[3830] SAC CW LN3Z(LA6YEA) SOAB HP

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                    Scandinavian Activity Contest, CW

Call: LN3Z
Operator(s): LA6YEA
Station: LA3Z

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   80:  300    35
   40:  541    48
   20:  651    59
   15:  427    55
   10:   45    29
-------------------
Total: 1964   226  Total Score = 1,040,956

Club: LA Contest Club

Comments:

This year's edition of the SAC cw was taken very on the fly, without any
preparation. I've been off the air since last November and only priority
housing. It was therefore necessary to wipe the dust off the equipment, not to
mention checking the antennas and equipment was ok. I was afraid I would turn
up rusty decoding quick enough after months off radio.

The night before the contest, I got tabs on software etc on dusty computers and
radio equipment. The time was 0400 in the morning local time until everything
was clear, and in typical style. I participated relatively exhausted ready to
start 1200 UTC Saturday.

New this year is the NTC in SAC. (National Team Contesting) and I would like to
meet the wishes of the organizers to deliver video and audio from the shack.
Therefore, the night before used to track these things, so that one could
follow the activity on this website:
http://cqcontest.net/groups/nationteams.php

On the website I saw that I kept up with the best OH and SM, and when we had
passed 12 hours in the chair, I was still not far behind. OH2BH and SJ2W was
slightly ahead of me but it was also expected. Was really surprised that they
were not further ahead of me.

At 0200 UTC, it was as if someone hit me in the head with a hammer. I could not
focus on the radio, and I thought it would be a good investment with a
"power nap" so I would be able to achieve a maximum when I would be
more busy. It had probably also been smart idea if I had followed the plan, but
so was spoiled. Woke at 0600 UTC with the alarm clock in hand. 4 hours off
time!!

Thought at first only to drop out of the contest, but thought that the team
needed my points in the team competition. Checked the website and it was as I
feared ... LN3Z was far down on the score board. It had obviously been a great
opening to North America on 40m, which I had missed ..... Furious at myself, I
decided to continue anyway.

It soon became clear that the 10m band was more or less dead. This is
relatively normal at our latitudes, but especially when conditions are such it
is a very important band to get used to the maximum. It is always possible to
obtain multipliers, and I was in desperate need of something that gave me
advantages to rise my score.

I was bothered by a noise that covered the entire CW portion of 10m. It was
completely impossible to hear anything with the noise present. It would prove
to be something that bothered not only me, but at least everyone in south
Norway. 10m was in this state for several hours, and it was just a waste of
time to be on 10m. Very depressing to not hear anything there. Maybe a kind of
radarsystem noise ??

Since 10m was impossible, was the most 15/20m towards the end of the test. Put
me one aim to clear 1 million points, to have something to work towards. It is
relatively impossible about an hour before the end.

Suddenly disappeared noise on 10m. I could hear something there. Some came in
with the killer signals. During the last 45 minutes I got 15 multipliers of
10m, and it really helps the score when each multiplier is worth as much as 9
QSOs.

Incredible running North America at 10m under these conditions, and the noise
was in the roof with me when I was called up by KC1XX and VE3EJ towards the end
of the test. Were you as surprised as me? It is like this that makes contesting
fun.

After all, I am overall pleased with the contest. What would have happened if I
had not fallen asleep is impossible to say, but I have certainly learned for
next time. It will never happen again that I "just" going to take a
powernap. Claimed scores are only a few points below the Norwegian record in
SOAB cw, but I can only blame myself :-)

By the way, it was fun to follow the development of scores on the NTC website.
Hope to participate in the same way next year. Congrats to Finland again!

LA6YEA


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