[3830] ARRLDX CW W5ZN SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2022

Call: W5ZN
Operator(s): W5ZN
Station: W5ZN

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: AR
Operating Time (hrs): 40

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  126    43
   80:  306    54
   40:  545    75
   20:  550    68
   15:  501    75
   10:   92    25
-------------------
Total: 2120   340  Total Score = 2,162,400

Club: Arkansas DX Association

Comments:

I operated in the Single Op All Band (SOAB) UNassistend category for this
contest. I enjoy maintaining my operator skill rather chasing internet spots.
Nothing wrong with that whatsoever, just not my preference. I really get excited
when I break from running to troll around S&P and find a very nice mult I
most likely would not have nabbed otherwise.

I could have managed 20 meters better and beefed up the Qs on that band but
became captivated by how well the conditions on 15 meters were. The opening did
not sufficiently sustain solid runs to EU however a good general opening was
present to EU/JA/VK/ZL. 10 meters was average with good SA openings. I missed my
100 Q goal on the band by 8 for the same reason I didn’t manage 20 very
well…….blame it on 15!

Friday evening conditions on 160 & 80 were below average. 160 never really
opened and I only managed 21 Q’s. On Saturday evening I was checking 160 off
and on and about an hour before EU sunrise I started to hear some good signals
from the big stations and the sigs started to build. Their sigs were so good I
decided to try a couple of CQ’s and managed a run over the next 45 mins of 105
EU stations with loud sigs from even the 100w stations, very uncommon here in
Arkansas these days. Needless to say, I was extremely pleased with my 160
results. Since 160 was in such good shape, once the run ended I zipped down to
80 expecting similar condx for the remaining EU SR time but it just was not
there. I was able to rack up some additional numbers on 80 but fell about 75
Q’s short of my goal and average for the band when running SOAB.

Overall, I was pleased with my effort. I fell short of my goal of 2500 Q’s and
350 Mults however that is the result of the operator and not the station. I was
very pleased with the station performance and some of the improvements over the
past year.

Band totals were:

Band     QSOs   Cty
1.8       126    43
3.5       306    54
  7       545    75
 14       550    68
 21       501    75
 28        92    25
Total    2120   340

The station performed well. I did not experience any equipment issues in the
shack. On Saturday night I discovered I had noise on the HiZ-8 160 array. The
BSEF-8, YCCC-9 and the Beverages were quite so I had to ditch the Hi-Z. This
wasn’t an issue as I have sufficient back up on RX antennas, it just left me
one option short in the RX arsenal. On Sunday morning during a quick break, I
walked out to the HiZ array which is around 800 ft from the shack and discovered
a critter had caused severe damage attempting to make a meal of the cable
running from the south element back to the combiner. It possibly could have
continued to work, somewhat, however on Thursday we had around 2” of rain and
part of the damaged area was lying in a puddle of water. If this had occurred on
Friday night I would have replaced the cable however since no 160 activity would
occur for the remainder of the contest I left it for repair this week.

Equipment used for this contest:
Elecraft K3S and OM-2500A @ 1500W

Antennas:
160 TX – 5 element parasitic array
80 TX – 4 Square
20/15/10 – 2xJK MidTri @ 70’&40’, M2 KT36XA @ 110’

RX antennas:
HiZ-8 160 meters
BSEF-8 160 & 80 meters
YCCC-9 160/80/40 meters
Beverages NE/SE/W/NW

Thanks to everyone for the Qs and Mults. I look forward to seeing everyone in
July for the IARU HF World Championship!

73 Joel W5ZN


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