ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): ~32
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 14 14
80: 100 46
40: 210 64
20: 801 91
15: 801 85
10: 1014 89
-------------------
Total: 2940 389 Total Score = 3,430,980
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Recipe for DX contest nirvana = mostly great conditions, loads of Europeans
seeking out QSO's, decent running skill, and operating from a fairly rare
state.
We had at least 15 inches of snow on Thursday and despite having the large
driveway cleared, I still shoveled quite a few heavy loads of snow Friday. And
my father-in-law's ashes were going to be laid to rest Monday with family
dinner Sunday, so I was not planning on a big effort.
Things started off with excellent conditions on 80 thru 20 M. 20 was open to
EU! Both south EU and north EU were loud with the stations in the middle left
out. AF was booming in as were stations from PJ and south. The northern
Caribbean was spotty. A few JA's and were worked along with a few Russians
mostly far north.
40 was in great shape, even managed a decent run of EU stations, then swept the
band for Q's. Down to 80 and managed to run about 30-35 EU down there and also
S&P'ed my way across the band. The RBN caught me right away almost every
time I changed bands. It was great to have EA6FO, RT3F, R22ALS, and CN2AA call
right off the bat multiple times along with some others.
Saturday morning, I was up way too late. 15 was thumping with S9+ Europeans, so
I found a nice spot easily and started a run with one CQ. The pile up was pretty
intense as it was every time I changed bands when running EU all day long.
Conditions were good to Russia and even worked a couple in central Asia.
EU OPS TAKE NOTE! If there is a pile up on your sought after station, please do
not exactly zero beat unless you know you are so loud you can beat the odds. Do
not call once (don't call more than twice) and stop unless again you are really
loud. The guys off frequency slightly and who call after the mob stops are going
to make it thru faster. And PLEASE DON'T CALL WHEN YOU KNOW THE DX IS ATTEMPTING
TO GET THE CALL OF SOMEONE ELSE OR COPY AN EXCHANGE! The pile up behavior is
getting terrible on both sides of the Atlantic. JA's are the best ops calling
in a pile up by far! They don't answer unless they know they are being called
making for no rate slow downs.
QRP OPs: As a group, there is a lot of room for operating improvement. Please
don't waste time repeating your call and exchange unless the receiving station
asks you to do so. One HB9 station had his exchange macro programmed to send
his call twice (after I correctly sent his call) and repeat the exchange twice!
He was very good copy on 2 bands, weak on another. Also just send "5"
for 5 watts, sending "W" or "watts" or "QRP" just
makes for confusion. Just because you are running QRP does not mean the
receiving station does often copy you quite well.
It was up to 10 just after 13Z and again the Russians were there in numbers
along with a surprise call from E20 in Thailand and UN. From 12Z until 2030Z,
the callers never really slowed down that much on 15, then 10, then .15, then
20. I noticed the last 10 rate hit 333 once on 10 and best last 100 was 174 at
1346Z. It was pretty intense and more than I could possibly hope for running
low power. At 2030Z, the rate was dropping and it was time to troll for mults
on 10 and 15. 10 was long to the south at 21Z, 15 was open well to OC,
Caribbean/SA, and AF. Around 2145, 15 opened to JA and I was able to run at
around a 90 rate there for about 20 minutes. All JA's were very fluttery on 20
and 15. I went to 10 and it was even better with the northern JA's very
fluttery and more southern ones much less. I had one of the best JA runs ever
on CW from home for about 45 minutes with rates around 120/hr. RT0C and
Sakhalin Is. stations were booming in. I managed to find one Chinese and one DU
station. 20 was in great shape to Asia after 10 died off working BY, DU,
Russians, and a few JA's with booming signals from the Caribbean and south. 40
was very frustrating by the time I made it there with very loud only southern
EU's almost all of which were already in the log and no hope of running. So, it
was back to 20 which had opened farther west as far as UA4 and OH and UN
stations were quite loud. Quite a few new Q's and mults were logged. Despite
the disturbance with very wide fluttery signals, signals were quite strong.
Sunday AM started out with a quick scan of 160. 80, and 40, not much happening
with poor conditions, but worth several mults. I was able to run about 40
stations on 20 before the rate dropped off despite good strength from EU, then
it was up to 15 which was in great shape with not quite as loud signals fro
Russia. At 1250Z, 10 was just opening well to EU with some signals weak. By
1310Z, signals were loud, but not so great from Russia with many fewer callers
than Saturday. UR/UA6 stations were loud. I was called by a UN and two VU2's
one of which was booming in. The rate stayed great thru about 1630Z with just a
few dry spells. When I returned to 15, my runs finally ran out or at least
slowed down significantly and finding a clear spot proved difficult. Signals
were weaker with higher absorption than Saturday which hurt ability to run with
LP. The high absorption was also true of 20 around 18Z, but I was able to run at
a decent Sunday rate for quite a while.
A JW called in and TF as well; TF was well represented with about 4 different
calls logged on various bands. 10 was much better to the Caribbean Sunday
afternoon and even a loud OH was logged. At 21Z 15 was pen to basically every
point on the compass with strong signals from Scandinavia, western EU, and AF
as well as KH2, KL7, KH6 and booming Caribbean signals. Returning to 20 M,
around 22Z, EU from OK and HA to the west and north was booming in and I again
resumed a decent paced run with many QRP stations included. 9V1YC called in
with a near S9 signal. Two ZL's called in LP and VK's were booming in. 40 was
again in poor shape to EU at 23Z when it should be peaking, so I went up to 15
and pounced on JA's at about one a minute and found 3 new mults in the last 20
minutes.
Many thanks to all who called and especially those stuck at the bottom of the
heap when the pile ups were deep. Many followed me around for Q's on 3 or more
bands. All of the spotting tools used by the DX really helped my rate which
many times went from fairly slow to many callers after spotting. And those
multis and assisted guys working the 2nd radio really helped as well. Some
pretty rare DX found me like EA6, JW, CN, 4O4, 7Z, 4X, VU, and 4K. Next year, I
may actually plan to push myself harder, but I doubt if the ionosphere
cooperates like it did this year. Despite the lower number of contest
expeditions compared to CQWW, the ARRL DX is one of my favorites because is
really fun being sought after rather than just another QSO. Low bands and even
20 M are also much easier without the EU to EU QSO's.
Congrats to N9TZ and N5AW who are not as blessed with great EU openings for
hours like I am here, TZ's breakdown shows a lot of hard work chasing down Q's
on different bands. And I and sure N1UR will have a massive score as usual.
73, Jeff
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