Report from ZL1ANJ (SSB only)
Propagation
------------
Activity levels and propagation for the ARRL 10M contests seem
to track the movement in the Sun-spot cycle pretty accurately.
Looking back in my log, here is a comparison across the last
six years:
ZL1ANJ single-op/hp/SSB only:
Year QSO's Multipliers
1992 2220 132
1993 1129 102
1994 627 80
1995 384 50
1996 737 74
1997 1547 119 (55S + 64C)
This seems to indicate that 1995 was the low point between
cycle 22 and 23. My 1997 result was the best since 1992.
Time Zone
---------
New Zealand is across the date-line from the US, so the contest
starts at 1.00pm NZ daylight saving time on Saturday.
The contest closes at 1.00pm on Monday, so we need to take a
day off work to enter the contest. But this gives us the advantage
of three possible openings to North America. Even if condx are
poor on one or two days, at least one opening should be guaranteed.
The Contest
-----------
Saturday (ZL)
The the contest opened with strong signals from North America,
and multipliers from 17 states were logged in the first half-hour.
Stateside contacts slowed at 0140Z, when a JA opening continued
for several hours until Europe started to come in at 0700z.
Short-path to Europe is via the JA direction, so we work a mixture
of JA, Asia and Europe on the same heading.
At 1100Z the band reversed, and CT1AOZ was worked long path,
together with CX and LU stations. At 1130Z the band closed for
the night. (30 min after midnight ZL time).
Sunday (ZL)
Checked the band at sunrise, and worked Jon N5JA TX at 1657Z, and
K3ZO MD at 1659Z for the first contacts - I think Jon uses a phasing
box to transmit to both Florida and Pacific at the same time.
Stateside signals continued to be strong and I was able to maintain
a run frequency for several hours above 28.500 to clear the QRM.
At 1939Z was called by EA8BMW long path.
At 2137Z I worked W0SD in SD for the last but one section in the
United States. The opening to North America closed early with
W3JO PA the last contact at 0034Z.
Europe came in again from 0700Z, and the band closed at 0927Z.
Monday (ZL)
6.00am local (1700Z) saw me scanning the band, but no action
until 1920Z, when the familar call of Kilo 4 Very Ugly Duck
floated in at 1920Z.
The final four hours saw most of the states again- but the
band was dropping so it was was hard to hear the "home" stations,
- all the big signals has been worked before.
War stories
-----------
1. I was concentrating on the difficult to work states, and when
Delaware, District of Columbia and South Dakota checked in, a
clean sweep in one day seemed possible. But North Dakota was
not to be found. Still I was pleased to log 47 of the 48,
plus DC, KL7 and KH6 making a total of 50 of the possible
USA multipliers on SSB. These were worked in the first 22 hours
of the contest.
2. In 1996 I did not work any European stations, but this year
100 were worked in that multiplier-rich continent - what
an improvement!
3. Greyline works on 10M:
I looked up the sun times for Finland SR 0719Z SS 1311Z, and for
New Zealand SR 1656Z SS 0736Z. A sked was made with OF5BM for
Saturday and Sunday between 0700Z to 0730Z which is the overlap time.
Like magic Tapani OF5BM appeared out of the noise at 0700Z on Sunday
to complete our first 10M QSO since the last sunspot cycle.
3. Very little activity found from Caribbean and South America.
4. Last year few souls were brave enough to venture above 28.500.
But this year better conditions brought out more stations, and it
was possible to maintain good runs above .500
5. I agree that the comment the 10M contest is most enjoyable: "Is
that because we all get a decent amount of sleep during this thing???
6. Soapbox
==========
> Thanks for the contact on 10 meters (28.455, 13 Dec, 22:36z).
> I'm a new ham and you're my first New Zealand contact!
> You must have very good equipment- I was mobile with only 25 watts.
> 73 Steve KD5AIJ
> Many thanks to Bill W4AN for allowing myself and Dave K0DI
> to operate his fine station again this year for the 10m contest.
> Strangely, it seems the Pacific was in less than last year.
> ZL1ANJ had a strong signal when the band was open.
> Ops: W4AN, N9HZQ, K0DI
> Call used: K8CC (Op N8NX) in MI
> Good Pacific opening on Saturday night. Sunday was a reprise
> of Saturday, only with fewer new stations to work.
> Surprised to hear ZL1ANJ running USA when no USA heard here.
> N8NX
7. Missed 1 key State:
Anyone want to make a DXpedition to North Dakota for ARRL10M in 1998?
===================================================
Continent Statistics
ZL1ANJ Single Operator 13-14 Dec 1997
`
SSB QSOs percent
North America 967 62.5
South America 14 0.9
Europe 100 6.5
Asia 361 23.3
Africa 2 0.1
Oceania 103 6.7
===================================================
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults ZL1ANJ Single Operator
HOUR 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 129/23 129/23 129/23
1 102/7 102/7 231/30
2 70/2 70/2 301/32
3 85/2 85/2 386/34
4 65/4 65/4 451/38
5 16/4 16/4 467/42
6 18/4 18/4 485/46
7 20/6 20/6 505/52
8 23/5 23/5 528/57
9 20/3 20/3 548/60
10 14/1 14/1 562/61
11 4/3 4/3 566/64
12 . . 566/64
13 . . 566/64
14 . . 566/64
15 . . 566/64
16 3/1 3/1 569/65
17 31/8 31/8 600/73
18 129/18 129/18 729/91
19 127/7 127/7 856/98
20 88/4 88/4 944/102
21 50/2 50/2 994/104
22 80/3 80/3 1074/107
23 34/1 34/1 1108/108
0 28/0 28/0 1136/108
1 6/0 6/0 1142/108
2 20/0 20/0 1162/108
3 41/0 41/0 1203/108
4 28/1 28/1 1231/109
5 40/0 40/0 1271/109
6 3/1 3/1 1274/110
7 29/2 29/2 1303/112
8 30/1 30/1 1333/113
9 3/1 3/1 1336/114
10 . . 1336/114
11 . . 1336/114
12 . . 1336/114
13 . . 1336/114
14 . . 1336/114
15 . . 1336/114
16 ..... ..... 1336/114
17 . . 1336/114
18 . . 1336/114
19 25/2 25/2 1361/116
20 69/2 69/2 1430/118
21 20/1 20/1 1450/119
22 36/0 36/0 1486/119
23 61/0 61/0 1547/119
DAY1 1108/108 ..... 1108/108
DAY2 439/11 . 439/11
TOT 1547/119 . 1547/119
Thanks to all the operators who looked for ZL in the Contest.
Regards,
Martin ZL1ANJ
-------------
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