ARRL 10-Meter Contest
Call: K2PS
Operator(s): K2PS
Station: K2PS
Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: DC
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 240 60
SSB: 145 34
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Total: 385 94 Total Score = 117,500
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
I've really enjoyed this contest through the years, and in the SOLP category
have even been somewhat competitive from my previous station in SNJ. However,
now I'm relocated to MDC, living in a radio-restricted apartment with not even
a balcony for something surreptitious, and anxious to get those competitive
juices flowing once more. Eric, W3DQ, has been helpful in letting me operate
his station, but for this one it wasn't going to work out. So what to do?
Well, my unlicensed son lives a few miles away, in the DC multiplier area, and
he and I are anxious to be able to watch the Philadelphia Eagles games on TV
when they're unavailable locally. He was interested in trying an external TV
antenna pointed at PA, and so I began to get the idea that perhaps I could beg,
borrow or buy a 10M antenna and mast to put up for the contest, and then prove
that it was possible to haul in the TV signals for football. I put out an
email to my new club, PVRC, and Tony, K3WX graciously came through with a 3
element yagi. A call to W3DQ resulted in a fiberglass mast and along with my
Ham-IV rotor, away we went.
I learned that putting up an antenna like this ain't so simple. It took a
whole lot of hours, most of it by myself, finishing just a couple of hours
before contest kickoff. I don't need to get into all the construction details,
but suffice it to say, getting it up on the roof with 15 feet of mast (altho I
had more to use) was about at my limit.
However, I now had a rotatable yagi, up about 30 feet, and my first test QSO
Friday afternoon was to ZZ2T so I was in business!
The contest, on the other hand, was not an easy go as most participants (except
perhaps for TX, XE, and South America) discovered.
Got to meet all the locals Friday night, with only a handful of TX and LA
worked. Saturday morning saw a little backscatter into New England and then a
little opening to FL. Kept listening for EU and, discouragingly heard a couple
of locals work a few of them - which I couldn't hear. I miss the high, seven
element antenna! But then, miraculously, F6BEE was right there, with a strong
signal. And bam! worked him. But that was it from across the pond, and I
never heard him again.
Got a weak noon-time opening to the west coast, and then the serious South
American opening started up and made the day worthwhile. Sunday began
miserably with 4 Qs in the first 2 hours. Shoulda stayed in bed. But all of a
sudden some nice Caribbean mults showed up, followed by a nice FL CQ run on SSB,
with most of them sporting NYC and Philly accents. Worked ZS1EL at noon, with a
strong west coast opening following. I found that I wasn't strong enough to
really get any good runs going, even with the DC mult. I'm supposing that
either I didn't get spotted on packet, or if I did, that the spotter didn't
also specify my DC location. So I had to satisfy myself with stations thanking
me for the unexpected mult.
I wondered where the XEs all were, or if I just never had the right propagation
for them, when all of a sudden that's all I could hear! Worked 8 in a row
starting at 1927Z, and was trying to call a ninth when the band faded out. A
smattering of this and that with a mini-KS opening (four in a row) at 2216Z
closed out the contest.
Maybe in 2011 we'll get back to the huge EU pileups of yesteryear. One can
only hope...
Pete, K2PS
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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