[3830] ARRL 10 N3UM SO CW HP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: N3UM
Operator(s): N3UM
Station: N3UM

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 18.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  568    83
  SSB:           
-------------------
Total:  568    83  Total Score = 188,576

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

My 12th time doing ARRL 10 m, starting in 2000, and my 
2nd-best score since 2003 back when sunspots were plentiful. 
With SFI at or near 100 this year, there was no way I could better 
my score of last year, when SFI was 145 and I made more 
than twice as many QSOs and worked more than three times 
as many DX mults.  But, my score was 12% above that of 2010 
when the SFI was "only" 87.  

In the very first hour of the contest, roughly half of my 72 
QSOs were LOS to MD, DC, and 6 contiguous states, BUT I also 
worked 12 other states, as far away as TX, NE, SD, and FL: clearly 
sporadic E.  There was a strong "spotlight" effect: of my 34 skip 
QSOs in that first hour, 11 were in MN and 8 in WI!  

Sat. and Sun. mornings were a big disappointment: computer 
propagation predictions said that with SFI=100 I'd see only 
an hour or two of EU signals from a few countries, but in fact it 
was only a QSO or two with EU each morning in a grand total 
of 3 EU countries, compared with 4 AF mults and 7 SA mults. 
Pitiful.  No problem finding mults in every other corner of the world: 
a 3W, 3 JA, 4 CX, 5 ZS, 6 each ZL, PY,  and LU, and 7 XE states.  Missed 
only VT, SC, WY, and ND in the US: AK and HI were easy.  I got good rates 
both afternoons 19-21 Z pointing NW, SW, and S.  Many CA, AZ, and WA QSOs.


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