Sorry this is late but I had to travel on business right after the
contest.
ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1996
Call: W2SC Country: United States
Mode: CW Category: Single Operator
BAND QSO COUNTRIES
160 81 42 Inverted V, Vertical
80 325 66 Folded sloper with loop reflector
40 762 75 402CD @ 92'
20 1204 80 TH7 @ 86'/TH7 @ 54'
15 101 47 "
10 6 3 "
-------------------------
Totals 2479 313 = 2,326,842
The SFI was as low as I have ever seen it, 15 had been dead for days,
and 15 inches of snow were on the way. The high winds created the
prospect of antenna damage or even a power loss. There was not much cause
for optimism. Part of my pre-contest ritual is to go out to lunch with
my wife on Friday afternoon. She could my sense my loss of enthusiasm as
I looked out the window at the whiteout conditions. Maybe it was the
repeated shaking of my head.
When we got home I checked the bands prior to taking a nap. Snow
static was S9+30 on all bands. My feeble beverage helped by I knew
it was not going to be enough. I gave some thought to just forgetting
the first night and doing a single band 20 starting in the morning.
To compound things, I am in a midst of a significant activity at work
and spent most of the afternoon on the phone and skipping the nap.
However, around 22Z, the snow abated and the bands were still very
noisy but worth a shot.
The contest started with a good half hour on 40 but then things slowed
down. It was only the beginning of a complicated weekend for 40 meters.
Spent the rest of the night on 80/160 with decent results. It was very
frustrating to hear answers to CQ's but not be able to pull the
stations through. Especially on 160!. The noise level on 40 was
relatively low and I was just hoping to make the best until EU sunrise
when I could go back there and run. This is one of my favorite
openings but it just was not there. The 7Z hour produced 30, 40 meter
Q's the first day and 3 Q's the second day. In fact 40 was so bad that
I was concerned that the 40 meter beam had slipped in the rotor and was
not pointing in the right direction. QSB and the fact that the 402CD
has minimal front to back made trying to peak on the signals inconclusive.
I actually put on my boots and trudged through the snow to the tower to
be sure. Unfortunately, my flashlight was not bright enough to see the
antenna. I was not up to climbing the tower in the snow so I just went
back to operating. As it turns out, everything was fine.
The next hope was for 20 meters. It was slow to open but eventually
did. The next 5 hours were over a hundred with the sixth at 92. Spent
most of this time listening on the second radio to various W1's calling
CQ on 15. As soon as I heard someone get an answer I was going to move.
15 is my best band and I need it to open to be competitive.
Unfortunately, it never happened and I spent 7 hours on one frequency
on 20.
Twenty stayed open for longer than I expected. In the CQWW I learned that
40 opens much earlier that I thought and I vowed to get there as soon as
possible. With 20 hopping I did not get there until around 1930Z. The
20 and 21 hours were excellent and then the band tailed off.
The 8,9, and 10 hours the second day were brutal and netted about 20 Q's
total. At one point I took a quick nap simply because there was nothing
to work. Ended up taking four 15 minute naps in the course of the
weekend.
The second day was much like the first except that I actually heard a few
answers on 15 and did get in an hour of low rate running. I don't
know if I was late to the opening but it was better than nothing. I
insisted on getting to 40 by 1830Z to check things out. It was too
early for my station. The first CQ netted OY1CT but then nothing. Came
back later for the 20Z and 21Z hours which again were excellent.
When the contest ended, I was exhausted but the weekend seemed to have
flown by. If you told me that I would make almost 2500 Q's with
virtually no contribution from 10 and 15 I would not have believed it
possible from my station.
Despite the minimalist conditions, this was still fun.
Congratulations to W1KM, N6BV and N2LT.
Thanks to all for the contacts and 73,
Tom W2SC
w2sc@emc.com
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