[3830] ARRLDX CW N8II SOAB HP

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ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: West Virginia
Operating Time (hrs): 24.7

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   26    23
   80:  115    50
   40:  230    69
   20:  742    90
   15:  922    87
   10:  173    61
-------------------
Total: 2208   380  Total Score = 2,517,120

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Despite some good run success (RBN = instant callers), the RBN chasers and
crowding + line noise made for a mentally exhausting weekend at times. I need
to try and relax and enjoy it more rather than pushing for the max while I am
on the air. 
The high bands sounded pretty normal at the start despite a waning solar storm
(one after the other before the test). I logged a few JA's and AH2R on 15 at
the start and 20 M was great until I ran out of stations to pounce around
0130Z. I worked a passel of RT0's in zone 18 and 19, BY,D4,HS,YB, DP1POL,
northern EU until about 0040Z, and virtually all of the Caribbean/SA was
extremely loud. Moving to 40 was not so great, only basically southern EU and
less activity than you would expect near the contest start. 160 was very weak
to EU and even down a bit to the south and 80 was weaker than normal big guns
mostly in south EU without much from any small station readable, no big sunrise
peak and 40 was almost dead towards EU by 05Z with booming KH6's. 
The next morning started off well enough with a nice EU run on 20 which
extended into western Asiatic Russia by about 1215Z and then opened over the
pole being called by UN,YB,HS, and VK6 all while beaming around 35 degrees. I
felt no need to move up to 15 until just past 13Z where I would guess the
Russians were just starting to come thru. I chose 21012 which is not a spot for
the faint of runners. I was squeezed a bit tight by a W2 on one side and
eventually W5RU on the other and there were times when our pile ups overlapped
at bit, watch out for NIL's! And there was the usual clusterteer issue of
having no clue that if you are calling exactly zero beat to 3-6 other stations,
you are not going to get through very fast unless you are very loud. Please use
your XIT! Just 50-80 Hz off is usually good enough. And you are fatiguing the
poor guy trying to make sense of the roaring din! Also everyone seems to push
their send button at the same time, then listens at the same time, not smart! I
held up a decent rate until 1715 when I really felt the need for a break.
Earlier, I took bathroom break, worked 10 for a few minutes and still was able
to run right around the same spot on 15. 10 was very marginal to the Med area
Saturday. 

Starting around 16Z until a long break at 2215Z, I had bad line noise enough to
miss stations off the beam and make for a lot of repeats while running weak
EU's, so I bagged it for a while to enjoy only the 2nd really warm day since
Jan 1. Temp was in mid 60's F and downtown Shepherdstown was full of people and
dogs just enjoying the day, even some bare skin present. It was also a hit with
our dog and the XYL. Then my 87 y/o mom invited us in for dinner, another 2-1/4
hours off until 0035Z. 40 was in great shape to EU Saturday evening, but the
rather high MUF sucked the life out of 80 and 160 towards EU, only finding weak
big guns on 80 mostly already logged and almost none on 160. However, both bands
were in good shape to the south and I made the best of that. 6Y1D and TI5W were
booming in on top band around 04Z and YV1KK running 100W could easily pass for
a KW. I started to call HC2AO sending only "N8" before I realized a
dupe, he replied "N8II FB sig, 73"; how about that!!! We have worked
in every test this season on 160, 4 times.

Sunday I got back my contest legs, some nice mults on 40 and 80, good EU run on
20 including many Russians and then less crowding higher in the band on 15 and
also less roaring hoards of callers, it was actually pretty fun. Prop on 15 was
pretty close to perfect. Things were starting to get slow on 15 at 1535Z, so I
decided to check 10 again. The first signal heard was UW5Y and 1 minute later
N8II was running moderate to loud strength signals at a high rate all over
Europe including UA6, UA2F, many OU/OZ, OH, SM, LY, YL and most everything to
their south and west. The British Isles were fairly marginal. What fun, even
weak signals were crystal clear! The run ended about 1625, but I mopped up Med
area stations including 4O3A for another 15 minutes. 10 closed very early to
the south by 21Z, I thought my antenna went bad as quiet as it was, but A3, V6,
KH6, and ZL were still coming through. Every attempt at running on 40 was met by
the EU RBN lid crowd, really bad Sunday evening with more than a couple of
constant callers, but I worked it down until I worked them out, so the puny 230
Q's on 40 took the most operator effort when running. I also found ET7 on
Saturday PM for a new band country.
So considering all of the off time, some to regain my mental faculty and
refresh to keep going, the results were decent, pretty decent mult for me on
160, 80, and 40 considering the condx. On 10, I only made 33 Q's on Saturday;
thank goodness for the EU run! Sorry for not singing my call very often during
the RBN mayhem, will try to improve that. And sorry for those who had a long
wait; remember, zero beat is not always the way to go. Thanks for the Q's and
see you again from "rare" WV next contest.

73, Jeff


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