ARRL contest observations

[00pmbarkey at leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu]

I was the 20 meter operator at K3LR during the ARRL DX contest
last weekend.  Here are some notes and reactions:

First, the ARRL is a *lot* different from the CQ WW.  There is just
no comparison in the level of activity.  I thought that the level of
participation from JA and the former Soviet republics was way down.
There was almost no Africa at all.  This was very evident on Sunday
afternoon -- bands were open, but no new QSOs to be found.

Soapbox comment:  Couldn't the ARRL do something about this?
Is support for contests now politically incorrect?  A couple of
suggestions are obvious:  (a) allow points from DX-peditions to be
counted towards club scores, and (b) publicize the contest (and
possible new awards as incentives) with DX clubs and ARRL-ish groups.
Maybe point (b) is already being done, I dunno.

Back to the contest ...

We had a different operating setup on 20 than W3LPL.  I was pretty much
the operator.  Tim, K3LR, spelled me for a few hours each night for sleep. 
That was pretty much the way it was on all bands -- a one-guy show (six
different guys, of course).

My general comment about the whole weekend was how *weak* signals were.
The only signals I ever remember being over S9 (on a 781 with the preamp
on) were a couple of ZL's late Saturday night.  When the band is really
open, usually it is full of key clicks and trash Europe, but this
weekend it was clean as a whistle.  Not a good sign.

Pretty much copied signals that were completely in the mud the whole
weekend long, especially in the afternoons.  Nothing too unusual about
that -- but I don't think I could have run half the stations that I did
using Tim's antennas (5/5/5 at 170/110/50) if I was at my old house (single
5 el at 130).  I just couldn't have heard them.

I did "notice" the long path opening Sunday morning, but I don't think we
really profitted much by it.  It was nice to figure out that SU2MT was
coming in LP, so that it went from a huge ugly pile SP to in-and-out on LP.
But parking the high beam WSW and calling CQ didn't get any answers at
all, and I didn't hear any LP stuff that we hadn't already worked.
Still, it was a neat opening.

We really didn't have any glitches that we can point to as costing us
QSOs -- we just came up about 100 contacts short of the top US scores,
that's all.  In years past, I think that we could have made that up
with JA's and Asiatic Russians, but they just weren't there for this
contest.  Not this year, maybe not for a lot of years.

We will just have to keep trying, I guess, and hope that the right
propagation will come around to make us more competitive.

   -- Pat
      WA8YVR

>From Bill H Parry <bill at tenet.edu>  Tue Feb 22 02:27:55 1994
From: Bill H Parry <bill at tenet.edu> (Bill H Parry)
Date: Mon, 21 Feb 1994 20:27:55 -0600 (CST)
Subject: 6D2X ARRL DX CONTEST RESULTS
Message-ID: <Pine.3.03.9402212055.A19677-b100000 at gaston.tenet.edu>

                   ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST  1994


      Call: 6D2X                     Country: MEXICO 
      Mode: CW                       Category: Multi Two

      BAND     QSO    QSO PTS    STATES/PROV


      160      386     1158          54
       80      853     2559          59
       40     1842     5526          60
       20     1853     5559          60
       15     1689     5067          58
       10     1030     3090          58
     -----------------------------------

     Totals   7653    22959         349  =   8,012,691



All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.

Operator List:_N5RZ, WN4KKN, K5TSQ, W5VX


Equipment Description:
ICOM 781/ALPHA 87/KT43XA/2 ELE 40 CUSHCRAFT/INVERTED VEE 80/160
KENWOOD TS940/ALPHA 78/4 ELE CUSHCRAFT TRIBANDER/DIPOLE 40/80

Club Affiliation: Grupo DX Pan Americano

We were a little disappointed with the conditions on the low bands.
If you called us on 160 and we didn't hear you, we are sorry but we
had lots of noise. Most of the contacts on 10 were scatter. The 
conditions were good enough for a new record (our goal), the old record 
was 6.6 meg.

We will be going for more of the same in the SSB weekend but we will
be multi-multi. Thanks for the qsos. If you happen to want a qsl card,
send them to K5TSQ with SASE.

Bill, W5VX