[TVARC] 10 Meter Contest Final

[K2PS Pete Stafford]

I really can't complain too much about conditions for this contest, at this
point in the solar cycle.  Well, I can, but it really did turn out pretty
well.  We had propagation to much of the US, and some pretty good openings
in each area.

 

Didn't work any TVARCers today, but I did fail to include John, who
yesterday called in as NP2B in FL.  Well, N1MM didn't like the mismatch
between callsign and state (DX sends a serial number instead)  and popped up
a long message box that I attempted to read and respond to, all while I had
a couple of other callers that I didn't want to lose.  It did all work out,
I'm glad to say.

 

Today's opening started out at roughly 745a, this time to ON, NY, Quebec,
and all of New England.  Just what I hoped for!  And the opening just got
stronger and stronger.  I was calling CQ and they were coming back to me in
droves.  The ratemeter pushed up to 203 at one point, with one 10 minute
stretch at 2.6 contacts/minute (156/hr), and 1.8/minute (105/hr) for the
full 60 minutes.  That was wonderful.  At about 845a I switched to SSB
because I wanted to be sure to get all those multipliers, even though I
needed to work SSB stations at twice the rate for the same number of points.
Working pileups is lots of fun on SSB when signals are loud, and especially
to the northeast where I knew many of the guys calling and we could greet
one another by name.

 

As these conditions come, so they must go.  And just as it pretty much dried
up I heard my first roll of thunder.  Great timing!  So at about 930a I
disconnected both my antennas, the antenna relay box, and the rotator (not
complaining you understand, it's nice to have all that stuff that needs
disconnecting once again).

 

Tried again 15 minutes later, but then more T-storms.  Repeat.

 

Around 1015a the skies began to clear and just like that we had an opening
to the LA, TX, and MS area.  Switched back and forth between modes and had
all the multipliers from there except MS on SSB.  So I just asked for
someone in MS to call, and sure enough someone did!  That never happens,
BTW.

 

Activity got pretty light for the next few hours, and I had a hard time
working stations.  Even took a short nap.  Had a little opening to the
northeast once again, but nothing much.  

 

My frustration with not being able to work people finally caused me to check
the yagi's alignment, and sure enough, it had twisted around so that I was
pointed roughly 90 degrees from where I thought I was looking.  That would
explain a lot!  But by then conditions had worsened, and I shut things down
to watch the Eagles game.don't ask.

 

So here are the final totals:

CW: 422 QSOs, 48 states/prov, 8 countries

SSB: 131, 31, 7

 

for a total of 553/79/15 resulting in 183,300 points.

 

I operated Single Op, Unassisted, Low Power.

 

73, Pete, K2PS

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