[3830] ARRLDX CW N6GQ(@K6IDX) SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: N6GQ
Operator(s): N6GQ
Station: K6IDX

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 30

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:   37    26
   40:  357    72
   20:  728    87
   15:  472    82
   10:  207    57
-------------------
Total: 1803   324  Total Score = 1,750,572

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

I had planned to do a single-band 20M effort, and just about sunset on the first
night - WHAMMO! Out goes the power. It was off for a while which allowed me to
think through my plans and consider other options. That, combined with the
coronal hole solar wind storm, and my incessant need to play with all the fun
propagation ended up turning this into a very casual "little more than" part
time SO1R effort. I slept full nights both nights, which explains why the Q's
are low on 40/80, and didn't have a 160 antenna on the air.  

Around 2200z on Saturday it was obvious *something* was happening. 10 and 15M
were wide open to Northern EU with most all signals at least S9, many in the
S9+20-30dB range. That was a great deal of fun while it lasted. It was later
followed by very strong auroral flutter with anything near the pole. While
signals were strong for a while, they were covered in massive auroral flutter.
Then the inevitable came - almost complete polar path shutdown. 40 and 80M were
very poor on the polar paths, a real bummer from the left coast.

Sunday picked up, thankfully. Conditions weren't fantastic but better than the
evening before.

The "Gigantic" signal award goes to RV1AW, who was peaking S9+40+dB (IC7800,
preamp OFF) on Saturday morning on 15M.

Thanks to all the worldwide ops that made this a fun one, and special thanks to
Brad, K6IDX, for allowing me to come up at a moment's notice to play radio in
paradise. His 20+dB hilltop QTH is nothing short of magical.

Rig: IC7800, Alpha 87A
Antennas: 
10: 4L SteppIR
15: 4L SteppIR
20: 4L SteppIR + 6L M2
40: 3L fullsize
80: 1/2 of a 4-square 
160: N/A


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