[CCF] WPX SSB OG8X(@OH8X) M/2 HP

[Toni Lindén]

                   CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: OG8X
Operator(s): OH1TV, OH1WZ, OH2BH, OH2UA, OH4JFN, OH6KN, OH6UM, OH8NC
Station: OH8X

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Radio Arcala
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
 160:  187
  80:  636
  40: 1756
  20: 2904
  15:   80
  10:    0
------------
Total: 5563  Prefixes = 1411  Total Score = 18,558,883

Club: Contest Club Finland

Comments:

REGARDS FROM THE FAR NORTH

The latest Arcala Extremes team happening was scheduled to coincide with
another WPX contest - this time the SSB part - not only to oil the Arcala team
spirit but even more to test out a variety of parts built for the mammoth
racing machine. And it all served well to meet and even exceed all our
objectives set for the exercise. Granted, we came nowhere near maximum
performance but we did enjoy the  great camaraderie of the team and the social
aspects of such an annual gathering. This meant testing many of the desired
features designed to boost amateur radio contesting as an interesting
competitive endeavor both internally and, even more important, with a view to
the spectator audience. The underlying aim was to pursue our overall mission of
pushing competitive amateur radio to new heights.

By the same token, WPX provided a test case to see whether competing from
Europe's worst propagation zone continues to provide a motivation for the team
to do well with the local circumstances in mind. No doubt 2009 will be
remembered as such a milestone for many years to come.

Typically, the scenario for running 20/15M volumes from the South while the
bands were gone in the North did not happen in usual fashion.  But in a way
this benefited the North. Those bands were so poor in the South that their
competitive edge narrowed to a minimum and this helped the South/North playing
field to even out while the South's low-band advantage was reduced somewhat by
the tons of hardware that we had fully operational on the low bands.

As for the final outcome, our 18.5 million M2 score is comparable to the
South's performance, thus giving us further incentive to hone our skills and
our station for the days when we will have enough propagation to truly compete
with the South in conditions of increased sunspot activity. That is, if those
sunspots ever appear, at least during the time frame set for the Radio Arcala
project.

It was great fun when the team's multiple skills played together well and
further enhanced the readiness of Arcala Extremes to fight and to enjoy Mother
Nature in  a balanced way, faced with the endless tundra that characterizes
Arcala's Arctic landscape. Indeed, from the windows of the Arcala ham shack you
could see nothing but snow - a conspicuous feature associated with the
aspirations and the livelihood of the people of the Far North.

So the team returned to their own igloos and started to look forward to the
upcoming Spring and the Summer season's 24 hours of daylight which will
effectively kill what is left of low-band propagation. The Spring will also
mean interesting times for the team since they plan to be present at all major
ham gatherings, i.e. Visalia, CA; Dayton, OH; Friedrichshafen, Germany and
Halifax, Canada.


See you there, guys - and thank you for your interest in Arcala Extremes.
The world's most northerly Contesting alliance.


www.radioarcala.com


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