Call: K2DM

Operator(s): K2DM

Station: K2DM at The Land

Class: SOAB QRP

QTH: NFL

Operating Time (hrs): 38

Summary:

Band  QSOs  Mults

-------------------

  160:    9     6

   80:   67    31

   40:  208    56

   20:  226    54

   15:  204    54

   10:   49    19

-------------------

Total:  763   220  Total Score = 502,920

Club: The Villages Amateur Radio Club

Comments:

This is the BIG one for me.  It's the only contest all year that I enter with

the intention of winning my category.  I have won five times, and I am hopeful

that this year will prove to be number six.  Win or not, however, this was

probably the last time for me to put in a full effort.  I was surprised to see

that I was away from the chair for about 10 hours.  A huge chunk of that time

was Saturday night when I slept for 6 hours in two sessions.  The low bands were

just not yielding anything for me at that time.

The contest began for me much as it had for the past two years.  Decent going on

40M with some productivity on 80M overnight.  Things changed in the morning as a

20M opening gave way to a 15M opening.  Even 10M produced a few contacts.  At

the end of the first 24 hours I was a whopping 21 contacts ahead of last year,

and I couldn't envision where the remaining 200 contacts would come from to

match last year's total of 643.

Once again 40M was my stalwart band overnight, and 80M kicked in another 16

contacts.  I took a rest stop, then added another 38 contacts on 40M around EU

sunrise.  Sadly, 160M remained a bust.

After my nap I woke up shortly before my sunrise and had a 66 hour on 20M/15M.

At 1300Z I matched last year's contact total, 643 contacts.  The remainder of

the contest was a struggle.  To stay awake.  To fight through the Sunday

afternoon pileups on any EU station that showed up.  It's fun (no, not really)

to find a new EA station (or G, F, etc.), to fail to get through on my first or

second try, and to hear the roll call of the Assisted stations as they descend

upon the new station.  At this point my choices are to duke it out and try to

get through or to move on, maybe to return later.  Since there isn't much new on

Sunday afternoon, I usually choose to jump into the fray.  More times than one

would expect, I get through.  In the last hour of the contest, I worked a ZL,

VK, VK6, 3D2 and 4A90.  At some point in this little string of QSOs I went over

the half-million score mark.  I finished with 763 contacts - 120 more than last

year.  N1MM+ calculated that 216 of these contacts were answers to my CQs.

Sweet!