[ADXA] ARRL CW DX contest

[Dennis Schaefer]

I submitted my log with the club affiliation - thanks for the reminder.

One thing I forgot to mention about the contest....I wish they would stop
putting "automatic zero beat" on rigs.  There is a lot of CW operation
during contests, and many are trying it even with little experience. As a
little pistol looking for a clear spot,  I called CQ on 10M above 28.100,
so I tended to attract the 100 watt guys, the QRP guys, and the
straight-keyers.   Most of these were good operators, but there were many
times when I stood by and there was just a continuous tone.  5 or 6
stations calling, all exactly zero beat, does not make for good copy.
Also, they would all call initially and then there would be silence.  After
not getting a response, someone should have started calling strategically.
Usually if I waited 3 or 4 5 seconds, someone would, but they should have
been much more aggressive, and should have moved their TX frequency 200 Hz
or so up or down to stand out.  I see this a lot in POTA activations,
Arkansas QSO Party, etc, but I don't remember it to this extent in a DX
contest.  I guess the fantastic conditions on 10 meters brought out
everyone and that's a good thing!

Looks like I got only about 8 new band counters, though, so George and John
are still safe.....

73,
Dennis/RZ

On Mon, Feb 20, 2023 at 5:34 AM <w5zn at w5zn.org> wrote:

> Sounds great Dennis !!!!
>
> Just a reminder to everyone, please do not forget to submit a log and
> list "Arkansas DX Assn" as your ARRL Affiliate Club. We are in the drop
> down box on the web submission form.
>
> 73 Joel W5ZN
>
>
> On 2023-02-19 21:08, Dennis Schaefer wrote:
> > I started out planning to cruise for some new band counters.   I also
> > wanted to test my “guy wire sloping vertical” on 80 and my 160m
> > inverted-L.   The 80m did very well, with 38 Q’s and good signals from
> > Europe.  The 160m is effective and produced booming signals from down
> > South but noise covered any EU.  it did let me work ZF5T, though, so I
> > got them on 6 bands again.
> >
> > Saturday morning blew my plans up, though.  I did some searching and
> > pouncing on 10 and there were so many EU stations that my rate stayed
> > between 120-150 per hour, and then I called CQ.   You’d have thought I
> > was on Bouvet - the EU pileup was amazing.   I hadn’t intended a big
> > effort, so I extracted myself during a lull and did other things until
> > working a few JAs in the early evening.  After the 10:00 news, I did
> > one run through 40 meters, and worked a few more on 80 and 160.
> >
> > I slept until almost 7 on Sunday.  I worked a JA on 40 for the
> > multiplier, and did one pass through 20 meters, then 15.  Then back to
> > 10 for nonstop action for a couple of hours.   Late in the day,  I
> > collected a few mults on 20.
> >
> > The final score was 404,000, with over 600 Q’s, 424 of which were on
> > 10 meters.  Including time spent chasing new band counters, messing
> > with antennas, etc, I spent about 10 hours.
> >
> > Dennis/RZ
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