[3830] DL-DX RTTY VA7ST SOAB-24 HP

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                    DL-DX RTTY Contest

Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST

Class: SOAB-24 HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 12.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   Mults
-------------------------
   80:    1     5     2
   40:   46   460    25
   20:  180  1975    48
   15:   31   440    20
   10:                 
-------------------------
Total:  258  2880    95  Total Score = 273,600

Club: Orca DX and Contest Club

Comments:

* FT-2000 and SB-221
* N1MM Logger + MMTTY
* 3 ele. SteppIR at 27'
* 40M  -- SteppIR dipole at 27'
* 80M  -- twin vertical array E-W

To quote Paul WN6K, "I worked hard for this West Coast effort."

The bands were lousy almost throughout the contest period, no doubt thanks to
buffeting CMEs and a steady diet of C-class flaring throughout. In fact, until
10:30 p.m. Saturday night (0530z) I only had half a dozen European Qs in the
log, as the polar path was simply locked shut until then. 

I am far enough north that the mix of conditions we had really killed any
chance of being competitive -- without access to Europe, there's no hope. It
was disheartening to see the big numbers being handed out by people from
further east, and those a little further south, who don't have to cut through
the dense heart of the auroral oval for all those juicy EU mults and 20-point
DL contacts (of which I had precisely 6 all weekend).

But what fun it was to land a bunch of new multipliers as the wee hours
arrived, with wonderful and surprising 15M openings to Europe as we approached
the end. I spent the final four hours happily working 20M and then 15M as the
bands popped in and out over the pole.

Until those surprise openings, I had no hope of getting anywhere near previous
scores. But I forced myself to stick with it, and ended up with more mults than
ever before, and finished not too far short my best-ever score from 2010. Close
enough that I am quite happy with the result. Put in 12 hours in 2010, and 12.5
hours this year though it seemed much longer. This was a lot of very hard work
from the west coast!

Thanks to all for the contacts, and special thanks to:

*  9M6XRO for the welcome mults on 20M and 40M in the very deepest part 
   of the night here
*  YV5AAX for calling in when I least expected Qs from South America
*  JA8EIU for the double-mult first JA on 40M with less than 2 hours remaining
*  VK3FM for a super surprise double-mult on 20M late at night
*  VA7KO for VE7 on three bands -- what a tough challenge we had from BC. 
   Was good to hear you Koji.

May flux stay high for IARU, but without the blackouts. See you on the bands
next weekend!

-- Bud VA7ST

Ended up with: 
 5-pointers     16
10-pointers    172
15-pointers     64 
20-pointers      6

Year  Qs  Mult Score
------------------------------
2012 258   95  273,600 HP 24hr SFI=158 A=10 K=2
2011 197   80  174,000 HP 24hr SFI= 86 A= 6 K=2
2010 275   91  299,845 HP 24hr SFI= 72 A= 8 K=1
2009 124   55   75,350 HP  6hr SFI= 67 A= 1 K=1
2008  77   28   21,980 HP  6hr SFI= 65 A=11 K=1
2007 278   75  215,625 HP 24hr SFI= 71 A= 4 K=1>2
2006  77   29   27,405 LP  6hr 
2005  55   29   18,995 LP  6hr
2004  83   41   37,105 LP 12hr


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