[3830] ARRLDX SSB DH8BQA SOSB/10 HP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: DH8BQA
Operator(s): DH8BQA
Station: DH8BQA

Class: SOSB/10 HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs   Mults
--------------------
  160:             
   80:   (2)    (2)
   40:  (16)   (10)
   20:  (56)   (25)
   15: (122)   (30)
   10:    23     11
--------------------
Total:    23     11  Total Score = 759

Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Comments:

RIG: Elecraft K3, PA + 6 ele G0KSC Yagi @ 60 ft.

Hmm, that's not been a good one. Got to the station Friday evening to find out
the amp would not work anymore. No output anymore besides the tube producing
heat and voltages as well as current were it should be. Took amp apart,
suspected the output relay but that was okay. Checked all wiring, everything
fine. Hmmm ... some emails in the middle of the night with the supplier (Thanks
Tibi, great customer service!) suggested a problem with the pi-filter. Nothing
found during the night so frustrated to bed.

Got up in the morning, tried a few QSOs on low power on 40 m but despite real
59 signals could not raise much. Put my head back into the PA to finally find a
bad solder joint. Re-soldered it and et voila, back in business and happy.

After loosing the first night I decided to go single band. 10 m was quite
nicely open Saturday morning to the east with good sigs from JA and KH2 (worked
with 100 watts when amp still broken on first call in SSB) so that was the band
of choice. Just had to wait until the afternoon and the US opening, right?

Oh well, as good as propagation was in the morning so bad it was later on. Some
Aurora condx up north killed propagation in north-eastern Germany completely,
never saw the band opening to the US. What a shame ...

So only 6 QSOs on Saturday, all via "skewed path" beaming South America,
probably some F2 scatter. All sigs down in the noise only and really hard
work.

Sunday was a bit better. Still no direct opening and sigs only on scatter to SA
but a few more QSOs possible. Almost all QSOs were beaming to 250° from here.
Just AD4Z and N8PR (both in Florida) produced some nice 57 signals for about 30
minutes but still on scatter to the Carib (270°) instead of direct path. Yes, I
checked that antenna and rotator still show into the same direction. ;-))

It took me ages to raise some of the QSOs despite 52 signals. Really wonder if
people run 10's of kilowatts (rather unlikely I hope) or really have that bad
receivers. My K3 sure shined again on that matter ...

In total I had no more than 2 hours of scatter propagation with QSOs over the 2
day period! A real pitty as the band was in quite good shape the week before
with even some nice west coast signals on my small 3 ele remote station
antenna.

As I started the first few QSOs with 100 watts I kept my exchange at 59 100
during the whole contest not to confuse the guys I worked on several bands with
different exchanges (handed out a few QSOs here and there out of frustration,
hi) even though I was QRV with HP later on again.

Keeping fingers crossed for better propagation in 2 weeks during Russian DX and
WPX SSB in 3 weeks.

Vy 73, Olli - DH8BQA
http://www.dh8bqa.de


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