[TVARC] FW: ARRLDX CW K2DM SOAB QRP

Mon Feb 17 18:36:18 EST 2020

FANTASTIC!!

Wayne, N4FP

On Mon, Feb 17, 2020 at 4:30 PM George <k2dm at comcast.net> wrote:

> Clubmates,
>
> Here are my results from this weekend’s contest.
>
>
>
> Sent from Mail <https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986> for
> Windows 10
>
>
>
>
>
>                     ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2020
>
>
>
> Class: SOAB QRP
>
> QTH: Florida
>
> Operating Time (hrs): 36
>
>
>
> Summary:
>
> Band  QSOs  Mults
>
> -------------------
>
>   160:   25    18
>
>    80:   84    51
>
>    40:  150    59
>
>    20:  320    74
>
>    15:   63    35
>
>    10:   15    13
>
> -------------------
>
> Total:  657   250  Total Score = 492,750
>
>
>
> Club: The Villages Amateur Radio Club
>
>
>
> Comments:
>
>
>
> From 2003 to 2010, I won the QRP category for W/VE in the ARRL DX CW
> contest.
>
> This was when I lived in New Jersey and had monoband yagis at 90 feet on
> 40M –
>
> 10M.  I was motivated by a very friendly rivalry with Bob, K3PH and Doug,
> KR2Q.
>
> Often as not, one of us would win the category back then – except for the
> two
>
> years when other ops named Briggs deposited me in second place.  Both of my
>
> brothers had the advantage of better antennas and locations.  I suppose I
> may
>
> have to concede a slight skill advantage to them also.
>
> In 2012, I moved full time to The Villages – a deed restricted community in
>
> central Florida.  Goodbye 90-foot towers and monoband yagis; hello attic
> dipoles
>
> and 20-foot flagpole verticals.  While all of us contesters and DXers in
> The
>
> Villages have made do with what we have, I have secretly kept an eye out
> for a
>
> couple of acres just outside The Villages.  A year ago, I found a place,
> and my
>
> wife Karen, K4ZDM, enthusiastically said to go for it.  It took from March
> to
>
> October for us to ‘flip’ the 30-year-old single-wide trailer on the 2.4
>
> acres of land and to put up a couple of towers.  The antenna farm is not
>
> complete, but I had the objective of inviting the many friends who devoted
> hours
>
> of time and effort to come use a station with real antennas in the CQWW DX
> SSB
>
> contest.  Since then a handful of us have operated in a few contests just
> for
>
> the joy of it, but I had always set my sights on doing a serious single-op
> QRP
>
> entry in the ARRL DX CW contest.  The antennas are less impressive than
> back in
>
> NJ, and the conditions are challenging, but I wanted to see how the station
>
> would play.
>
> With Karen’s full support I put in about a 37-hour effort.  It became
> apparent
>
> early on that this was going to be a slug-fest.  It was humbling to have
>
> stations CQ in my face regularly.  If I didn’t like them so much it would
> have
>
> been humiliating to have my flagpole-vertical friends beat me in some of
> the
>
> pileups.  W2TR, K3ZGA and K2PS come to mind.  Gary and Pete were probably
>
> running a few hundred watts, but I know that Bob was barefoot at 100W.  Oh
> well,
>
> hang in there, George!
>
> I used my customary QRP approach of searching and pouncing as I tuned up
> the
>
> bands.  When I found an apparently-clear frequency I would toss out a few
> CQs.
>
> These actually netted me a few dozen Qs, and they gave my mind a break.  I
>
> started with a 30 hour on 40M, and it dropped to the low 20s for the next
> three
>
> hours.  When I QSYd to 80M I had another 30 hour, which surprised me
> because 80M
>
> has been hard for me in the past.  I ultimately made 84 Qs on 80M.  But
> 160M was
>
> a big surprise.  I know all the big stations have been raving about how
> they
>
> were able to rake in the Qs on 160M, but I was very happy to make 25 Qs
> there.
>
> (Including KH6 and a few 6-band Caribbean stations.  Sadly no EUs.)  And
> to have
>
> 15M and 10M sort of open was a real treat.  The 63 and 15 Qs I picked up on
>
> those two bands really helped my score.
>
> While I certainly did not expect to do as well as in 2010, I had what I
> thought
>
> was the reasonable goal of exceeding last year’s winning totals of 519 Qs
> and
>
> 189 countries.  After I achieved that, I accepted Karen’s high five and
>
> pressed on to see if I could reach 600/200.  When I got there, I told
> Karen that
>
> 630/215 would probably be tops for me.  I was getting really tired, the
> rates in
>
> the last five hours were 10, 11, 11, 12 and 7.  I was channeling brother
> Jeff,
>
> VY2ZM, with my chin falling to my chest as I tuned the bands towards the
> end.
>
> So, although I hate to admit it, when I hit the 250 country total with 80
>
> minutes to go, I packed up and went home.
>
> I can’t thank Karen enough for driving down to the station a handful of
> times
>
> with REAL food for me to eat and for all the encouragement.
>
> Next up at “The Land” will be this weekend for a few of us to play in the
>
> 160M contest.  Even though brother Peter, K3ZM, stole an ARRL DX CW QRP
> plaque
>
> from me a decade ago I still get on and support him in the 160M contests.
>
>
>
>
>
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
>
>
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