[3830] ARRLDX SSB VE4VT(VE4EAR) SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: VE4VT
Operator(s): VE4EAR
Station: VE4VT

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    0     0
   80:   21    17
   40:   62    40
   20:  241    82
   15:  143    57
   10:   85    25
-------------------
Total:  552   221  Total Score = 364,650

Club: 

Comments:

I shouldn't complain since this was a part time effort, boy man, those were the
worst DX contest conditions I have seen since 2007. 

Put a serious effort into Friday night but once 15 and 20 died, 40m was useless
to anything other than South  America and the Caribbean. I could hear the east
coast working Europe and The folks in Ontario and east didn't seem to have a
problem working Europe. From here the signals were unusually weak. Add to that
and the snow static from from a raging blizzard and it was tough sledding. 80m
was nothing more than raging noise and struggling to work a few NA and SA
stations. I tried several times to move to 160m for some of the Caribbean
stations but I could just not break the pileups. Sorry guys I tried!


Saturday morning seemed like 20m would open to Europe and several signals
appeared as usual at sunrise with the promise of strong flutter free signals.
Then it was if someone flipped a switch and all the signals on 20m from EU
dropped 20 dB. Signals from the south  were just fine. On 15m I was able to
detect some EU but at about a 45-60 degree skew. 

With significant family obligations to keep me out of the chair, I was kind of
glad to not put in a full time effort. Every time I popped into the shack it
was the same thing. Great signals north and South, very poor east and west.

Even the afternoon opening to Asia was very weak here. I could hear station in
the Northwest Territories and AK working plenty of stations so I don't think it
was just Aurora.

Sunday morning was probably better than Saturday for 15m to EU. It must have
been since I missed the prime time and when I finally got on at 1730z, I did
manage to work a couple EU powerhouses on 15m without the skew.   

I am sure the folks east of the Mississippi and further south had a great
weekend of radio, not so here. 

Time to start the debate all over again on scoring these DX contests and
removing the significant advantage enjoyed by the folks in the north east.

On to BERU next week where civility and friendliness returns to the bands.

73
Ed


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