[3830] ARRLDX CW K3EL SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K3EL
Operator(s): K3EL
Station: K3EL

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Princeton, NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 39

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   42    27
   80:  347    57
   40:  656    83
   20:  872    95
   15:  737    85
   10:  674    80
-------------------
Total: 3328   427  Total Score = 4,252,920

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Goals this year were to beat last year's QSO and points totals, both of which
were achieved. I expected be slightly down on multipliers (and this was indeed
the case) because I intended to run more and S&P less. 

Spent the frigid afternoon of the President's Day holiday stringing a wire
director for 40 m in  the trees next to my Steppir (which has a rotary folded
dipole element on 40) to try and improve the signal towards EU for the contest.
No other major changes to the station in the last two years. Looking at my QSO
totals compared to previous years, I made 8 % more QSOs on 40 m than last year,
compared to a 5.5 % increase in Qs overall. However, both years I spent the
first hour of the contest running on 40 m, and this year the QSO total during
that hour was way down. Mixed messages, and not enough to make a convincing
case for the impact or effectiveness of the beam on 40 m. I went to bed at
around 0800 UTC Saturday, at which time I was 45 QSOs behind 2014's total. 80 m
had been particularly effective - so much for improving the 40 m antenna!
However, the high bands runs to EU later on Saturday were long and fast, and
within a couple of hours the QSO total was higher than in 2014 and it kept on
moving ahead for the rest of the day.   

I tried a slightly different sleep strategy on Saturday night, taking a nap for
around 90 min in the late evening (typically very slow times), then operating
until 0800 UTC, followed by another few hours sleep. The 07 hour this year
produced nearly the same number of Qs as the 02 and 03 hours combined last
year, so the goal of getting another hour sleep without sacrificing Qs was
achieved. 

Significant snow accumulations and icing on Saturday night / Sunday morning
shifted the resonance of all the antennas but the Steppir is easily retuned,
and the amp was happy enough to tune up into the wire antennas despite the
increased SWR. I didn't have to look outside to observe the melt later in the
day; return of the SWR curves to normal told me that the ice was gone. 

As usual, thanks to my XYL for providing refreshments at the radio!

K3/Acom 2000a
Steppir @ 42' - 3 ele 10-20 M and dipole 40 m (with fixed wire director for 40
m towards EU), 80 m delta loop, 160 m inv-L
K9AY and shared apex loop RX antennas
N1MM logger+


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