ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: N1UR
Operator(s): N1UR
Station: N1UR
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 20 18
80: 130 54
40: 129 58
20: 677 80
15: 259 73
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 1215 283 Total Score = 1,030,686
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
While I prefer CW contests, I have come to realize that I actually do like SSB
contests.
Why? Well, its all about expectations. If you show up to play a Rugby game and
are expecting
it to be like a basketball game, you won't enjoy yourself. I was expecting a
Rugby game, and
I wasn't disappointed. SSB contests for most of us are a different animal.
They are a lot
less about running and a lot more about grinding out S & P Qs. What helps, is
knowing that
most everyone else is doing the same thing.
Unfortunately, I knew going into this one that I had a big issue. My 40M beam
let go of
something in the last storm we had and is completely dead. I do have up an
inverted vee at 65
feet and that became my one and only 40M antenna for the weekend. This was
almost a relief
because it completely took away the option of attempting a run on 40M so I just
S & P'd the
band. I ended up about as expected.
Started off S & Ping on 40 and then 80. I was LOUD on 80. The 2 el wire beam
is really working well.
I CQ'd between 3710 and 3650 a number of times and didn't get one answer there.
Finally attempted
to CQ on 3840 and started a small run of about 15 Qs over a 30 min period
Saturday morning. 20M was
actually in decent shape to the South until almost 02Z here which was
surprising. Interestingly, there
wasn't much to miss on 40M during the middle of the night. I worked ZL3WW
quite easily as well as
a couple of KH6's and all of the SA/Carib that I could hear. 80M was very
solid to the south and
west with the 2 new half-wave slopers that I installed. The few stations that
I missed on 80M had
big piles and were not strong on the west beverage or the slopers.
I took a 90 min nap between 0830 and 10000Z. 20M opened here around 1045Z to
EU and was "rockin" by
1130Z. I had a nice 100 hour run from 1130 - 1230 and continued to "run" for
the next 4 hours on 20M.
"Run" was defined many times as 20 - 40 Qs before abandoning a frequency, S &
Ping, and finding a new
depression (holes didn't exist) to run again. I SO2R'd 15M all day on
Saturday. Worked a lot of S & P
but never tried running because it didn't seem as productive as 20. Ended up
the day with about 100 Qs
on 15 with about 50% being Carib and South. Never heard a peep on 10 all
weekend. I tuned it dozens of
times while CQing on 20.
160 was a big disappointment this weekend. Never worked EU. I don't know of a
contest that I have not
worked even a GI or GM station. Tuned it many times. Worked a PY on 160,
first call. No issue working
most any Carib station heard. The band was quite poor from here despite the
nice A/K index and the Aurora
shield looking very mild from the sat pictures.
I slept more than usual because conditions were so bad. Slept for 4.5 hours on
Sat night/Sunday morning,
3 hour and 90 min chunks. Day two saw decent runs on 20M of 60 - 70 hours for
a couple of hours. I ran
with a little success on 15 on day 2. Might have had 60 - 70 Qs on 15M as a
run over a couple of hours while
methodically S & Ping 20 and periodically listening to white noise on 10.
Had much more success running 80 at the end on 3843 listening down. Never had
1 running Q all weekend
simplex. Its a shame to see all that open space and no-one is listening yet
down there. I think a year
of WPX and CQ WW will change that for this contest next year. Also, I found
the extra 25kcs on 40M to be
just about worthless with the broadcast QRM.
The station worked well other than the 40M beam. I still need to re-build my
antenna switches because I have
lost a few positions and the flakyness remains although it didn't affect me
this weekend because I was using
less positions on them.
I am looking forward to WPX. I enjoy that contest after this "battle". Again
I will be using my company's
club call, NV1N. Looking forward to those rumor'd sunspots on the near
horizon.
73
Ed N1UR
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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