[3830] ARRL 10 KT4XA(@NV4B) M/S LP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2022

Call: KT4XA
Operator(s): NV4B K4CNY
Station: NV4B

Class: M/S LP
QTH: AL
Operating Time (hrs): 28:18

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  767   125
  SSB:  270   101
-------------------
Total: 1037   226  Total Score = 815,408

Club: Alabama Contest Group

Comments:

Comments by NV4B:

There ain't no meters like 10 Meters.

This weekend was a veritable propagation smorgasbord:  sporadic-E, F2,
backscatter, meteor scatter, TEP, you name it.  Friday night seemed like a
replay of 2020's massive sporadic-E opening to the northeast, midwest, and
finally west with some double-hop.

Saturday and Sunday brought the predicted F2 openings to EU, although with 100
watts and a half-wave vertical, our signal into EU wasn't decent until awhile
after sunrise.  By then, not much mutual daylight remained, but we capitalized
on the openings as best we could, even managing a couple of short CW runs. 
Later in the day both days, F2 was incredibly strong to the West Coast with such
massive signals that I was even hearing myself via backscatter.  Said
backscatter was a major contributor to an unprecedented feat for me:  working
10m CW WAS in a single weekend.  WY and NM were holdouts, but we eventually got
a touch of Es in that direction Sunday afternoon, and they became easy to work. 
We missed quite a few states on SSB, mostly close-in, but the real surprise was
missing Texas.  Several TX stations were heard via backscatter for most of the
weekend, but our signal was not strong enough for a Q.  We very often have Es to
Texas from north Alabama, but that was the one path that didn't seem to be there
in this contest.

A handful of JAs made it into the log during the brief evening openings, the
most notable being JA7OWD on SSB who had an S9+ signal at one point.

By 2330Z on Saturday and Sunday night, about an hour after sunset, the band was
completely dead, and we went QRT.  It's fortunate for us there wasn't an opening
Saturday night as we had thunderstorms and had to completely disconnect. 
Weather was not a factor on Sunday.

One notable difference in this contest that seems to be a trend across all
contests as of late is the apparent decline in SSB activity.  The massive SSB
rates I got in 2020 did not materialize in this one, and activity overall seemed
lower than in previous years.  Amazingly, and thankfully, CW activity seems to
be steady if not increasing a bit.

We have been using diversity receive all throughout contest season with a KK5JY
Loop on Ground, but since signals on it tend to be weak on 10 meters, I switched
the receive antenna to a horizontal wire antenna for this contest, and it worked
very well.  Although it's rare for a signal to be audible on the receive antenna
and not the transmit antenna, QSB is virtually eliminated with this
arrangement.

In the end, we ended up a score beyond our wildest dreams and our first ever
1,000+ QSO effort, either as a multi-op or individually.  A special mention here
to our friend John Laney, K4BAI, who by complete coincidence was our QSO #1,000.


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