[3830] CQWW SSB K3EST(@N6RO) M/M HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2019

Call: K3EST
Operator(s): K3EST N6GD N6RO N6WM NA6O WX5S
Station: N6RO

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   33    12       19
   80:  147    18       39
   40:  888    31       78
   20:  490    30      104
   15:  167    23       60
   10:   54     9       12
------------------------------
Total: 1779   123      312  Total Score = 1,938,795

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

Thanks to all the FB operators who helped with the score under extremely
difficult propagation and Mother Nature/Murphy challenges. Thanks to Ken, N6RO
for his hospitality and Sat night Chili!

We did our best to keep going until the Sun finish.

160m:N6RO: Both nights:  weak propagation, extreme rapid QSB, many CAR
stations spotted but never heard.  Called several SA with no
result; only KH6 to the west, no usual KL7, UA0, VK, ZL.  Did manage D4, EA8.

80m: WX5S: Cndx on 80m were terrible.  It was a lot more like working 160m...
Some stations were hunted for many hours just waiting for things to go from
impossible to barely possible. Getting JT5DX was a highlight!  Couldn't work a
VP2, but I got the JT! First JA was JA3YBK...he called with a solid 54 signal
and Oh...NO!  Strength was way,way below normal, but A of 29 explains a lot! 
When noise hit really bad on night 2, couldn't even copy YBK. Lots of Caribbean
stations were almost impossible to work. Of course no EU at all.  I did get the
CN Not as bad as a root canal, but things were trending that direction!

40: K3EST: Conditions to Europe were almost non-existent. Only 9 QSOs with Eu in
5 DXCC! JA and VK were good the first night but the second night was very poor.
Heard 15 Eu DXCC on LP Sat morning with NO QSOs. The second day LP was much
worse. The evening LP was able to work zones 17 and 18. Thank you JA/VK for all
the QSOs.

20: N6WM: 20 was a mixed bag.  Friday was slower than expected, and the band
closed a lot earlier than we had hoped. Saturday presented a fair opening to EU
that put a lot of mults in the log, but was not able to establish a good EU
run..  Saturday afternoon runs however was productive, producing the usual Asia
mults, some volume and some EU mults not worked in the usual morning EU opening.
Sunday was rough, went into backyard to observe a fire less than a mile away,
and receiving evacuation orders.  We were lucky these orders were lifted a short
time later and the fire extinguished.  The winds however persisted, causing
static making it difficult to work stations, despite an eventful opening to EU.
All this drama probably resulted in a little loss of QSO volume, but was quite
happy with the mult count I was able to produce.  Our 10/15m op had to go home
to tend to tree damage.. so I also proceeded to work the 20 and 15m (open to
some EU/AF) morning openings SO2R unexpectedly. Wind and static persisted at the
station throughout the day, N6R0 picked up 10 and 15 in the afternoon allowing
me to resume razor focus on 20.. 

15/10m: NA6O, N6GD N6RO: made a respectable number of contacts on 10 & 15. 
Paths to South America on 10 were working most of the day, but very few stations
were on the band.  Hawaii was loud on both 10 & 15; I only heard one station
from Japan on 10, but couldn't raise him.  Likewise, we were very loud into
Australia on 15 in the evening, but very few stations were on the air at either
end of the path! We had to reset DAX five times when the audio connection from
N1MM+ to the radio failed.  We are eagerly awaiting the ability to use smartSDR
again; the Maestro interface is soooooo darn frustrating.Lots of harmonic QRM
from 40 and 20 into the 10 and 15 stations, but it was manageable as long as the
40 and 20 stations stayed high in their bands.

How bad can it get?
Mother Nature
1. It is the solar minimum however...
1. Solar condx were terrible: A was between 29-17 all weekend.
2. SFI at 64? Wow
3. Winds reached near hurricane force early Sun morning evening
4. A fire started near N6RO QTH. We could see the smoke and fire in the sky.
5. An emergency evacuation was called for Oakley area which included RO! We
decided we would continue to operate.
6. Power flickered off on Sunday morn causing computers to reset.
7. Long periods of time on Sunday morning (3am--5am) During JA run time on 40/80
wind static caused high QRN. On 40 the K3 noise blanker helped but could hear
only strong Asian sigs > than S6,  80m was rendered useless...First time
noticed the K3 pan adapter went from green noise to red noise on the waterfall.
This was first time we saw that wind static = same as rain/snow static!
8. Absorption was bad on low band towards Europe: 40m never heard anyone in zone
14 except 1 F and Iberian peninsula. No euros heard on 80, 15, and 10. 20m = no
runs to Europe almost all S&P.
9. By 8 AM Sun the wind was up to 40mph, and unable to turn most of the stack
antennas - only the low 20 prop pitch would work.
10. Our Sunday 15 op arrived only to find out a tree fell near his
home and so he QSYed back home.
11. On Sunday the 20m op went home to operate remotely about 3 PM only to find
power off at his house, so he returned to K3EST(N6RO) to finish 20m.

Murphy 
1. Problems with 40m the first night. K3 would change bands when 80 xmited. NA6O
solved the problem on Sat morning.
2. There were a few computer and Flex crashes on Saturday, then the wind
started about 1 AM Sunday.


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