[3830] ARRLDX CW N5WR(@K4BP) SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: N5WR
Operator(s): N5WR
Station: K4BP

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: TN
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   32    26
   80:   84    47
   40:  676    87
   20: 1222    97
   15:  992    95
   10:  273    68
-------------------
Total: 3279   420  Total Score = 4,133,490

Club: Tennessee Contest Group

Comments:

Both 15 and 20 meters were open to Asia to start the contest, so I spent the 
first half hour working a few JA stations on 15 and then went to 20. My early
contest rates were not great, but did have a decent opening to JA and UA0, and
also had some nice DX call in including 9V, E21, and ZL. I was pleasantly
surprised to have 9N1II answer my CQ on 20 for an all time new one. I couldn't
really get much of a rate going though so spent a lot of time doing S&P the
first 4 hours.

40 meters finally opened to EU at 04Z. Didn't have a 100+ hour until 06Z. Used
the 2nd radio to pick up multipliers on 80, mostly SA and Caribbean but some EU
stations as well. 40 finally closed to EU around 3:30am local time. It was very
slow going on 80 and 160 until sunrise but did pick up quite a few
multipliers.

The Saturday morning EU run began around 1130Z, 6:30am local time. It was a
fantastic opening on 20 and 15 meters, and somewhat on 10. The rate meter
stayed above 100 for the next 8 hours. I think I stayed on 15 too long because
the opening was so good. It was late morning by the time I tried to run on 10,
and the band seemed to be closing to EU. But I did have a brief run of European
stations, so I made a note to try 10 earlier on the 2nd day. After finishing the
morning on 15, I spent most of the afternoon running on 20 until the band
finally closed to EU around 2130Z.

Saturday late afternoon 15 and later 20 were open to Asia Pacific. It was
mostly S&P for the rest of the day, but did have some brief runs on 20.
Answering my CQ on 20 during the 02Z hour was T88ZO, BY, and many JA and UA0
stations. 

Most of the 2nd night was S&P. These were very slow going, grind it out hours
on the low bands, but was rewarded with a lot of mults on 80 and 160. Jeff
recently installed a new 80 meter vertical and it played well. My plan was to
take a nap after the EU sunrise opening on 40. I had a decent run going then on
40, but signals were weak and I was struggling with sleep deprivation. I was
having a hard type copying longer calls correctly and at times the letters on
the computer didn't make any sense. These brief illusions were somewhat amusing
when I realized what was going on. I laid down around 3am and slept about 3
hours.

When I awoke Sunday morning, I had about 2200 QSOs and my pre-contest goal was
3000. Both 20 and 15 were again wide open to Europe and had my best single hour
of the contest at 13Z on 15 meters with 160 Qs. Went to 10 meters shortly after
that and for about an hour had a good run, the rate was not as high as 15 but
picked up many new multipliers. I noticed on Sunday that I seemed to get more
packet pileups. All of a sudden, I would have a short burst of many callers
right on the same frequency. This happened perhaps half a dozen times on
Sunday. At times it helped my rate, but other times it actually slowed me down.
15 meters finally closed to EU around noon, but 20 meters remained productive
into the last afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised to have E51NJB call in for
my 400th multipler. 

When 20 meters finally closed to Europe, I went to 15 meters and spent the
final 2 hours of the contest with a CQ on 15 meters and 2nd radio on 10. Worked
many JA stations during this time, including many QRP stations answering my CQ,
and also YB8EL called in for a multiplier. It was great to hear Asia Pacific on
10 meters in the final hour of the contest. Last multipliers worked on 10 were
JA, UA0, and finally VK2.

I missed CQWW so I cannot compare, but for me conditions in this contest were
the best I have experienced in a long time, with openings on all bands
including great openings on 10 meters. My thanks to all the DX stations who
made this such a great contest. And especially thanks to my host Jeff K4BP for
letting me operate his wonderful station.

73, Erik N5WR


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