[3830] ARRLDX CW AE0EE SOAB LP

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ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: AE0EE
Operator(s): AE0EE
Station: AE0EE

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: MN
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:    9     8
   80:   26    18
   40:   46    32
   20:   97    57
   15:   48    32
   10:    5     4
-------------------
Total:  231   151  Total Score = 104,643

Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn

Comments:

100 W, dipoles up 20-30', all keyed on a Vibroplex bug.

The bands seemed to be in okay shape.  It wasn't so good as to give me much
opportunity to run effectively, but I was able to get in a few logs here and
there.

Friday night's goal was to simply make QSOs where I could: my 80/160 antenna is
better for domestic use than DX, and I've found 40 m frustrating in the opening
hours as a low power station.  However, in such circumstances I find it useful
to stay just under the maximum usable frequency, and I had a productive time
(albeit a slow one) on 20 m.  Even around 0430z, I heard RI1ANC on 20 meters,
though the contact didn't go through.  

Saturday morning I was up before dawn, and 160 m promptly netted KL and KH6 in
short order, followed up minutes later with QSOs on 80 m with the same
stations.   It's always reassuring to get through quickly when there's no
pileup.  Then it was time to head up to the high bands to work stations where
the pileups were thinner.  By the evening, the bands were in good shape.  With
thinner pileups and a low noise floor, I went in search of stations on 160 m,
trying to increase both the multiplier count and my overall DXCC total on the
band.  I had mixed success finding---and getting through---to stations before
they were spotted.

Around 1 AM local Sunday morning, I went to 20 meters to see what was going on.
 Three big 3-land stations were calling CQ into the void, but I was surprised to
hear the band open even that much.  As I spun around, I heard a south pacific
station calling CQ, just above the noise floor.  Usually that would be game
over, but I tried anyway and got through very quickly.  I suspect it helped
that they were a low-power station so signal strengths were more likely to be
equal.

Sunday morning the bands were lively to Europe, and both 20 m and 15 m had good
action.  Even 10 meters was open as I finished my operation at 1600z.

The weather really came through for me this weekend: my antennas are tuned for
bare ground, and during the winter, the snow detuned them (especially the
80/160 m antenna).  However, with the string of record-warm temperatures, the
snow is all gone, and I was back to 1.2:1 SWR at 1820 kHz without a tuner.

I think this is the first contest where I've had a six-band sweep with another
station (KH6).  I missed a KL station by one band (10 m).  One new entity made
its way into my worked list: KG4.  I also picked up a lot of new band slots. 
Working 8 entities on 160 m in a weekend is a first for me, and I wish a few
more had heard me.  Overall I worked 69 DXCC entities (plus one KH6 who forgot
the /W4).

Murphy generally stayed away this weekend.  I've had some issues with the
connections in my iambic paddle that haven't been fixed yet, so I opted to just
use the bug for the whole contest---it was fun.  There was one other place
Murphy struck: the computer sound card.  I had enabled recording for most of
the QSOs, and was looking forward to hearing the barely-there contact.  When I
went to play it, I didn't hear anything.  I turned up the speakers, still
nothing.  Then I remembered that I had turned off microphone input last week. 
All of my "recordings" are dead.  I'm don't think having the line-in
and microphone inputs muted by the same button makes any sense, but in
Microsoft world it's a feature.

Compared with two years ago (last time I participated) QSOs are down by 50% and
mults by 25%.  The difference both of those statistics is almost entirely due to
the difference in 15 and 10 meters.  I added a few more entities on 160 m at the
expense of a few on 80 m, but combined the low bands are right on where they had
been.  Next time I might need to see about a better transmit antenna for the low
bands.


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