[PVRCNC] CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB ( N1LN - M2)

[Bruce Meier]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

 

Call: N1LN

Operator(s): N4YDU, W4KAZ, AD4L, WW4M, KA1ARB, W4DTB, N1LN

Station: N1LN

 

Class: M/2 HP

QTH: NC

Operating Time (hrs): 48

 

Summary:

Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries

------------------------------

  160:   75    12       23

   80:  364    18       69

   40:  508    27       97

   20: 1092    39      126

   15: 1104    36      131

   10: 1593    37      146

------------------------------

Total: 4736   169      592  Total Score = 9,560,443

 

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

 

Comments:

 

With every week prior to a Contest Weekend, whoever is part of the team, has
an email discussion about goal setting.   CQWW-SSB was no exception.   The
only difference this weekend was that we reached our goals long before the
end of the contest.   So, we quickly reset our goals higher and changed our
conversation to forecasting what scores some of the big stations would turn
in.  Based on some of the early postings to 3830 we were not only low on our
initial goal setting, but also on what a big score would look like.  Records
were broken this weekend.  The short story, 10 meters was OPEN and it was
fun.

 

In total, our team had seven operators, and I thank them all for their
flexibility with the operating schedule.   It was great to have both Nate,
N4YDU, and Kaz, W4KAZ, back for another contest weekend.   Another frequent
team member is Rob. KA1ARB.  He was supposed to arrive Saturday night, but
got stranded in New York City because of the snow and did not arrive until
almost 1800 UTC on Sunday.  When his plane landed at RDU, his next stop was
here.  Even though he was quite tired from a stressful weekend, he stayed to
the end and closed out the contest with me.  We were also able to get a
couple PVRC members out of semi-contest retirement.   Pete, AD4L, was able
to stay for the entire contest and Jim, WW4M, was able to rearrange a family
commitment so he could help out Friday night to mid-day Saturday.  We also
had a relatively new ham, Derek, W4DTB, stop by on Saturday afternoon for a
couple of hours.  This was the first time Derek participated in one of the
WW majors.  We think he may be hooked.  I was number seven.  

 

We just can't have a 48 hour contest weekend without a visit from Mr.
Murphy.   Early Friday afternoon I just got in the house from my usual
beverage walk and tower, coax, antenna inspection.  The next step was to
test the software, networking and antennas.  All was well except for the top
20 meter antenna.  The SWR was over 4 to 1.  Panic set in.  I had replaced
the coax about 2 months ago after a similar issue.  Now what?  The good news
here is that the problem went away.  The better news was that it stayed
away.  This Saturday I will be up the tower with tools.  The next issue was
computer related.  I had just rebuilt XP on my left computer due to a virus.
It was working fine.  About 8 hours into the contest WriteLog started to run
very slow and then hung.  It was time for a CTRL ALT DEL and reboot.  From
then on it was fine.  That was our last visit from Mr. Murphy.

 

Now on to the fun, and we had lots of it.  The bands were in great shape,
FINALLY.   10 and 15 meters were very busy with strong signals and
fortunately the K3s were always able to find run frequencies.  20 meters was
open almost all night, closing only for about 1.5 hours.  The dead time was
weird.  It was early into my 0900 to 1200 UTC Sunday shift.  I was moving
between 20, 80 and 160 while Pete worked the busier 40 meters.  One minute
20 was crowded with a good Europe opening.  The next minute I could only
hear about 5 signals on the band.  I thought the top antenna failed again,
but no.  Strange.   The highlight of the weekend was listening to Nate and
Kaz on their 1200 to 1500 UTC Sunday shift.   Kaz was on 10 and Nate was on
15.  They had the best 3 hour shift of the weekend with a combined Q count
of 569 and the best one hour rate of 260.   It was during their run that
both of our original goals were surpassed and new goals were set.   80 and
160 were quite noisy which impacted both our Q and mult counts.  Both bands
were under our 2010 results.    

 

Zones missed:

20 meters: 34

15 meters: 23,29,37, 39

10 meters: 18, 23, 26

 

Congratulations to everyone that participated this weekend and had the
opportunity to experience one of the best, if not THE BEST, propagation
weekends in recent history.   I know we all had a fun weekend and hope to
have a few more during this cycle.   Now it is time for the counting and
error checking.  

 

73, 

Bruce - N1LN