[3830] ARRLDX SSB PI4TUE M/S HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: PI4TUE
Operator(s): ON9CC PA3FGA PA5MW PA5YL PC5A PD5AX
Station: PI4TUE

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Eindhoven
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    8     5
   80:  102    26
   40:  309    45
   20:  581    54
   15:  889    59
   10: 1284    60
-------------------
Total: 3173   249  Total Score = 2,368,737

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:

* Yes we did it! *

After 12 years in our final attempt PI4TUE was able to set a new personal all
time high record for the ARRL DX SSB contest.

In 2002 two Op's Jons-PA9JB and Aurelio-PA3EZL (now PC5A)set a score (S/Q/M):
1.8M/2653/223 (score/Q's/M's). Back then they fished 10M empty on day1
(1125Q's) and 15M on day2 (746). In the hours before and after those bands
opened/closed they made some Q's on 20/40/80. Both nights they even slept 6
hours which means a total operating time of 36 hours; they used just one
transceiver... 
Last year the same team as this year got close to breaking that record: 1.7M
points, 2436Q's and a new record of 237M's. Were we ever going to break the
number of Q's or the score of 2002...?

Our Achilles heel has always been 40mtrs where we use a dipole and vertical.
Due to bad weather we were again not able to get our newly acquired 3 EL 40M
Yagi (40MDY3 from EAntenna) up and running. We had hoped to make big steps on
40M for this years ARRL contests; it wasn't meant to be... 

So we put our money on the improvements we did inside the shack: having a
second in-band transceiver to work everything that appeared in the available
window of N1MM. We had Athena running on a separate PC that was showing us the
hourly comparison with 2002. Despite some very good runs on Saturday evening
(187, 195 and 160 Q's per hour) we could not get a clear lead, but we still had
the whole night ahead of us where the two guys in 2002 slept for 6 hours. The
night did not bring too many QSO's (48 Q's in 6 hours... like on VHF). Just
before 20mtr opened on Sunday morning the forecast was not good. Athena however
showed we were well in the lead on multipliers, pretty much since a few hours
after the start. No doubt this was due to not sleeping during the nights and
working all those mults on the 2nd transceiver. The score was still pretty
close though, no significant lead. Combined with the help of propagation,
second transceiver and the dedication of the team it took us until 20Z on
Sunday evening when we broke the QSO record: 2736Q's. Victory! 15M was still
open and Aurelio worked another 154 the following hour until 21Z. The final
hours we spent on 20M which was still wide open. When the dust settled just
after 00:00Z Monday morning we looked at each other a smiled, big time :-). Yes
we finally did it! A personal all time multiple QSO, Multiplier and Score record
in ARRL SSB. We were proud wearing our 59(9) 400 T-shirts...

Some pics taken during this memorable weekend:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29325747@N03/sets/72157641826372994/

To conclude some statistics:
- 4 stations worked on 6 bands: K3LR, KB1H, W3LPL, WE3C
- 40 5-band QSO's
- State with highest QSO count worked: PA (226Q's)
- Clean US states sweep on 10m & 15m
- State with fewest QSO's: NWT (1Q)
- Highest hourly rate: 192 in hour 20 on Saturday by Frank-ON9CC

2x Orion (interlocked by DL5SE-design slightly modified + 2x 6-band 5B4AGN
TXBPF
+ 1xPA)
28OWA6
3 EL SteppIR
40M dipole
80M hor loop
160M vertical sloping down
(all antenna's at about 65M / 213FT) above ground level

On behalf of ESRAC Contest Team
-- Aurelio, PC5A


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/