ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: K5NA
Operator(s): K5NA
Station: K5NA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 33
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1662 Sections = 80 Countries = 51 Total Score = 509,328
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
The ARRL 160M Contest has always been my favorite contest. This year is the 41th
running of it and it is my 36th year to participate.
The first night this year started really well with high QSO rates over several
early hours. I was almost 100 QSOs ahead of last year at one time. But later,
at European sunrise, conditions turned poor and my QSO rates fell back. Soon I
was behind my overall QSO rate from last year when I had set my personal best
ever in this contest.
The second night was better to Europe and many multipliers called me. So I
caught up a bit with the QSOs and actually had one more multiplier this year
than last. But I finished with about 50 QSOs fewer than last year.
The JA conditions were moderately better this year and I made 42 JA QSOs, about
50% more than last year.
There were some oddities about this yearâ??s conditions that I noticed. Though
conditions seemed slightly worse than last year, there were some interesting
moments. I worked four Asiatic Russians, two in zone 19, one in zone 18, and
one in zone 17. The zone 17 was in the evening when I was running Europe and
the zones 19 and 18 were in the morning when I was running JA. What a surprise
to have zones 17 and 18 answer my CQs from Texas during a 160M contest. That
was unusual and both those stations were easy copy when they called in. Makes
me wonder what goodies I may have missed.
Another interesting thing is that I managed to work a sweep of all 80 of the
ARRL sections. This was my second time to do this, my first being in 2004. Both
times it was done as a single-op without packet which makes it more unlikely.
All the sections answered my CQs and all sections had at least two or more
stations call me except for the sections of VE8EV and VO1HP. What a thrill to
have this happen to me again. My last section was when VO1HP called in on
Sunday morning about an hour before his sunrise. Yes, I had kept a beverage
pointed his way and I was hoping for a call from a VO1.
Why are there so many dupes calling in this contest? I decided at the beginning
that I would work all callers whether they were dupes or not. Because some QSOs
are made under weak signal conditions, I was willing to work anyone who called
in a second time. But it was incredible how many dupes I had. There were 62
dupes out of 1722 log entries which was about 4 percent of my total QSOs. Many
of those calling for repeat QSOs were from QSOs that I remember from earlier,
QSOs that were seemingly solid and without a problem before.
The station I used was a K3 (running diversity mode) driving an ACOM 2000A
amplifier. The transmit antenna is a full-size 160M vertical made from Rohn 25G
tower with the transmit connection point and raised radials at 30 feet. The
tower is 157 feet high overall. I have 9 long beverages in various directions
for 160M and 80M.
When doing the ARRL 160M contest from Texas, your goals have to be practical.
You will never find a year where Top Band conditions will allow you to have a
chance to finish number one. So my goal is simply to try to finish in the top
ten and to have fun doing it. Yes, I had a lot of fun.
73, Richard - K5NA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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