IARU HF World Championship - 2021
Call: KU2M
Operator(s): KU2M
Station: KU2M
Class: SOABMixed LP
QTH: Wayne, NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 10.5
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Zones HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
160: 3 0 2 0
80: 20 4 8 10
40: 116 29 17 29
20: 218 81 17 28
15: 136 33 16 21
10: 63 24 9 15
-------------------------------------
Total: 556 171 69 103 Total Score = 395,084
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
I always get sucked in and do more than the few hours I expect to spend in the
IARU test - and although I never do it seriously, I still muse over what
category I'm going to work in. After much careful deliberation, and not being a
mutant who can stay awake for 24 hours (or wants to), I decided to do Low Power
Mixed (Unassisted), so I could be humiliated on both modes in a more casual
operating schedule that allowed for food preparation and consumption and some
mindless TV watching and couch snoozing, all punctuated by the usual obligatory
care for my canine boss, Lucy.
Low Power humiliation was in full swing when on a whim I decided to check the
hiss levels on 10 meters (which is usually all you hear on that band these
days). Imagine my state of disbelief when I heard Europe coming through! WTF? I
carefully checked the radio and antenna connections - was I on a different band?
Nope - it was 10 meters, and the antennas were still connected. That being
verified, next, I checked my pulse. Was I still conscious? Had I passed out from
too much decaf and was now lying on the floor, hallucinating or having some kind
of DX dream? Nope - I was still awake and alive, and the EU opening on 10 was
really happening! I could hardly believe it - it wasn't predicted by the modest
solar flux numbers, and what was even more amazing was that the DX could hear
me. No, signals weren't loud, but they were loud enough to work and be heard.
Hallelujah! 10 meter propagation!
Although there were no UAs or stations from even zone 29 heard (except for UW5Y,
who couldn't hear me), 15M was also far better than expected, with good openings
to mid-latitude EU, although noise levels were high, as if some kind of solar
event were in progress (which, for all I know, is what enabled the 10M
openings). DA0HQ in particular was very loud (what the heck are they running
over there?), head and shoulders louder than any other EU stations and bombing
in, S9+, hours after EU sunset.
My only gripe was that for some reason my (N1MM+) logging program kept dumping
some of the HQ report entries ("HRS," "CRC", etc etc) - and
I would find that the software, all by itself, incorrectly registered the zone
of the HQ station and erased the important exchange info, costing time to edit
the entry and correct the data. Whether this was my fault through not
downloading some kind of up-to-date file (probably) or whether this is a
built-in feature of the software that's an intentional part of Low Power
Humiliation, I don't know, but I had fun in spite of it - this was a great
contest with some real (positive) surprises. I just hope that 10M will stay open
for the next 5 or 6 years!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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