[SMCARA] ARRL International DX Contest (Phone)

[Tom Shelton]

Hi All...

The contest is over, my log has been submitted, LotW and eQLS (AG) updated, and I'm looking forward to the next contest.

My final results were 130 contacts and 99 multipliers, giving me a final score of 38,610.  Not my best showing, but my goal for this contest was to earn a pin (100 contacts), so I've got more than enough for that.  

Because this contest is the world vs. the USA and Canada, my signal was buried under all of the high power stations.  I got up at 4:00 AM on Saturday and Sunday and made the majority of my contacts between 4:00AM and 8:00 AM, while the rest of the country was asleep.  During other times, I would spend an hour or so making 5 or 10 contacts at a time (but those were hard to come by because of reasons described above).  I really need to find a better antenna, something with a small wind-load and more directionality than my current set-up (Hustler 6-BTV vertical), but that will have to wait until my financial circumstances are more stable.

I made contacts on all contest bands except 160 meters (still don't have an antenna for that).  It was really nice to see 10 meters open for the first time in several years and I hope some of you took advantage of the better band conditions to make a few contacts yourself.

Tom Shelton 

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