[TVARC] FW: ARRL 10 K2PS SO Mixed LP

[George Briggs]

Pete,
It is quite impressive that you stuck it out.  This is obviously one of your 
favorite contests,
and you always max out what your station and conditions give you.  Well 
done!
Sorry to hear about the hernia surgery.
73,
George K2DM


-----Original Message----- 
From: K2PS Pete Stafford
Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 3:44 PM
To: tvarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TVARC] FW: ARRL 10 K2PS SO Mixed LP

First off, I just want to thank everyone in the club for giving me nearly
10% of my QSOs.  I counted N8RW, KA1AF, K3ZGA, K2DM, N0SMX, N4FP, ND4G,
WB2YVK, with a  couple of those on SSB also.  Nice to see so much TVARC
activity in a contest.  Looks as if we've got a good core of operators for
when we finally get a club station.

I must say, this had to be the worst conditions I've ever seen for the ARRL
10M contest.  I looked back at the last bunch of scores I made in this
contest, and I think you'll agree with my assessment:

Year QSOs USA Finish
-----------------------
>From TV (4-element yagi up about 25 feet):
2017 105 ?
2016 442 3rd
2015 560 4th
2014 1524 3rd
2013 626 18th
>From DC (4-element yagi up about 40 feet):
2012 720 4th
2011 1296 5th
2010 385 11th
>From NJ (C31XR up 55 feet with 7 elements on 10):
2009 225 16th
2008 690 3rd
2007 456 3rd
..

Amazing how the cycle affects 10 meters!  I would say also, that, except for
the high sunspot years, when F2 propagation is most significant, luck of the
draw with Sporadic E is what counts.  In some years Florida is blessed with
multiple pipelines to the northeast and the Midwest and Southwest, where
these areas only get to talk to us, not to one another.  Nirvana!  F2
propagation years favor the West Coast, since they get to feed on a
never-ending stream of East Coast (including FL) stations.  So this year I
notice that the better scores belong to Midwesterners.  Apparently, they had
Es both east and west.  I worked one guy (from Indiana) in the Midwest this
year.

So it sure was a grind.  The one opening of any note was Saturday morning,
while Frank, KA1AF, went to Panera's.  (You need to go there more often!)
For the rest of the time, I struggled to work anyone outside of Florida, and
couldn't even work a bunch of FL stations that I heard repeatedly.  That was
the most frustrating thing - I called countless numbers of stations that
couldn't hear me.  I did find that in the high winds Saturday, that my yagi
turned 90 degrees from its original direction.  Fortunately, the wind died
down and never changed that difference.  I just had to constantly subtract
90 from the bearing of where the station was supposed to be.  But even after
correcting that, they didn't hear me.  (Had hernia surgery a week ago, and
so was not allowed to climb up and fix it.)  Sometimes I'd just keep
calling, hoping that the meteor burst would peak just as I transmitted.  But
then even if that occurred, my exchange wouldn't get through and he'd give
up and call CQ again.  Ugh!

The good news is that it just can't get any worse - might not get better,
though, but you never know.

73, Pete, K2PS

ARRL 10-Meter Contest

Call: K2PS
Operator(s): K2PS
Station: K2PS

Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: FL
Operating Time (hrs):

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:   92    22
  SSB:   13     6
-------------------
Total:  105    28  Total Score = 11,032

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:




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