[3830] CQ160 CW N1LN Multi-Op HP

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                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: N1LN
Operator(s): W0UCE N3ND N4CW N1LN
Station: N1LN

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 39

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1331  State/Prov = 59  Countries = 57  Total Score = 478,500

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Once again this year the team included Jack (W0UCE), Dan (N3ND), Bert (N4CW) and
me. CQ 160 CW is a contest that the four of us always look forward to.   The
everyone works everyone format brings out a lot more DX. One assumption we had
was that conditions would allow us to work that DX.  This year was quite
disappointing. As always we started with pretty good rate for the first 6 hours
averaging over 100Qs per hour. The mults were piling up as in the past. We were
even a little ahead of last year, so everything looked good. Then the rate
started to slow some as the state side callers decreased but that DX did not
make up the difference.  By the end of the first night we only had 41 ten point
Qs in the log and were behind last year by 11 mults and 100 Qs. Could it get
worse than that?

Yes, as you have read in other write-ups, Saturday night brought on some
strange QRN. Here it started when I sat down for my 1800 EST (2300 UTC) shift. 
The noise was almost S9 on the beverages and about 10 over on the verticals. It
was not constant as it would be there for 30 to 40 minutes and then gradually
fade away and be gone for varying amounts of time and then come right back. 
Jacks 0300 UTC �" 0400 UTC shift was the worst.  Then finally around 0600
UTC it faded out and stayed gone.  The 10 point Qs started to add up, but with
very few exceptions the signals were way down.  By the end of night two we had
added only 107 more.  

It was not all doom and gloom.  Saturday morning after our sunrise three JAs
called in.  That was very unexpected as up to then we had not even heard a KL7.
On Sunday morning Jack was successful adding KL7 to the log around 1212 UTC that
completed the WAS. Then, for good measure a couple more Canadian provinces were
added (VO1 and VE4) to push the State/Prov mult total ONE above last year. 
Four Provinces �" YT, NWT, LB and NU managed to stay out of our log again
this year.

When it was all over we were almost 200K points behind last year.  Our Q count
was down by more than 200 Qs which was almost the exact difference in 10
pointers dropping from 356 in 2013 to 148 in 2014.  It looks like it was a good
year to be in the north east or south, but not in the mid-Atlantic region.

Thanks for the Qs and hope to work you �" and more �" in the next
one.

73,
Bruce �" N1LN


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