[3830] ARRLDX CW K1ZM SOAB LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K1ZM
Operator(s): K1ZM
Station: K1ZM

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MASS
Operating Time (hrs): 44

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   94    52
   80:  335    69
   40:  872    85
   20:  857    91
   15:  738    88
   10:  855    88
-------------------
Total: 3751   473  Total Score = 5,322,669

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

First - congrats to my friend Dennis W1UE for a terrific score from W1KM.  It
doesn't get much better than this.  In looking at our two scores, I think the
principal difference that I see is that I managed to get alot more out of 10m
this weekend than Dennis did.  More on that later....

Some background....

I had planned on operating from VY2ZM but back to back to back snowstorms in
the Maritimes all but closed PEI.   The snow drifts were 15-18 feet deep in the
capital city and all parking was banned for days on end while they tried to find
a place for the snow.  The bridge to the mainland closed twice, the airport shut
down and I suppose the biggest surprise of the weekend for me was actually
hearing VY2TT on the air!  I guess Ken managed to fly in at some point between
the storms and his station is only a short walk from one of the main roads on
the island.  In my case, with a wife still recovering from a broken leg, I
decided to take a pass and just operate from here in MASS.

Feeling pretty much down, I decided not to get into a 48 hour SLUGFEST with the
big boys in SOAB/HP/SO2R and instead took a page out of N1UR's book with a low
power entry.  Ed has shown multiple times what is possible with low power so I
figured it might be really interesting to try it from a salt water location. 
All the antennas here twice survived hurricane force winds this past month - so
I had no excuses to go single band somewhere as a cop-out.  

I agree with W1UE's comments that low-power definitely gets you places - much
of  my time was spent running (especially on the high bands).  Running on 40
and even on 80 is sometimes possible for short periods - but, before long, no
one comes back to you any more and it is time to do some S & P.

Then there is 160M....this is MORE THAN PAINFUL because on Topband only the
Caribbean and the LOUDEST Europeans can hear you.  I kept listening to W3LPL
and even K5ZD call CQ on Friday night (both with lots of callers) - and in a
weak moment I moved up a bit off of Randy and quickly found out that almost no
one would answer my CQ's.  I copied at least 15-20 multipliers that I could not
touch including 4X4DK, a PY2 and many Europeans like F6HKA, YL2KO and an ER1 who
for a very long time just could not hear me.  In the end, the only thing that
sort of worked was to keep coming back to Topband for short periods and then
leave again as soon as no more loud stations could be found to call.

80M and 40M results on the other hand were actually not all that bad - if you
were persistent and worked to find a decent run frequency and then tried to
hold it for as long as you could.

There have been several comments by others about conditions on 10m.  I figured
correctly that milking 10m for all it was worth was going to be very important
to making a good score and I watched 10m early on.  I probably got there a bit
too early on Saturday morning but stuck it out direct path basically waiting
for the band to get more open.  I was sure I was giving up some RATE on 15m,
but I had a good run frequency and I just stayed there watching signals come
out of the noise until things picked up some 60 minutes after I got there. 
Once it really got going, rates were very good and I ended up the first day
with 472 qso's on 10m.

On Sunday it was even better to Europe followed by great JA's from 2210z until
about 2315z - and I can definitely say that JA's hear a low power station far
better on 10m than they do on 15m or on any of the other bands.

Things get easily forgotten after a contest - but I do recall that from 0300z
until 0830z on Saturday night I did almost no CQ'ing.  It was all done S&P
looking/tuning over and over and over from 160M - 20M - with some really neat
mults showing up at odd times on 20m which were a real plus.  I remember
finding an SV, a 9J, and some Pacific mults that were there for the taking. 
Alot of passing also occurred during this period to bolster my lowband totals -
it all helps in the end....

As I recall, I think I passed N1UR's record score around 1800z on Sunday and
after that it was a race to the end trying to keep the rate up as best I could
- with a lot of tuning to help out on the multiplier count.

Of course I felt like a "basketcase" towards the end - and I know I
am getting a bit long in the tooth for this kind of all band stuff.  When that
happens, I guess there is always mono 160M to look forward to!!

Thanks to all who called in and to those who moved for me. A special thank you
to ES5TV and OH0X for the 160m qso's.

73 JEFF K1ZM


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