[SCCC] ARRL DX SSB - E51YNB
Jeff Hall
w6ux at ymail.com
Mon Mar 5 08:10:42 PST 2012
Great job, Wayne! You did REALLY well and your setup was working fine business!
-Jeff
________________________________
From: Wayne Overbeck <overbeck6 at yahoo.com>
To: sccc at contesting.com
Sent: Monday, March 5, 2012 2:35 AM
Subject: [SCCC] ARRL DX SSB - E51YNB
ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: E51YNB
Operator(s): N6NB
Station: E51YNB
Class: SOSB/15 HP
QTH: Rarotonga, S.Cook Is
Operating Time (hrs): 11
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 1442 58
10:
-------------------
Total: 1442 58 Total Score = 250,560
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
This was my first real DXpedition ever--unless
you count operating in Mexico about 15 miles
from the U.S. border in 1983. After 55 years
on the air, this was overdue.
Carrie (W6TAI) and I went to Rarotonga in the
South Cook Islands mainly for a vacation, but we
took along an IC-7000, a small THP amplifier and
a 2-element Yagi for 15 meters. The antenna and
a 15' mast were broken into short pieces to fit
in a 30" rolling duffel bag. We stayed at the
same motel where the E51Z group operated CQ WW
SSB last fall and benefited greatly from their
experiences on the island.
I obtained the E51YNB license as a member of
the E51Z team but decided to reschedule my trip
because Carrie couldn't go then due to work
commitments. We chose travel dates that included
part of the ARRL SSB DX Contest weekend even though
we knew we couldn't be there for the full contest.
There's only one flight each week from Rarotonga
to the United States--and it's on Saturday night.
We couldn't stay an extra week and the only other
way to get back would have involved flying south
to New Zealand and then backtracking past
Rarotonga to the US (a 4,000-mile detour). Carrie
opted to concentrate on hiking and bicycling instead
of getting an E51 license, so I was in the single
operator, single band category, operating a total
of 11 hours Friday afternoon and Saturday before
packing up to catch the plane.
I was astonished by what I heard during the contest.
The pile-ups were huge. This doesn't happen much on
10 GHz or even two meters, the bands where I normally
operate! Having to dig calls out of the bedlam made
for a really fast introduction to DX contesting 101.
Most of the operators on the domestic end were
patient and cooperative. THANKS!
All of the United States and Canada were loud at the
same time all day long. The suitcase station seemed
to work really well and conditions were excellent.
I made 1,442 contacts in 11 hours over distances that
ranged from 4,600 to 8,000 miles. I think a more
experienced DX contester could have made twice that
many Qs in the same amount of time under those
circumstances, but it was a memorable experience for
me.
73,
Wayne, N6NB/E51YNB
(K6YNB, 1957-77)
_______________________________________________
SCCC mailing list
SCCC at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/sccc
More information about the SCCC
mailing list