[SCCC] W6PH ARRL 10M SOHP CW (Long)

[W6ph--- via SCCC]

 ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: W6PH
Operator(s): W6PH
Station:  W6PH

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: Lone Pine CA
Operating Time (hrs):  22

Summary:

QSOs      DX    W/VE/XE
--------------------------------------
CW: 1814    80     65

-------------------------------------
Total:  1814   145  Total Score = 1,052,120

Club: Southern  California Contest Club

Comments:

Equipment:   Win-Test

Friday-Saturday  K3 AL-1200
Sunday  FTdx3000  AL-1200

5L monoband yagi at 55 feet (temporary on AB-577  mast)

I swapped radios Sunday morning to see if there were any  differences  
between the two.  Both are very good radios.  I think I like the  FTdx3000 
a little more.  I don't know why.  No difference in  performance.
 
 
I was at the radio before the band opened.  The Saturday morning 
opening was very weak with very few Europeans coming through.   The 
answers to my CQ's trumped mult hunting.  I have never stayed on  a 
frequency as long as I did on Saturday.  The calls just kept  coming and 
I never got the urge to look for mults.  I had my BRK file from  last year 
on 
an old laptop and I was staying ahead of last year in contacts but  very 
low on mults.  By Saturday night I still needed ID, ND, and WY  in the 
states and only had about 45 DX mults.  
 
The Sunday morning opening was much more encouraging.  I started 
hearing some Europeans right away.  I gave IK0YUT a call and he  came 
right back.  At that point I went to 28160 and started tuning  down the 
band working mults that were audible and quickly filled in a  bunch.  I 
found a clear frequency around 28060 or so and decided to call CQ 
and had a bunch of new mults call in (GI, GW, GU, HB, and a couple 
others).  It was all over by 17 UTC.  Then at noon (20 UTC)  I started 
getting some calls from northern Europe with the characteristic  auroral 
flutter, UA1, OH, SM.  It was followed by calls from LA and TF  for new 
mults.  I had the beam pointed northeast which didn't seem to  affect rate 
from the W's.  I didn't miss very many European mults with most  being 
a single contact.  (I see no sense in trying to work a second  contact in 
a mult that I already have unless it is easy.)  I ended up with  80 DX 
mults (vs 79 last year).
 
I kept my permanent A3S (40 feet) in a direction that I didn't have  the 
5L (60 feet).  It helped to work a few Caribbean and SA stations  as well 
as a few So Pacific stations.  At 2130 UTC (JA sunrise) I  pointed the 
5L at Asia and was rewarded with answers from JA and stateside at the 
same time.  I had a bunch of YB's and HS's call in and I filled  in all the 
Asian mults that were active (no XU or XV heard).
 
I really think my set up was optimal for the 10m contest (for single 
radio operation).  The antenna is at a good height and I have a  beautiful 
takeoff to the east (1000 feet above the Owens Valley floor).   The VK's 
and ZL's are tough because of the 14,000 foot Sierra about five miles 
west of me but you only need one of each for a mult.  The path  to JA 
parallels the Sierra to the northwest. 
 
This was a real rate fest and I had 1200 contacts in the log by  Saturday
 night.
 
It was a lot of fun.  Next gig is VP9 in the ARRL DX  Contests.

73, Kurt W6PH