[CCF] SAC CW OH2BH(OH6KZP) SOAB HP

[Kim Östman]

Välillä melkoista "tahkoamista" kelien puolesta, meinasi usko mennä!

73
Kim


-----Original Message-----

                    Scandinavian Activity Contest, CW

Call: OH2BH
Operator(s): OH6KZP
Station: OH2BH

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Pusula
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   80:  337    50
   40:  606    62
   20:  658    67
   15:  215    56
   10:   45    30
-------------------
Total: 1861   265  Total Score = 1,092,065

Club: Contest Club Finland

Comments:

This SAC CW marked the first contest after a lot of work done to re-populate one of the antenna towers at the station, so it was a cause for celebration. Somehow the DX conditions apparently missed the party invitation, as there was no RSVP nor party crashing...! 

Due to moving cities for a new job, moving furniture and cleaning the old apartment, etc., I hadn't had a single day of rest since the beginning of August. So I was rather worried about how I would hold up in a 24h race. Things went smoothly at first, but when rates slowed down to <30 QSO/h in the middle of the night the fatigue began to really kick in. Somehow I managed to still stay awake, although I did forget I was in the middle of a QSO a couple of times :) The race on the cqcontest.net live scoreboard was great fun once again, thanks in particular to Per SM2LIY @SJ2W and Toni OH2UA @OH8X for a cool battle!

The solar cycle seems to be going downhill fast, and the disturbed geomagnetic conditions didn't help either. When looking at the claimed scores and comparing to other years, it shows in the QSO totals and will likely show a bit in the number of submitted logs too. Fortunately Sunday morning/afternoon saved 15m and especially 10m, with the final two hours resulting in 34 multipliers mostly on those two bands. Tried to work the two radios hard throughout the contest, which also resulted in some happy multiplier moves. 

I used the DXLog.net logging software for the first time, which was a bit of a risk since I hadn't really had any practice with it before Friday night. However, since it's a Win-Test clone it was quick to set up and learn. My reason for trying DXLog.net is that I feel it has a better implementation of some SO2R features than WT, and I was very happy about this trial. I also recorded the contest using DXLog.net's inbuilt recorder, and will place the audio on the web; in case you want to listen to what you sounded like in aurora-ridden Scandinavia, see http://www.kimostman.fi/radio/contest.html

Many thanks again to Martti OH2BH and Leena OH2BE for use of the fine station and cottage. Special thanks to Pertti OH2PM for inviting me over for a relaxing
post-contest sauna, discussion, and meal, and a 30-minute nap before driving all the way home! And thank you all for being on the air in SAC, it is much appreciated.

Kim OH6KZP