[TVARC] ARRLDX CW K2PS SOSB10 HP

[K2PS Pete Stafford]

I just loooove sunspots!  

Decided to put up the 4-element 10M yagi for this one, something I hadn't
done for years.  (I do use it for the ARRL 10M Contests every December.)
Without the prospect of good conditions to Europe and Asia, it hadn't been
worthwhile to focus on ten.  But this year seemed to finally offer the
chance for a good single-band 10M effort with my 500W, newly repaired amp.
And boy did that turn out great!

I had been monitoring conditions on FT8 the past few days before the
weekend, and it seemed that the Europeans were loud and the band stayed open
for quite a while every morning.  Likewise, in the late afternoon I was
seeing some nice JA openings.  There were some rumblings of solar storms,
which could wreak havoc with propagation, but the SFI was in the high 160s,
so it sure seemed that chances were good.  Besides, 10M is terrific for not
disrupting my sleep, nor dinner and TV time with the XYL, since the band
only opens at dawn and closes shortly after dusk.

Friday night opened well, with some good S&P QSOs, including a new TVARC
country, V8 Brunei (#276).  Also worked DU, YB, and quite a few JAs.
Saturday opened at about 7A local, and I found a good frequency and started
running Europeans.  Looks as if I averaged about 100 Qs/hr for the first
four hours - sweet!  I took a break at about 230P until what I hoped was
another good JA opening at about 4P.  At that time I worked a bunch of JAs,
FK, and UA0, and signals were pretty good.  So I decided to see what would
happen if I tried a few CQs.  Well, I wasn't ready for what happened then!
They started to come back, one after the other, and it felt like a typical
European run, but it was all Asia.  Remember, we're on the East Coast, so
jumping over the Atlantic is pretty routine.  But leaping over the Pacific
after traversing the USA is quite another.  My runs averaged about 55/hr for
two solid hours.  Mostly Japan, but also a few BY, DU, HL, VK, ZL stations,
actually answering my CQs!  Even had some 5W stations call me from there.  I
never experienced this from NJ, with a big beam and tower.  I did see that
SFI was 343(!), and stayed there for quite a while, so maybe that had
something to do with it.  Sunday was really just more of the same, although
just a bit slower.  Ended the first day with 714 contacts, and added 518
Sunday - and of course, since this was a single band, they were all unique
stations, so participation was pretty high.  But the pattern was similar on
Sunday - the runs were slower, both EU and AS (and yes, I was able to run
Asia again on Sunday night), but good, strong openings.

Congrats to George, who actually spent 40 hours in the chair, and put up a
terrific score, probably #1 in the US/Canada.  QRP can be a real drag, I've
done it (once on SSB too, but never again)!  Much easier to sit on one spot
and let 'em come to you (and maybe even do a crossword puzzle while you're
waiting :) ).

Rusty too - with his driveway flagpole, made a million points!  Super.

Glad to see that Doug, K1CTR is back, and K3ZGA, WB2ART, ND4G, N0SMX also
chipped in.  I don't know who else was in there; just going by stations that
use contestonlinescore.com or have reported their scores.  I encourage other
TVARCers to join up.  Fun to monitor others.  K2DM was on that site, but
attached his score to the Florida Contest Group - that's our President, mind
you.

The yagi comes down tomorrow (want to try the late afternoon Asians one last
time), and won't go up again until December (no ARRL DX SSB).

73, Pete, K2PS

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023

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

Class: SOSB10 HP
QTH: NFL
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:           
   80:           
   40:           
   20:           
   15:           
   10: 1232    89
-------------------
Total: 1232    89  Total Score = 328,410

Club: The Villages Amateur Radio Club

Comments:




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