[3830] ARRLDX CW K2AX M/2 HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023

Call: K2AX
Operator(s): K2AX AK2S NY3B KE2D
Station: K2AX

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: New Jersey
Operating Time (hrs): 46.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  106    46
   80:  363    70
   40:  767    95
   20: 1094   109
   15: 1353   112
   10: 1527   107
-------------------
Total: 5210   539  Total Score = 8,414,868

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Wow!  Those were the best conditions I’ve seen in any contest.  Maybe not
perfect but just incredible.  We started out Friday night on 20m and 10m.  I
mean who starts a DX contest from NA on 10m 90 minutes after sunset?  Right away
we logged numerous JAs on 10m.  I don’t think we’ve logged a single JA on
10m in all the time I’ve been operating at K2AX before this.  Our 20m total
was down vs 2022 but only because we couldn’t tear ourselves away from 10 and
15.  Our sense was that 20m had slightly less activity because everyone else was
doing what we were; taking advantage of the great conditions on 10 and 15.

 10m was just incredible.  By the end of the day Saturday we had already logged
exactly 1,000 QSOs there.  On Sunday night as things were wrapping up, NY3B ran
JAs on 10m for a little while.  I came back there 20 minutes later and ran them
some more.  I know there isn’t any rational reason to be excited about working
a lot of any one country but we’re usually happy to have a few JA calls in the
log just for the multipliers.  This year we had a total of 289 across all bands.
 That was more than F, G, OK, EA, HA, PA, and SP individually.  In fact, only
DL, I, and UA had QSO totals that exceeded JA.

We managed to keep 40m on par with last year but 160m and 80m were behind.  I
suppose this is due to the higher noise that comes with more solar activity. On
Sunday just after 4 pm EST I was running Europe on 20m with the 5 element
mono-bander pointed northeast.  VK3YE called in with a QRP exchange but was S7! 
It had to be gray line propagation but S7 long path with single digit power was
amazing.

Last year we set a new station record for ARRL CW with just over 6m points.  We
set out to improve on that by getting 7m. When we passed that number a couple
minutes before noon on Sunday it was apparent that 8m was possible.  We managed
to get even a fair bit beyond that.  We’ll always hope to improve but this
score will be a tough one to exceed next year.

As always we’re grateful to K2AX for the use of the great station and for him
and for the hospitality from Mark, Donna, and their family.  KE2D


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