K4TMC 2024 CQ WPX SSB SOSB10 LP

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

Call: *K4TMC <https://www.3830scores.com/findcall.php?call=K4TMC>*
Operator(s): K4TMC <https://www.3830scores.com/findcall.php?call=K4TMC>
Station: K4TMC

Class: *SOSB10 LP*
Class Overlay: *Unassisted *
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Location: USA
Summary:   Compare Scores
<https://www.3830scores.com/comparescores.php?arg=Rv7uizVLJYJU&call=K4TMC>
Band QSOs
160: 0
80: 0
40: 0
20: 0
15: 0
10: 295
Total: *295* Prefixes *259* Total Score *203,833*

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Coming off my successful SOSB10 LP effort in the ARRL DX earlier in the
month, I decided to give it a try again in the WPX SSB from the home QTH.  In
addition, this week was Spring Break for ‘K through 12’ children and the
beach site was occupied by my son’s family. I really did not want the agony
imposed by the 5-year-old twin grandsons in their quest for pirate treasure
tripping over guy ropes and coax cables in the middle of a run.  I decided
to double the available home attic antennas and proceeded to model and
build a PAR Stressed Moxon design for 10M using square and round aluminum
tubing with flexible fiberglass rods (i.e., those bicycle safety flag
poles) and 18ga wire. I got it mounted in the attic area above a portion of
the first floor at a height of 20 ft oriented South. I re-mounted the MFJ
Moxon in the higher attic area to allow for manual rotation from West
through East. By mid-Thursday I had the antennas adjusted and mounted, coax
cables run (by cutting a hole in an attic closet floor and the ceiling of
the closet in the office/shack) with no trip hazards, and connectors
‘franked’. Noise level on the West-East Moxon was a flickering S1, while
the lower South Moxon was a flickering S2. After escaping the roof timbers,
sheathing and fiberglass shingles, the South Moxon has to fire through a
clump of 35 ft high thick cedar trees about 20 ft away, on the other side
is a 6 ft high solid brick wall, then through the overhead horizontal
tri-wire power lines and a power pole with switching mechanisms before
reaching a 100 yard open space (5-lane road).  And if that was not bad
enough, then there is a shopping center grocery store 20 ft high brick wall
across the road.

Wow…Friday evening was exciting.  Up until around 0130, there were quite a
number of DX signals, although weak on my compromised antennas. S&P’d
(unassisted) the band and worked my first ever BA followed by a number of
JAs, VK and ZL; then all of a sudden, the band seemed to die, but there
were some West Coast stations booming in and a few weak S. America signals.
Called it an evening at 0230.

Back at the rig at 1100 and found weak signals trying to break through from
Europe. Finally made the first contact at 1122. The European stations
gradually got stronger and I was able to start making QSO’s. Got another
first ever…YH4 around 1230. S&p’d all day between 28.295 and 29.000…picking
new fruit at a good rate. Finished the day with a handful of JAs and lots
of C & S Americans.

Back at the rig again Sunday morning at 1200…very quiet band this time.  Only
a few stations getting through. I did hear several Mid-east A stations in
addition to E29 and YB1, but they were only hearing the European and Asian
stations. The only new station worked to my east was D4C. The wall of loud
Europeans never developed. The few stations getting through that were S9++
on Saturday were now between S1 and S5. There were a double-handfull of
loud stateside/province stations and numerous C & S Americans.  Since
things were not improving, I took some Holiday time off to be with the
family. Got back on around 1900 and worked the 7Q6. Spent the rest of the
contest checking back several times to sweep the band for new stations and
managed a few more before the end.

Saturday evening I was over halfway to matching last years contacts, but
Sunday was a bust, and only picked up a few dozen extra contacts. I was
hoping for an opening to some area of the country where I could pick up a
lot of 1-point contacts; that never seemed to develop.

The value of the second Moxon was questionable with all of the RF-defeating
obstructions .  The extra noise it picked up made the few stronger signals
no better on receive, but did help several times on being heard. With
compromised antennas, there is a level of stations that are just too weak
or below the noise, such that they are not workable. I am looking forward
to getting back to the beach for some of the summer month contests.

73,

Henry - K4TMC

Rig: Elecraft K3+ with Heil HC-4 mic element

Antennas: 1 – MFJ-1089 Moxon at 25 ft in attic manually rotatable between
West to East; 2 – Homebrewed PAR Stressed Moxon at 20 ft in attic fixed
South