[SECC] ARRL 10 Meter Contest Results

K4SAV RadioIR at charter.net
Sun Dec 11 22:27:12 EST 2005


                       ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: K4SAV
Operator(s): K4SAV
Station: K4SAV

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: AL

Summary:
   Qs    Pts    Mult
   868   3476    79
Score  274,604

(ARRL sections: 54 of 63. Missed Me, Ut, and 7 VE sections. Those guys 
were probably hibernating.)

-----------------------------------------------------

Very interesting conditions during the contest.  Started off Friday with 
a two hour effort working only Al, Ga, Tn, Mn, In, and VP5.  It was like 
pulling teeth. No propagation. Where do you point the beam to work these 
stations? I found that any direction except pointed at the station was 
best.  Signal strength was minimum when pointed at the station, 
strange.  After 2 hours and only working 18 stations, I quit for the night.

Got up at about 1400Z Saturday, went in and turned on the radio - dead, 
no stations.  Listened for an hour until I noticed that the dummy load 
was connected. Works better when connected to the antenna. I noticed 
that when working central US and west coast, that signals were strongest 
with the beam pointed north. Many disappeared when the beam was pointed 
west. I ran bi-directional for a while, trying not to miss the South 
Americans that were coming thru, and the occasional EA8, CU, ZS, ZL, 
KH6, and the Caribbean stations. Things got very good around 1900Z to 
the north and New England. Someone must have spotted me on packet or 
something.  For a two hour time slot I averaged 93/hr, with a couple of 
20 minute average rates of 132/hr.  It was nice.

Band was decent until around 0200Z, then the bottom fell out and the 
only stations I could hear were Florida and they were booming in. After 
I worked all of them, I took a break. I thought the band was done for 
the night. Came back around 0300Z and the band was open to the north and 
New England. Had a nice run of New England stations.  There weren't very 
many stations on the band.  I guess, like me, everyone thought the band 
was closing down and they went to bed. The band was still open with good 
signals when I went to bed at 0600Z.  There were just not any new 
stations to work, but the signals from the north were strong. Got up at 
0930Z and listened, and the band was dead, no stations at all. Went back 
to bed.

Started around 1330Z on Sunday morning.  Seems the best direction to 
point the beam was south for all US stations, weird. Although the EA8 
stations were strongest with the beam pointed at them.

Midday I pointed the beam toward Europe and was getting an EA and EA8 
station every now and then. For the US stations, the best direction to 
point the beam seemed to be toward Europe anyway, and that includes for 
west coast stations.  Around 1700Z the band finally opened to the 
Scandinavian countries and European Russia.  Got OH(10 of them), SM, LA, 
TF, UA, YL

I worked 1 novice.

I just looked up some of the DX spots for the contest, and I see I was 
spotted at least 11 times.  Thanks to all you guys that spotted me.

Jerry


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