[3830] ARRLDX SSB KQ2M SOAB HP
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Thu Mar 23 23:50:16 EDT 2023
ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 31
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 4 4
80: 49 25
40: 291 64
20: 741 79
15: 1236 94
10: 1441 93
-------------------
Total: 3762 359 Total Score = 4,048,443
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Comments:
I have been averaging 4 1/2 hours sleep per night during the work week for about
the past month; and for me that is disqualifying for a serious SO effort.
Instead, I relaxed Friday night - spending time with my XYL and drinking
homemade frozen strawberry margaritas. I didn't turn on the radios until 10:30
Z Saturday.
CNDX were mediocre at best but improved rapidly. 10 M was open and that changed
the entire dynamic. I had a decent run on 20 despite the absence of almost
anything North. Then the band opening switch went to ON, the noise changed on
20 and EU disappeared; replaced by the occasional YB or JA. ( 20 was
disappointing to say the least! ) 15 sprang to life for an explosive run until
the band opening switch flipped to " standby ", again, the band noise
changed and 10 absolutely exploded! Just WOW!
My best 60 min hour was ~ 273 but there was a lot of spotlight propagation on 10
- it wasn't a FULL band opening until much later long after the rate had
dropped. Then I made a mistake - I thought that 10 had petered out after the
third dip and went to 15 where I mostly struggled; while unbeknownst to me 10
had reopened and stayed open - I eventually figured it out after struggling with
20 and 15 again for 2 hours. Thankfully I did not repeat this mistake on
Sunday!
Not many mults this year and 40, 80, 160 turned out to have the best propagation
on Friday night ( which I missed ). But the frozen margaritas tasted GOOD ! So
I didn't feel too bad since I wasn't trying very hard and I didn't use the 2nd
radio until late Sunday and only to work maybe 20 stations.
Propagation turned out to be quite a bit better than I expected even with the X2
flare Friday afternoon and the FOUR separate M Class flares during the contest.
A reminder of the difference between SFI of 120 last year and 180 this year!
EU stayed in on 10 until 2030z ! and the band got quiet for only 30 min before
it was possible to run JA. I had a brief but intense EU run on
40 and then it was time to run some 10 M SSB JA's for the first time in
8 years with even a few YB and other Asian stations calling in. I followed that
with a shorter JA run on 15 and then, since I was in "low-effort "
contest mode, it was time for one frozen margarita and more quality time with my
XYL. I stayed up until EU sunrise, and went back down to the shack and had a
brief EU run on 80 and then 40 and realized that cndx were mostly poor on the
low bands - especially 160. About 07z I went qrt and got 2 hours of sleep.
I had noticed that 20 never closed and a few EU stations remained LOUD between
02z and 09z but EU was NOT runnable and after you worked the 5 loud guys there
was nothing else, except a few VK / ZL and SA stations.
40 and 80 had remained open until at least 07z with loud signals but EU was not
runnable for me and the loud guys were almost all dupes.
I was back in the shack at 0930z Sunday where I quickly realized that it was too
early for 20 and 40 and 80 did not have many mults for me, nor could I find VK,
ZL or KH6. JA's on 40 were a bit louder than usual and with less flutter I
could copy them and they could copy me but the mults that I needed were clearly
on other bands.
20 started well on Sunday with the deeper Russians and Central Asians audible
with tremendous arctic flutter but then, after a huge burst, quickly petered out
as they fled to 15, which had a great opening at the start and then got bombed
by another M class flare. 10 opened late and grudgingly but after a few hours
continued to improve (there was another M class flare!) and then became REALLY
good around 1430z.
>From that point, it was stay on 10 as long as you can, go to 15 when necessary
and then back to 10 LOL! I had a multi-hour battle with overpowering
microsleeps (made much worse by the heavily sedating heart medicine that I have
to take) - I don't know how many times I fell asleep and awoke to a quiet
passband - missing an exchange or part of a callsign.
One microsleep was so fast that I remember starting to write down the call and
awakening to hear the end of the call and wondering who it was that just called
me? There wasn't even a warning that I was about to fall asleep, nor did I have
any awareness of any noise in my headphones. I just awoke, and was a bit
confused as to what to do. I hate these microsleeps as they are unavoidable,
cost me many qsos and I have not found any way to fight them off. This went on
for several hours on Sunday on 15 and then 20. The 20 meter re-opening occurred
late on Sunday but was fun right up until about 2200z when I tried 40. That was
just plain silly. No room for me on 40 and back to 15 and 10 where I worked
many of the CA / SA mults that I had ignored earlier in the contest when I was
running EU. There were huge numbers of them on 10 but I could not make up the
huge mult deficit that remained until the end on 40 - 160 and which I missed on
Friday night. I caught a late JA / Asia / Pacific opening on 10 and then went
to 15 where it was better than 10 and ended the contest with
3,759 x 359 = 4,048,443 in 31 hours.
Had I operated Friday night and into the 40 - 42 hour range, my score would have
been a lot more interesting; likely into the mid-high 5 meg
range+. Maybe next year when cndx are better :-)
Having missed most of the operating for the first few years of Cycle 24
due to severe illnesses, I am making a point to enjoy the opening years
of cycle 25, and I really do like what I see!
I hope to do some station significant station improvements this Summer -
including fixing the top 15 and 20 meter antennas that were badly
damaged in the monster January 2019 ice storm. Maybe even put in
electronic switching of antennas, radios, etc. I'm tired of switching
everything manually like I have been for the past 28 years at this qth!
Kudos to Manu, AC1NU, for a terrific job at the K1LZ superstation and several of
the Caribbean multiops that are being staffed by several fabulous young ops!
Tnx for the qso's and CU in WPXSSB!
73
Bob. KQ2M
kq2m at kq2m.com
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults KQ2M ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 ..... ..... ..... ..... 1/1 ..... 1/1 1/1
1 . . . . . . . 1/1
2 . . . . . . . 1/1
3 . . . . . . . 1/1
4 . . . . . . . 1/1
5 . . . . . . . 1/1
6 . . . . . . . 1/1
7 . . . . . . . 1/1
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 1/1
9 . . . . . . . 1/1
10 . . . 23/17 1/1 . 24/18 25/19
11 . . . 88/16 94/30 . 182/46 207/65
12 . . . . 128/13 88/25 216/38 423/103
13 . . . . . 246/21 246/21 669/124
14 . . . . . 164/8 164/8 833/132
15 . . . . . 169/7 169/7 1002/139
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 106/2 106/2 1108/141
17 . . . . 169/9 6/1 175/10 1283/151
18 . . . . 147/5 . 147/5 1430/156
19 . . . . 44/3 93/2 137/5 1567/161
20 . . . 99/9 73/3 . 172/12 1739/173
21 . . . 147/11 . . 147/11 1886/184
22 . . 144/33 5/0 . 9/1 158/34 2044/218
23 . . . . 12/4 80/6 92/10 2136/228
0 ..... 7/6 6/6 9/7 28/6 ..... 50/25 2186/253
1 . . . . . . . 2186/253
2 . . . . . . . 2186/253
3 . . . . . . . 2186/253
4 3/3 24/10 24/6 . . . 51/19 2237/272
5 . 11/2 53/5 5/2 . . 69/9 2306/281
6 1/1 4/4 56/10 . . . 61/15 2367/296
7 . 2/2 1/1 4/1 . . 7/4 2374/300
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 2374/300
9 . . 2/1 . . . 2/1 2376/301
10 . 1/1 5/2 124/7 . . 130/10 2506/311
11 . . . 10/0 138/3 . 148/3 2654/314
12 . . . . 121/2 1/1 122/3 2776/317
13 . . . . 39/1 39/2 78/3 2854/320
14 . . . . 91/4 15/1 106/5 2960/325
15 . . . . . 102/2 102/2 3062/327
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 104/4 104/4 3166/331
17 . . . . . 119/3 119/3 3285/334
18 . . . . 18/1 63/1 81/2 3366/336
19 . . . 30/3 73/0 . 103/3 3469/339
20 . . . 133/3 3/1 . 136/4 3605/343
21 . . . 48/1 4/2 12/4 64/7 3669/350
22 . . . 16/2 11/4 7/2 34/8 3703/358
23 . . . . 41/1 18/0 59/1 3762/359
DAY1 ..... ..... 144/33 362/53 669/69 961/73 ..... 2136/228
DAY2 4/4 49/25 147/31 379/26 567/25 480/20 . 1626/131
TOT 4/4 49/25 291/64 741/79 1236/94 1441/93 . 3762/359
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr KQ2M ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Single
Operator
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