2025 ARRL 10M Contest - K4TMC - SOLPSSB

[Henry Pollock - K4TMC]

ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2025

Call: K4TMC  Operator(s): K4TMC  Station: K4TMC

Class: SO SSB LP non-assisted

QTH: NC

Operating Time (hrs): 21

Summary:

 Band  QSOs  Mults

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

   CW:    0     0

  SSB:  353    97

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

Total:  353    97  Total Score = 68,482

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Plans did not work out for a beach site operation this time. With only one
family commitment early evening Friday, I was prepared to put in an almost
full-time effort (as long as the band was open). Since this was going to be
at the home QTH, my initial goal was to work 400 Qs to match last year’s
results (from home also) and add to the PVRC club total. I was hoping that
the extra BIC time would allow for an increased QSO total. In addition,
following the Online Scoreboard really helped maintain the BIC time. There
was a N5 station that was ahead of me and I worked hard, nipping at his
heels most of the time, catching up and passing him a few times, but in the
end, even though I had more mults, he came back near the end and beat me
with more QSOs.

With the primary #98 K3+ freshly back from minor surgery and updating at
the Elecraft hospital, I went into this effort with visions of the CQWWSSB
from October. I spent some time in the attic trying to determine how to
replace the Europe-oriented Moxon with maybe a 3 or 4 element yagi. It
would have required losing the West Coast Moxon and lowering the S/C
America Moxon, plus replacing a lot of HVAC duct metal support straps. In
the end, I decided to keep things as-is. That was a good decision, since
the West Coast Moxon pulled-its-weight in working a number of XE and the
one KH6. Propagation often seemed to be skewed, and I found the West Coast
Moxon also played better with most of the weak S. American stations. I had
also considered installing an end-fed half wave vertical in the one tree on
the lot and entering the Limited Antenna category. But that would have put
me in the loop for a visit from the HOA police.

The 10M propagation forecast for Friday and Saturday were not promising
with words like degrading and blackout. That turned out to be very true! I
missed the first 1.5 hours of the start Friday evening, but was still happy
to get 14 QSOs before calling it for the evening. The band seemed to start
slow Saturday morning and never fully opened to all of Europe. When I found
D4C only a little above the noise, I knew that forecast was coming true! So
this effort quickly changed from a potential 50/50 split of running versus
S&P to 90% S&P. With the bad band conditions, the few short runs were just
not productive at low power and compromised antennas. All day Saturday
there was a lot of QSB on almost every Europe signal. I still eked out a
4X, KH6 and lots of weak S/C America stations before the band closed out
around 2300Z. Good timing since there was a hockey game to watch on the
tele.

Sunday morning was even worse than Saturday morning but I still managed to
snag an OD5, TA3 and V55. Formerly easy countries to work were hard. Wow…I
was so glad that I had not tried this as a limited antenna category! I
spent the day tuning the band from 28.300 up to 28.800 trying to work every
weak signal that was readable. I stopped a little after 2200Z to watch
another hockey game, but did come back a few times to check if there was a
band change before the contest ended.

And to make matters even worse, there was an intermittent nearby S-3 to 5
noise source that often blocked me from hearing the weaker stations. This
started both Saturday and Sunday mornings (1300Z to 1400Z) just as the band
opened to Europe and again in the afternoons as things were good toward S/C
America. It was a strange noise that seemed to be at a higher frequency
than power line noise, that would come on with a few short bursts and then
stay on for a number of minutes then cycle on and off, mostly on, for maybe
15 minutes. I contemplated pulling out the little AM/FM/SW portable radio
and walking the nearby streets. However, I decided to do it on a warmer
day. As I write this on Monday morning, the noise just started at 1415.

So, I can’t say that this was a fun effort. I did not reach my QSO goal and
I spent too much time BIC to squeeze out those 353 QSOs. Although, I do
feel lucky that I was able to make as many of those weak signal QSOs that I
did.

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

Antennas: three MFJ-1890 10M Moxons in home 2nd floor attic at 26 ft; one
oriented to Europe, one to C/S America and one to West Coast.

73,

Henry – K4TMC