[3830] ARRLDX SSB K1TO SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: K1TO
Operator(s): K1TO
Station: K1TO

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: FL
Operating Time (hrs): 25.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   14    13
   80:   64    43
   40:  357    76
   20:  618    89
   15:  687    92
   10:  596    77
-------------------
Total: 2336   390  Total Score = 2,733,120

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

Very interesting to read some DX comments about Saturday being better than 
Sunday.  It was very clear here that the first half of the contest was 
suffering badly.  The 2 most clear examples were the complete lack of EU on 20

in the pre-dawn hours and the poor JA openings (only 36 JAs total).

Sunday AM on 15M, a loud buzzing noise (not auroral down here) landed on top of
me.  After a minute, it didn't stop and I tuned around, realizing that it was
oozing wider and up the band, slowly covering everything from 21390-21440. 
What was that?!

Overall, I spent 10+ hours in S&P mode and only about 15 hours running.  

Still no SO2R on SSB here.  It sure gets tedious listening to your own CQ.  I
had a new-to-me voice keyer that sounded fine off the air, but had a buzz in
the sent messages once on the air that caused me to "send by mouth" more than
expected. 

My new-to-me Alpha 87A is the first auto-tune amp I've had and it sure does 
make band changing simpler.  I'll get into the 21st century yet.   

"The Is have it."  This was the first time I can remember Italy being my most 
worked country.  F was the most common country on 40, I on 20, DL on 15 and G
on 10.

On CW, with the world-wide Skimmers, it takes no time at all to get a run
going.  On SSB, we are still reliant on humans to post a spot since a
decreasing number of operators bother to touch the big knob on the front of the
radio.  

Heard *many* making QSOs below 7127.5 and above 14347.5 and 21447.5.  Not good.
 Kudos to N0AX for highlighting this in a recent ARRL Contest Update.  2.5 from
the band edge is the limit!  

I heard a rumor that a European op was purposely deleting contacts from his log
if he had not received a QSL from them, thereby creating a "NIL" with a penalty
for the other op in CQWW.  I sure hope this is random.  I'm behind on my bureau
QSL answers, but was pleased that several ops mentioned having my card in their
shack and were happy to say hello again.  I try to stay current on LOTW and
eQSL, although even there, I'm about a year behind now.  

Ending on an up note, I was pleasantly surprised to not run into any deliberate
QRM all weekend.  I don't recall any SSTV noise around 14230!   
  
As always, one of the big highlights is saying hello to old & new friends. 
It's so much easier to convey that excitement on SSB than on CW.  

vy 73, Dan, K1TO


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