming up, I knew that I would operate, I just didn't know how
much or what it would be like.

12z
15 is LOADED with signals and some are strong.  Without the loud line noise
pestilence that has been killing me for the past three years, I could hear
everyone clearly and when I found a good spot and it was "OFF TO THE RACES!" 
Mostly Eu with smattering of JA.  HS0AC calls in at 1214z - loud!  Really glad
to hear them on after the catastrophic flooding in Thailand.
With all 4 antennas working and three rotatable for the first time in a year, I
can put the top one on JA at 109' and keep the other 3 on EU (90'/60'/30').
Not much happening for me to JA, but EU is steady with a large % of Russians
calling and some US.  KL2R is a Zone 1 surprise at 1254z, right at his
sunrise.
This happens only near the top of the cycle, and cndx are expected to be good
for a while until the oncoming CME shuts down the bands later.  I am pushing
hard with the limited time I have to make as many q's as possible, but I am
actually having trouble getting the callsigns and entering them into the log. 
This is more than rustiness - this is mental and physical exhaustion taking a
toll at the start of the contest.  A very humbling and frustrating experience.
The first hour ends with 153 q's but I am having a lot of physical and mental
trouble the basics of cw operating.

As the rate picks up into the 13z hour, I am forced to make modifications
already in how I am operating to conserve energy, reduce motion and minimize
thinking.  BD5SO calls in at 1304z for z44 and signals start to get louder. 
The stations are best now on the bottom 2 15's, a combination that I have not
had in a contest for almost a year - those extra 2  S-units of signal with the
correct wave angles from the low vs. the top antennas sure help me keep the
freq. and stoke the rate! JA starts to disappear way too soon (only a few
worked) and although I am not hearing many Russians, there are still enough Eu
callers to keep the rate high. VU2BGS calls in at 1355z capping off a great 181
hour (all CW) followed by &Z1SJ @ 1401z and YC6JRT z 54 @ 1406z as I switch to
15 SSB.

By 1411z, I am literally worn out after barely more than 2 hours of operating. 
I go upstairs to lie down for a few minutes and take some meds with food.

I come back after 10 min and I have a great SSB freq. but very few callers -
all the action is on CW, so after 18 minutes of reduced rate, I am back on 15
CW at 1425z.  RW9C and RN0SA are the first two Asiatic Russians to call me @
1441 and 1443z in a contest where you must work every Asiatic Russians station
that you hear - because they represent at least 12 different zones!  The rates
are steady but not much happening over the pole.  Cndx are not very good and
the qsb is dramatic - already, before the CME hits, I have seen stations go
from S2 to S9 and back again in 30 seconds making a lot of repeats necessary. 
I am trying to time my cq's and "agn" in such a way that I can get the station
to come back while they are on the upswing in signal strength.  Not so easy.

The abbreviated 14z operating hours ends with 123 q's and 15z starts
promisingly enough with a call from a loud TF3DC in Zone 17 at 1501z.  What I
have always found fascinating about Summer contests and propagation is the
seeming importance of grey line signal enhancement at certain times and the
equally baffling irrelevance of it at other times.  

In the Winter months, with lower MUF, often you can count on signal enhancement
just on either side of Grey line - this is especially true if there is a "Double
Grey Line" where one station near or at Sunrise with  the other near or at
Sunset.  Usually in the Winter on the low bands after Sunrise, the station
begins to weaken rapidly in strength and then disappear,
yet often, in the Summer months, this doesn't happen, at least not right away.
This equally true on the high bands after Sunset, when often instead of
stations getting weaker, they actually begin to get stronger after sunset!

This is exactly what happened with Russian stations on after 15z.  As Sunset
was passing through from East to West Russia, signals from Russia began to get
louder and more numerous.  I knew it was time to try 15 SSB again and I moved
at 1526z.  My rate picked up nicely, especially to Russia and Northern Europe
and in addition, some of the Central American HQ stations began to call in: 
YS1YS and TI0RC at 1529z and 1533z, HS0ZCW also at 1533z and TG9AJR and HK3C in
zones 11 and 12 at 1543 and 1545z.  The 15z hour ended with 177 q's and I
excitedly began 16z with LV5V at 1605z in z16 anticipating a big run.  But SSB
fizzled out yet again as CW stayed hot.  I knew that 10 had been open for a
while and I likely had missed most of the DX stations earlier - but I was in no
shape to even attempt 2 radio operation, having more than enough trouble just
using one radio.

At 1636z, and very much exhausted, I decided to do my first sweep of 10, 15 and
20 for mults and picked up 15 quick HQ/Zone mults. before stopping at 1701z. 
16z had 105 q's but I was in no shape to operate anymore.

I ate, took some more med's and then took a much needed nap (after only 4 hours
of operation!).

I got back on at 20z and was disappointed to see that 15 was mostly dead.  It
was clear to me that the CME had already reached us. I found a little "hole" on
20 cw and had a good run which included 4L1UN at 2034z and K0QB in R2 at 2056z. 
There was very little Russian or anything to the North.  The 158 hour in 20z
followed by hours of 157 hour at 21z and 138 at 22z were fun, but mostly
western EU with stateside.  CW was smoking hot while SSB continued to be mostly
being ignored, so I stayed on CW! I got a real chuckle out of that!  By 23z the
signal strengths and activity level continued to drop - now mostly Western EU
and Central/SA.  LU4MHQ gave me a much needed z14 and PY3AU and PY3AU and KL2R
zones 15 and 1.

Remembering that 15 in the Summer with disturbed ionospheric conditions
produces a band that constantly closes and reopens, I left 20 and quickly found
BN0HQ on 15 CW for CTAL and then went to 15 SSB where I worked RT0C in z34 and
DX0HQ in PARA.  I repeatedly called a BY but she never heard me.  Back to 20
SSB for a good run of Western EU and North/South America including 5K3R and
VY2RAC for mults (12 and RAC) followed by LR1A, LR7D and SX0HQ in zone 13 and
RCA and RAAG. 23z was a 119 hour despite my playing DXer on 15.

I began 00z on 20 and was rewarded with A47RS calling in for ROARS, and TF2LL
in z17 before qsying to 40 CW at 0006z.  40 was surprisingly quiet and had very
loud EU signals. I started a solid run immediately and must have timed it just
right as the HQ stations quickly found me as well as a lot of other EU multis. 
00z was 155 q's followed by 99 q's in the 01z as I did lots of DXing on 40 and
80 and picked up 32 mults.  I was surprised that with my pathetic hanging 40
meter wire antenna that RM9A heard me and called in at 0104z from z30.  At
0119z I moved to 80 and had fun being one of only a few non-Eu stations calling
all the EU HQ stations that were lined up nicely over 30 khz.  Following the
rule that "15 WILL REOPEN", I qsy's from 80 to 15 at 0152 and found ZL4PW in
z60 and ZL6HQ (NZART) and then qsy's back to 40 at 0155z to to work the HQ
stations and zone mults PV8ADI (z12), CW5W (z14), J35Z (Z11).

I followed the strategy of run and qsy several times across 40 and 80 in the
02z hour resulting in 135 q's and 17 mults including LU5OM (z14) and several
more hq stations on 40 and 80 before settling into an unexpected EU runon 80
cw. I had hoped that 20 would be open North over the pole at night, but by now
the CME had done its damage and 20 was pretty much shut down.  I found RF9C on
20 cw for zone 30 but that was it.

It was time to try 40 SSB and at 0239 I found a good spot and had a
surprisingly good run with mostly EU at first! At 0256z the last 10 rate on 40
SSB was 318.6 with a good mix of EU. Stateside and Central/South America and I
was having a blast.  This was actually the first time that I was experiencing a
real 40 SSB run since all of EU was allowed into our Phone sub-bands many years
ago.  It was great fun, but I was completely exhausted and it was time to stop
operating and take my meds and go to sleep.  I made a quick qsy back to 80 cw
for 1 hq mult at 0314z to cap 37 q's in 14 min in the 03z hour.

I got up at 10z and was disappointed to see an Auroral Oval of 10 (the highest
reading) and a K of 6.  20 was almost dead and 15 was completely dead.

I made a quick pass through 40 and 80 cw where I picked up ZL6HQ (NZART) at
1006z and HK1MW in z12.  I called B4HQ in z44 on 40 for about 15 minutes but he
never heard me - not even a "?".  Then I ran stateside for a few minutes on 20
cw and called all the EU HQ stations that I could find on 20.  Only 1/2 of them
heard me - some appeared to be "stone deaf".  At 1048z, I called cq again and
tried to run with little effect.  Back to 40 cw at 1100z where I found 9Y4HQ in
TTARS and then back to 20 which just did not want to open to EU.  
My last q was at 1134z - a disappointing end to what had been an amazingly good
start with very good cndx.

When you do a non-serious operation like this was, you get to have a little
more fun than when you are really pushing hard to maximize every mult and q.
I had originally expected to have a 15 meter opening on Sunday in which to get
the HQ stations and zones that I didn't bother with on Saturday.  That was a 
mistake this year and it easily cost me 20 mults.  Ignoring 10 and 20 to stay
on 15 also cost me many easy mults as did the high profile 3-hour off time that
I had to take from 18z - 20z.  The lack of meaningful low band antennas also
hurts, but given my very serious illness, my operating expectations were quite
low this weekend.  

I was VERY pleased and pleasantly surprised to make 1,815 q's and 182 mults in
13 hrs of Unassisted semi-serious significantly impaired operating. And I had a
lot of fun with a much needed distraction from my very serious and painful
medical issues.
   
Thanks for all the q's and mults and enjoy the rest of your Summer!

73
Bob KQ2M

kq2m at kq2m.com

www.rlsfinancialgroup.com
www.kq2m.com


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