[3830] ARRLDX CW K1LT SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K1LT
Operator(s): K1LT
Station: K1LT

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Ohio EM89ps
Operating Time (hrs): 38
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  110    49
   80:  187    61
   40:  257    80
   20:  583    88
   15:  782    86
   10:  390    77
-------------------
Total: 2309   441  Total Score = 3,042,900

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

My only goal this year was to beat last year.  A very minor secondary
goal was to note additional requirements for my "distributed antenna
switch" project and test some last minute software changes.

The first night was slower than last year.  Started on 15 meters which
was quickly depleted followed by 20 which was also rapidly "used up".
40 meters was 53 kHz of S&P delight followed by a few minutes of
running.  80 meters provided 49 kHz of S&P and even fewer minutes of
running.  160 provided 20 kHz of S&P and a nice early evening run,
suggesting a return of the conditions from the early part of the
season that were missing in January.  Stayed on 160 until 0520Z and
then went back to 80 and ran 60 Qs in 40 minutes.  Rotated the low
bands until almost 0800Z and decided to sleep for 4 hours.

Returned to the low bands at 1200Z which was too late for 160 but
found some nice east Asia and Oceania multipliers on 80 and 40.  The
JAs on 80 were very numerous and loud, but they couldn't hear me at
all.  40 provided new band-countries HS, T88 (thanks, Hal!), JT, and
KH2.

Made on pass of 20 for the easy S&P (scan and pounce, since everyone
is new) but found a hole at 14012 and stayed to run for about 45
minutes.  Then moved to 15 to run.  Found a hole at 21003.6 and stayed
there for 160 minutes and worked 456 stations.  For whatever reason
(maybe because I passed 1000 Qs), I moved to 10 after that and worked
a few surprisingly strong southern and western Europeans.  10 was
obviously not fully open, but the signals that were present were loud.

I had to take a lunch break which included some housekeeping and
parenting.  After the break, I couldn't keep any fast runs going At
one point, I got a nice run started on 20 meters, but a series of snow
squalls came by and the corona static just obliterated most of my
callers.  I could S&P for the strong stations, which were plenty, but
the best rate time was missed.  I spent the rest of the afternoon and
evening doing ordinary S&P with some meek runs here and there.

By 0600Z I was very tired, so I decided to take a 3 hour nap and come
back at 0900Z to try to catch the remaining easy Caribbean and KH6 and
KL7 type multipliers on the low bands.  I put all the equipment to
"sleep" (basically dark but running) and plopped down on the sofa-bed
in the room adjacent to the shack.  (Being close to the shack helps
with the motivation to get up when the alarm sounds too soon.)

However, Mr. Murphy had other plans.  About 30 minutes after falling
asleep, the power went off and all of the UPSs started beeping and
whining.  Although power failures are fairly frequent at my location,
none have been particularly disruptive during contest season.  (The
long power failures are all associated with weather events, such as
ice storms or the remnants of Hurricane Ike).  But standard procedure
is to shut down all of the equipment attached to the UPSs, and that
process takes about 15 minutes.  Furthermore, I was thoroughly groggy
from the interrupted sleep.  After turning everything off so that the
house was truly dark, I went back to the sofa-bed but could not sleep
in a restful manner.  Instead I entered that mode where reality and
dreams mix in a bizarre manner that seems to make time pass even
though you feel awake.  97 minutes later the power came back which
woke me up again.  At this point, 0900Z seemed crazy and my motivation
was very low, so I canceled the 0900Z alarm and reset for 1130Z (3
hours away).

At 1130Z, it took about 45 minutes to get the station powered up and
the contesting configuration re-established.  (Dealing with incomplete
antenna switching software doesn't help at this point.)  I worked a
few more "way west" multipliers, a few stations on 20, and then went
to 10 meters.  At 1310Z, 10 was showing some signs of life with
numerous fresh multipliers all over western Europe.  I S&P'd for about
30 minutes and found a hole at 28041 and stayed.  This run (punctuated
by parenting) lasted until 1449Z when I had to stop to push the child
out the door to go with her grandmother to church.  When I returned to
the shack after 15 minutes or so, I picked up the run on a nearby
frequency.  The Sunday 10 meter rates came nowhere close to the 15
meter rates of Saturday but the multiplier count was very helpful.
The run lasted until about 1610Z.

At this point I had 200 fewer QSOs and more multipliers than last
year, so it was clear that I could beat last year's score.  Time for
new goals: 3 million points.

Around 1700Z I started a very nice 170 QSO run on 15 which lasted a
little over an hour.  Then I went to 20 and worked the same guys
again.  During this run I passed last year's QSO count, and the
multiplier count and score had already been annihilated.

I made my 3 million point goal during the last 30 minutes as I
scrambled to find last minute QSOs to get past the next multiple of
100 count.  I was also scrambling to try to get 2.5% past 3 million
for the inevitable scoring reduction.

If you're still with me so far, thanks for listening to one man's "how
to be a contestor" learning experience.  When I look at what the top
guys can do (5000 Qs in 48 hours!), I'm just in awe of their stamina.

Equipment and DX worked in the next post (or on request, if you're
really that interested).  I put this stuff in these reports mostly for
my own performance tracking.

PS: I screwed around with SO2R a bit, but Writelog was being flakey
and the main radio was keeping me pretty busy.


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