[3830] ARRL 10 W6YX(N7MH) SO Mixed Unlimited HP

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                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2022

Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX

Class: SO Mixed Unlimited HP
QTH: Stanford
Operating Time (hrs): 22:40
OpMode: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW: 1123   115
  SSB:  990   101
-------------------
Total: 2113   216  Total Score = 1,397,952

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

I thought I would miss all of Friday evening due to a family dinner with
visiting relatives but managed to start the contest and operate for an hour and
10 minutes before leaving for home. After dinner I checked RBN and realized I
was missing a good Es opening so excused myself and returned to the shack after
an off-time of almost 3 hours.

After working the mults I could hear from the CW bandmap I tried switching to
Phone to work mults there, but the headset microphone wasn't working and I'd
forgotten to bring my spare headset. I could transmit with previously recorded
messages using the K3 DVR which would have worked for S&P but the recorded
exchanges were for Field Day. So no SSB QSOs on Friday evening. Activity beyond
AZ and CO was gone by 0530 and at 0600 I quit for the evening with 240 Qs and 37
mults on CW.

When I arrived back at the shack at 1430 (with my second headset) there were
already a few signals showing on the P3. The loudest signals were from the
Caribbean, north South America and Florida but took multiple calls to finally be
heard over other callers further east or in Europe.

I heard a European station and rotated the Yagi to determine the strongest beam
heading, which ended up around 150 degrees. Four EU (9A, S5, two HA) were worked
between 1449 and 1453 beaming this skew path. Later I worked a few more western
EU, first beaming toward the east and later yet almost direct path to the
northeast.

I finally made my first SSB Qs after 1600. No EU worked on SSB on Saturday as I
was mostly focusing on rate and trying to get domestic mults. Late in the 2100
hour I got a call from home and had to take off an hour and a half including the
entire 2200 hour, which was a 170 Q hour on Sunday. When I returned the band was
open to Asia which lasted until the early part of the 0100 hour. At 0200 there
were only 3 or 4 signals on the band, all of which I'd worked so I went home
where I periodically checked the W6YX skimmer but of the handful of spotted
callsigns only one hadn't already been worked.

I arrived at the shack earlier on Sunday and worked AZ before 1400 then FL was
worked just after 1400 with several other FL and GA heard that I'd already
worked. Within 15 minutes the spotlight had grown to include NC and VA.
Propagation was either direct or skewed slightly to the south. A handful of EU
were worked around 1500 including EA and CT on SSB.

The rest of the day alternated between trying to work spotted mults on both CW
and SSB and attempting to run on either mode. I was able to use the second radio
to S&P when beaming the US with both radios as there was minimal
interference but when beaming other directions there were either clicks or phase
noise that prevented hearing weaker signals.

At 2320 the lights in the shack dimmed and I had to remove my headset as an
extremely loud buzz was being generated by the SO2R box. Pete, K6TJ, was also at
the shack and observed that the meters showing voltage coming into the shack
were hovering around 80 volts. I turned off the radios and amps, saved my log
and quickly emailed it to myself before shutting off the desktop computer which,
with the monitor, ran OK on 80V.

A HV breaker about a half mile away had tripped that needed to be reset by
PG&E, which they did after Pete called them on Monday. This is the second
time this happened to me in the 10m contest. I just reread my report from 2018
when I missed the last 2 hours as the voltage dropped to 55V.

I got WAS on CW, missed 3 (NM, ID, WY) on SSB, worked DC both modes. Missed LB,
NU and YT on both modes; missed NF on CW, PE and NWT on SSB.

73,
-Mike, N7MH


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