ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2022
Call: WO1N
Operator(s): WO1N
Station: WO1N
Class: SOUAB LP
QTH: MASSACHUSETTS
Operating Time (hrs): 25
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 10 8
80: 55 32
40: 85 48
20: 211 75
15: 235 70
10: 64 28
-------------------
Total: 660 261 Total Score = 516,780
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Station: FTdx5000, C3-SS@38', 40MDi@50', 80M-K2KQ, 160M Inv-L, N1MM+
Soapbox :
I went into the test with no real goals other than at least 20 hour in the
seat.
An On-the-Air test session the night before revealed my headset mic would not
work through the MFJ-1275 Soundcard interface. Several hours of troubleshooting
found an alternate way to feed the headset audio to the radio. So, it's
not the headset and it's not the MFJ-1275 as the desktop mic worked fine. It
might be the Heil/Yaesu adapter but it Ohms out fine. Still need to get to the
bottom of that....probably the day of CQWW SSB 2022 ;-)
Off to my usual slow start, worked 20-160M until 0730Z. Sleep break. Back
at it by 1130Z. Swept 20 while keeping an eye on 15 and 10.
I managed 3 runs during the weekend as a low power op. As the S&P rates
were relatively low I decided to experiment to find out how long I would
need to CQ before I was noticed. In two of the 3 runs it was 12 to 13
minutes before I was found and spotted. Caught up on a lot of email
while the computer auto-CQ'ed. Once spotted however, I was off to the
races with some relatively good rates for a low power / low antenna station.
Am I arguing to allow self spotting? I'm not sure...
I had a 68Q run @98/hr, 1750Z-1830Z on 14181 KHz on Saturday after
12 minutes of calling CQ.
Finished the first 24 hours with 371Qs in the log.
Saturday evening/Sunday was real interesting with the geomagnetic
storm. I think the League orders one up for this contest in
particular each year. I pulled the plug at 0700Z for some real
sleep in a real bed, i.e. not the shack floor.
Started again at 1245Z. Nothing on the low bands at that point,
started sweeping 20M-10M in procession but the conditions were so
disturbed it made for some really slow hours. However, around 1700Z or
so you could tell 15 wanted to open. I set out to find a run frequency.
It only required 4 minutes to be noticed! Worked a few stations
only to have another YCCC local open up on the frequency. It took
another two Qs to figure out "Houston we have a problem". We couldn't
hear each other but I figured out who it was because the DX
identified who they were working (super helpful).
I slid up 1 KHz and had to call CQ for 9 more minutes to get
noticed/spotted. When I was finally spotted by F4AIW it was good for a
57Q run at a 155/hr rate.
The run dried up just as fast as it started but it was enough Qs
to decide if I pushed a bit a 1/2 million points should be do-able.
So there you go, 4+9=13 minutes to get noticed. Played that
experiment one more time on 15 around 1830Z. It only took a minute
to get noticed but the run only lasted for 14Qs. After 5 minutes
of CQing with no responses I went back into S&P mode as Europe
had pretty much dried up on 15 by then.
N1MM says a few minutes shy of 25 hours operating, but I made Qs in
36 of the 48 hours. One new country, Mali, on 15M. Only had a few 6
banders including the ZF1A and ZF5T guys. Just could not get
noticed by the PJ guys either night on 160M. Otherwise struggled
through the pig piles all afternoon. By far the toughest station
to work was HH2AA. I had a nice ragchew with a local on 10M at one
point when I was playing my little CQ experiment (never got
noticed/spotted on 10). He stopped by and we exchanged niceties.
I had cable TV streaming all weekend in the shack. I was watching
the absolute devastation happening in Ukraine. I had 50 band/Qs
with our brothers in Ukraine during the CW test and, of course,
zero in this one. The destruction and loss of life seems so
pointless. I wish it would stop but am helpless to facilitate that.
I can only offer my prayers for the people of Ukraine.
73,
Ken - WO1N
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