ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: W0SD
Operator(s): W0SD
Station: W0SD
Class: SO SSB HP
QTH: South Dakota
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW:
SSB: 1282 92
-------------------
Total: 1282 92 Total Score = 235,888
Club:
Comments:
Even if you got on just for a little while, thanks so much for doing that!
Keep it up!
I though conditions for this part of the cycle were great. Whenever you can
work WAS, all 50 states things are not bad! Somehow I never did hear DC. The
only state that was a single contact was Alaska, all the rest were multiple
contacts. Scatter was how I worked most people. We got VE7,VE6, VE5, VE4 and
VE3 and then the big NE shutout with only one VE9, no VE8, VE2 and no other
Maritime!
I did not get much sporadic e, well actually most of what I did get was
"SPORADIC", ie little patches here and there but in the since of loud solid
sporadic E no, other than the start of the contest where we had 145 the first
hour and 93 and then 65. I was really thrilled to get off to what is a
fantastic start from the frozen northland! At the bottom are the hour break
downs. The other interesting note is the on both days at hours 17z and 18z we
had rates of 67, 62, 70 and 55 which were way above any others so that has to be
when the most ionization was available to me to scatter off of.
To me conditions were great for this part of the cycle! I did get a late contest
sporadic E opening to the Northwest which was loud but not a lot of stations on
as they had a terrible weekend of conditions and I think most had went QRT!
It is fun competing with some of you young folks! I turned 61 this year. Just a
bit of history about the 10 meter contest from W0SD (I in no way mean this as
bragging just hopefully interesting information). In 1992 WD0T (Mixed) made the
top ten. No entries in 93,94,95,96. By 1997 we had made major improvements on
the station. I made the top 10 in this contest 3 years in a row in 1997 (PH),
1998(PH) and 1999(PH) and then turned it over to Joe-W0DB who operated here in
2000 (MIXED), 2001 (CW) and 2002(CW) and made the top 10. Last year Joe missed
the top 10 (CW)(to much aurora) which broke our consecutive string at 5 years.
1997 was the best finish at # 3. My big question going into this contest this
year was if I could physically do it OK yet! I am happy to say it went very
well! As I told Joe and Todd (WD0T) afterward I am now convinced I can be
competitive until at least 70 if I keep up my physical conditioning! Again we
were blessed and so thankful that the station preformed flawlessly! Thank you
Lord!
Over the years you learn where you have a fighting chance for a top ten spot and
where you don't. Our best shot is SS and after that it is the 10 meter contest
and the ARRY RTTY contest which we have got # 1 at least twice. We did make one
top 10 finish(6th place World) in the ARRL 160. When it comes to DX contests
well if I had a $$$$ million dollars to spend on the station we would never,
ever make the top ten if there were any competition at all. IMHO over-all the
best place, in the continental 48, to be year in and year out for all the
contests is TX, LA, MS, AL or Fl. Of course in SS the carribean has a lock on
it during the good sunspot years! I thought this year the sunspots would be
down enough so they would lose that lock but not yet. We will see what next
year brings. The key to us is if the stations south and east of us can not work
to many multipiers in Europe. How we stayed in the top ten in 98, 99 and 2000
during the better sunspot years to me was an amazing feat. If there was any
secret to it was going to about 28.897 or higher and find a quite frequency so
we could copy the "whisper" stations during those years during the morning prime
time! In regards to 160 it has to be during a time when the East coast is not
doing well to Europe. We can be competitive on VHF if six meters sporadic E is
very good!
IMHO opinion the people who really have it tough are to the west, once in
awhile in SS and during the big high sunspot years once in a great while they
can work enough JA's to offset the east multipliers. They deserve great respect
for competing when by and large they are just shut out by propagation in
everything!
My hat is off to them!
It amazes me the difference in propagation into Europe. I read with great
interest that W9RE worked 36 stations in Europe. Indianapolis is only 4 degrees
farther south but being east it apparently changes the angle going through the
aurora zone and lessens the attenuation. Next year I am going to try an antenna
at just under 200 feet to see if I can increase how far north I can work. It
may only be Africa by next year but we will see. I did not hear one European
the whole contest, not one! The only main land Africa was ZS5 who called me!
The FT-1000D second receiver works good for looking for stations between CQ. I
need to work that harder next year. It is the only place I can think of to
improve things other that get my line noise down to ZERO. It was not much of a
factor other that it cost me some "whisper" qso's on Saturday afternoon when it
was the worst of the contest. Some of the FL stations reported S-9 power line
noise, my goodness that is terrible! With that noise I probably would of only
been able to work 100 stations.
We use an Alpha 99 and a FT-1000D, Writelog and the Rigblaster for DVR from the
computer. We have a 104BA Hygain at 110 feet fed with 7/8" heliax and another
on a ring rotor at about 60 feet also fed with heliax. They can be fed in phase
or separate. We also have a TH-11 at 70 feet with 7/8' heliax. I have a TH-3
looking straight south for receive only but it was a none factor. In fact it
pretty much, I'd say 90% of the time, was strictly the one high antenna! The
others just did not cut the mustard! Something I have learned over the years
for here where we live on 10 meters high is best nearly 100% of the time so by
next year we are going to have another high antenna. Even on sporadic E high is
best which flies against what I have seen over the years on six meters where you
can be to high for short, single hop sporadic E.
The writeup from K5TR (especially) and W9RE and a few others that went into
detail were facinating reading. I want to thank thank them and others who
provided a detailed writeup!
Last but not least if you were one of the "whisper" stations thanks a bunch for
being there. You are what makes this contest to get on here despite antenna
restrictions, TVI, etc. etc. or just enjoying QRP. I was able to copy a lot of
you but some I just could not, I am so sorry! To those that I did not even
hear you please try again. I apologize but scatter is about ERP and so it is
going to happen. The only advice is to have sharp audio not low pitched, have
good phonetics, try and just give what I don't have correct, give it many times
with short breaks, If I suddenly get loud be sure and come back and give me
everything quickly as it is probably meteor enhanced. BTW we were a bit ahead
of the Geminids this year so not as many meteors as a lot of years. Always
check when the peak of the shower is going to be and if it is close hang in
there more at night and again in the early morning. It is typically a
north/south shower and nothing much to the east or west.
73, Ed W0SD
Worked PHONE:
CT MA ME NH RI VT NY NJ DE PA MD AL GA KY NC FL
SC TN VA AR LA MS NM TX OK CA HI AK AZ ID MT NV
OR UT WA WY MI OH WV IL IN WI CO IA KS MN MO NE
ND SD NB ON MB SK AB BC
DX PHONE:
6Y C6 CE CM CT3 CU CX EA8 FM HI HK HP HR JA
KG4 KP2 KP4 LU OA P4 PJ2 PY TI V3 V4 VK VP2M
VP5 VP8 XE YV ZF ZK1/s ZL ZP ZS
QSO/Sec+Dx by hour and band
Hour 10M CW 10M PHO Total Cumm OffTime
D1-0000Z --+-- 145/18 145/18 145/18
D1-0100Z - 93/8 93/8 238/26
D1-0200Z - 65/2 65/2 303/28
D1-0300Z - 38/6 38/6 341/34
D1-0400Z - 9/0 9/0 350/34
D1-0500Z - 6/3 6/3 356/37 20
D1-0600Z - - 0/0 356/37 60
D1-0700Z - - 0/0 356/37 60
D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- 0/0 356/37 60
D1-0900Z - - 0/0 356/37 60
D1-1000Z - - 0/0 356/37 60
D1-1100Z - - 0/0 356/37 60
D1-1200Z - - 0/0 356/37 60
D1-1300Z - 32/1 32/1 388/38 23
D1-1400Z - 38/7 38/7 426/45
D1-1500Z - 36/8 36/8 462/53
D1-1600Z --+-- 21/2 21/2 483/55 31
D1-1700Z - 67/9 67/9 550/64
D1-1800Z - 70/4 70/4 620/68
D1-1900Z - 26/3 26/3 646/71
D1-2000Z - 56/3 56/3 702/74
D1-2100Z - 48/3 48/3 750/77
D1-2200Z - 52/3 52/3 802/80
D1-2300Z - 11/2 11/2 813/82
D2-0000Z --+-- 18/0 18/0 831/82 54
D2-0100Z - 25/0 25/0 856/82
D2-0200Z - 25/0 25/0 881/82
D2-0300Z - 39/1 39/1 920/83
D2-0400Z - 29/0 29/0 949/83
D2-0500Z - 6/0 6/0 955/83 44
D2-0600Z - - 0/0 955/83 60
D2-0700Z - - 0/0 955/83 60
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- 0/0 955/83 60
D2-0900Z - - 0/0 955/83 60
D2-1000Z - - 0/0 955/83 60
D2-1100Z - - 0/0 955/83 60
D2-1200Z - - 0/0 955/83 60
D2-1300Z - 1/0 1/0 956/83 56
D2-1400Z - 17/0 17/0 973/83
D2-1500Z - 35/1 35/1 1008/84
D2-1600Z --+-- 11/0 11/0 1019/84 39
D2-1700Z - 62/4 62/4 1081/88
D2-1800Z - 55/0 55/0 1136/88
D2-1900Z - 41/2 41/2 1177/90
D2-2000Z - 26/0 26/0 1203/90
D2-2100Z - 11/0 11/0 1214/90
D2-2200Z - 27/1 27/1 1241/91
D2-2300Z - 41/1 41/1 1282/92
Total: 0/0 1282/92
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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