IARU HF World Championship
Call: K3FIV
Operator(s): K3FIV
Station: K3FIV
Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: California
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160:
80: 27 1 5 3
40: 110 19 18 6
20: 87 44 18 20
15: 26 17 11 6
10:
-------------------------------------
Total: 250 81 52 35 Total Score = 95,613
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Lots of fun, even with 100 watts and a dipole! Given the state of sunspots and
solar flux, I didn't expect much from this contest, and the early hours were
pretty poor. Signals were very weak, and 100 watts to a wire up only 12 meters
wasn't enough to get very far. Bands didn't seem crowded -- but I think that
was because DX signals just weren't getting to me, except for the "big gun"
superstations. I worked several HQ stations in EU, but didn't hear much else
from that direction.
So I worked all S&P, and since it was an IARU contest I decided to focus on
working other zones. My pattern was to scan the bands and work who was there
at the time, then go do some chores, then try again to see what else had
appeared.
Rig here is a Flex-3000, and the panadapter is really really useful in S&P.
You can see (literally) stations popping up, and even recognize the signal
pattern which corresponds to a contest CQ. This was especially useful on 15,
which was pretty sparsely populated, except for several SA stations.
I decided to use the opportunity to get some more CW contesting experience.
Bounced around between 20 and 15, heard nothing at all on 10. It was also
disappointing not to hear any JAs which normally appear during our local late
afternoon on 15.
Things got better over the day, and both 40 and 20 were great during the dark
hours. I had expected to run out of stations to work and be able to get to bed
early, but there were plenty of stations especially as propagation switched from
Europe to Asia. So, most of the local dark hours were on 40 and 20, both of
which were frenetic. Also 80, but it was almost deserted even though the
signals that were there were pretty strong - produced some QSOs including one
JA.
Biggest surprise was working 9V1/W4LT on 20 CW at about 4AM local time, shortly
after working DU1JI on 20 Phone - he was extremely patient in copying my call
with my puny signal! Good propagation across the Pacific during dark hours.
I heard several strong HQ stations out of China, but they couldn't hear me.
After listening for a while, I noticed that they couldn't seem to hear anyone
else either. Lots of stations were calling, but no one got a response.
I didn't expect to work any of the R3xx WRTC stations. I know what it's like
to work DX with 100 watts, and breaking through to EU from my QTH isn't easy
especially with bad propagation. So LP-LP DX QSOs are pretty difficult,
especially in contests. What was surprising was that I only heard one R3xx.
The QTH here is fortunately pretty quiet (very rural - no industry, 80 km even
to the nearest traffic light, nothing but ocean to the west). So there's
usually very low band noise. I can usually hear lots of DX stations even
though they can't hear me. But it seems that only the HP ones were actually
getting enough signal here (to my dipole of course) to be readable. More
sunspots!
Thanks everyone for the patience to copy my LP signal, and especially the
patience to log me as a zone 6 even though I'm a K3xxx (got my call originally
in PA in 1963).
All in all, a fun time. Even picked up a few new countries!
73,
/Jack
DE K3FIV
Point Arena, CA
CM88eu
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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