[SCCC] Fwd: W6PH ARRL DX CW SO(A)AB HP

[Kurt Pauer]

From: <w6ph at aol.com>

Subject: W6PH ARRL DX CW SO(A)AB HP



                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023

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

Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: Lone Pine CA
Operating Time (hrs): 20.3

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:
  80:
  40:
  20:  183    72
  15:  443    86
  10:  620    83
-------------------
Total: 1246  241  Total Score = 900,858

Club: Southern California Contest Club

Comments:

K3S SPE 1.3K-FA DXLog
Cushcraft A3S at 40 feet

I had planned to be part of the ND7K crew but was stuck at my NH QTH
until a couple days before the start of the contest.  It didn't give me
enough
time to get back and drive down there before the contest.  Because of time
constraints I didn't have an opportunity to raise my contest antennas.  I
only had my 30 year old A3S in the air on 40 feet of Rohn 25.  I decided to
do a limited effort and make a DXCC as my goal for the weekend. I didn't
even go out to the shack on Friday evening.

On Saturday morning my friends on the east coast reported a SFI of 346.
I didn't believe it.  I went out to my unheated shack (30F ambient) dressed
warmly to check out the bands.  Twenty meters had some watery signals
from big stations in Europe which is sort of normal.  I then went to 10
meters and the P3 was full of signals.  The Europeans were loud.  I have
 never run Europeans from California.  I found a clear frequency (28.115)
to try a CQ.  I thought I was back in W1 with a continuous stream of callers
from Europe.  It was absolutely amazing.  The band opening was
reminiscent of Cycle 19 back in 1957.  The band started to fade
mid-morning and I went to 15 meters with the same results.  Later on I
tried 20 meters but there just wasn't the volume of strong signals from
Europe.  So it was S&P until the bands opened to JA.  Sunday was a
replication of Saturday.

My antenna is directly above the shack and I could only run about 900
watts or the RFI would lock up my logging computer.  That happened a
number of times and resulted in a 3 minute delay while I rebooted the
laptop and DXLog.  I don't have this problem when using my contest
antennas on AB-577's about 50 to 80 feet away.

In retrospect I wish I had been more motivated to get my contest
antennas raised for all six bands.  This weekend would have been one
to remember.  I did achieve my goal of 100 different countries even though
the volume of multipliers was down quite a bit.  There were no specific
highlights,  Just a fantastic propagation weekend.

73, Kurt W6PH