[NCC] ARRLDX SSB KL8DX SOSB/20 HP

[Phil KL8DX]

                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: KL8DX
Operator(s): KL8DX
Station: KL8DX

Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: AK
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:
   80:
   40:
   20:  335    37
   15:
   10:
-------------------
Total:  335    37  Total Score = 37,185

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Wow, what extremes!  Saturday was nothing but rough. Solar wind was well 
over
790 km/s and the bands were less than poor. Enter Sunday! I heard some 
signals
early in the morning but mostly west coast. And by late morning, the
propagation
returned and after lunch, 20 meters was HOT! Standing room only.

During the slow times, I had a few minutes to chat and especially enjoyed a
few
minutes with Bruce, N0KIS and Allen, N5XZ. Comic relief was provided by W2NQ
later on! Thanks, John! Sure made the slow times less painful! Best audio 
from
my end would be given to W7BJN. I worked several QRP stations from the west
coast. K8EB was QRP and working the contest from his deck with a local temp
there of 45 degrees. I also worked several mobiles as far east as Montana! 
Some
good sounding mobile set-ups out there!

Sunday AM, I enjoyed a pipeline to MT! I worked several MT stations but 
never
did
work into WY. I did not work into 1 land at all!!! Other states missed; NJ, 
SC,
LA, MS, WV, ND, and SD. As far as Canada, I only worked into BC & AB missing 
the
rest.  I did hear ON, but was never able to work em.

My noise was quiet until Sunday at 1920z. I had some local QRN start and it
remained with me for the duration of the contest. If I missed a station or 
two,
sorry! With my NB in, the local noise along with some very strong adjacent
stations, I am sure I missed a few.

Heard several YL's on the band which was great! The last hour was probably 
the
most exciting. I hit a rate of 169 Q's per hour during that last full hour 
of
the contest. It was still not enough to remotely get close to AL1G. Congrats 
to
Corliss for an outstanding job on 20!! I was excited to finally work WT8C 
back
in my home state, too!
The only Alaska station I heard on 20 was KL7OU, Debbie. She always had 
several
people calling her. Great job, Debbie!

In summary, SSB contests are my least favorite but the activity on Sunday 
sure
made it fun! I am looking forward to the return of propagation to the 10 and 
15
meter bands! I did hear some stations on 15 but I decided to stay put on 20
since the activity on 15 was mostly from Hawaii.

I had several JA's try to work me as they thought we were AK and not DX. 
When I
gave my power, many then realized AK was DX in this one.

Thanks for the contacts!

73,
Phil
KL8DX