ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2020
Call: KU2M
Operator(s): KU2M
Station: KU2M
Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: Wayne, NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 14.7
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
CW: 571 65
SSB: 332 42
-------------------
Total: 903 107 Total Score = 315,436
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
A favorite contest for many reasons, not the least being the unpredictability of
the band. We usually expect HF bands to be dead after dark, but at least here in
the KU2M Triangle, 10M on Friday night surprisingly rocked until after midnight,
and was by far the best session of the entire weekend, with lots of action and
even prop to VK/ZL. Unfortunately, that was the end of that. While there were
good openings to South America, I never heard the same degree of widespread
openings again. Europe? Fahgeddaboudit. We're still probably one or two years
away from working Europe in the 10M contest (we hope), although Africa was
heard, with V51YJ and D4Z showing up, and with very good signals, to raise blood
pressure levels across the country with some real excitement.
Unfortunately, my rotator went on strike Saturday morning and didn't want to
turn for some reason, but finally was coaxed to move. Nevertheless, I left it
pointing west, to cover the USA, and rotated the lower antenna as needed. That
worked out, because most of the weekend, the lower antenna (65') seemed better
than the high antenna (115'). There were long periods when the band went belly
up, but that also worked out, since it enabled me to get some work done!
And finally, in the Pointless Complaint Department, I have to mention that I
wonder why phone contacts don't have the same value as CW; it's well known that
CW gets through poor S/N conditions, with far greater reliability than phone, so
that suggests to me that, all things being equal, phone contacts are more
difficult and unlikely, and thus, should be considered at least of equal value
in terms of difficulty (actually, phone contacts are more difficult). So why do
they count only half as much? Is it CW elitism? Is the ARRL trying to motivate
more people to learn CW? I like CW as much as anyone (well, almost), but find
that there is a disparity here, based on the simple measure of communication
difficulty (not to mention that phone is more "work"!) I worked plenty
of W6s and 7s on CW - weak sigs way down in the noise - but heard and worked
only one W6 on SSB and nothing from W7 except AZ (If there were other W6s and 7s
on SSB, they were impossible to hear because of ambient noise levels, which were
substantial, and you can't use a 200 Hz DSP filter to get around the noise on
SSB the way you can on CW). Just my viewpoint - of course, I know that many will
disagree, but just wanted to air it!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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