[3830] ARRLDX CW N8II SOSB/20 HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: wv
Operating Time (hrs): 8

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:           
   40:           
   20:  714    78
   15:           
   10:  128    52
-------------------
Total:  714    78  Total Score = 167,076

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Time spent on 20 about 6.5 hours, on 10 about 1.5 hours. My employer had plans
for me which was sort of a shame as conditions on 20 were excellent during the
few hours I was able to operate fortunately including some AM EU run time. The
mostly low K index combined with a SFI of 103 is almost perfect for good 20M
condx in Feb.

I started around 0030Z on 20 to find excellent condtions over the pole into
Asia and especially SE Asia our hardest to work area. I spent most of the time
in run mode, the very first CQ was answered by a BA1 with 9V1YC, two E21's,
BV1EH, 2 more Chinese, HL2, and many JA's plus Russians in zones 18 and 19
mainly calling in! SE Asia was loud! Besides loud Caribbean at the start and SA
thru the evening, 6V7S, CS2C?, two big gun OH8's, and several Hawaiians were
worked.

Saturday morning, I got started about 30 minutes after sunrise at 1230Z with an
intense EU pile up for maybe 20 minutes, then by 1340Z or so signals from EU had
weakened and activity really dropped off as everyone was moving "uptown" to 
15 and 10. I could have added some more 20 M Q's with S&P, but instead decided
to probe the 10M waters at 14Z. 10 was very intersting with different areas of
EU in the spotlight at different times. Conditions were unexpectedly good for a
SFI of only 103, especially to northern EU. SP's were fairly plentiful at the
same time DL's just to their west was not. UA1AFT/qrp had a good signal and
also worked RW1, OZ's, several LY's and OH's, YL's, TF3W, ER1DA, and UR5 were
logged. Even the I's were weak at times, but at the end of my stay around 1520Z
I's and the Balkans (9A, S5, E7) were very loud. Most of the common EU countries
were worked.

Sunday morning was the biggest pile up I have ever run from home. There was
some trouble with EU caller to EU caller QRM, but the EU pile up was very
poorly behaved at least by the majority, the "me first" attitude knowingly
calling out of turn only decreases your chances of getting into my log in a
hurry. My rate was only in the 110-130/hr range due to the mess, then finally
around 15Z, I whittled it down to the point where the rate went up to a peak
around 180.

Thanks for the Q's. We are entering a more challenging environment with RBN,
not always a positive thing. I'm glad I'm not in WY or some state really rare
to EU's.


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