ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: N1UR
Operator(s): N1UR
Station: N1UR
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 33 29
80: 194 60
40: 414 72
20: 851 93
15: 845 90
10: 1233 94
-------------------
Total: 3619 438 Total Score = 4,724,496
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
WOW. After the thrill of the most amazing experience that I
have ever witnessed in my contesting career, I am still trying
to get my head around the high and why of what just happened.
For 10 years, I have been building a competitive contesting
station and practicing the trade. In this contest, I have
actually evolved into not trying to "force it" to be like
CQ WW. Its not, its a running contest. And I am in a desired
"mult" location in Vermont - more on that later. Its actually
a cross between CQ WW and WPX. I realized that about 4 years
ago and changed my strategy for both modes.
I was not able to run quite as much as CW but still ran for 37
hours out of 44 logged with at least half of that dedicated
running at amazingly fast speeds.
I open the contest thinking maybe this was a year to run at the
open on 15 to JA but the whole weekend JA was not nearly as
loud as it was in the CQ WW weekend - down about 20 - 30db at
the peak vs what I saw on CQ WW weekend. And 20 was a
possibility as it was clearly open but decided to try 40 one
more time as JA on 20 wasn't super loud either. I had the
best ever opening hour on 40 SSB with 106 hour. 80 was never
super productive on run even though Sunday morning was decent.
I cobbled together S & P and runs for my second best 80 totals
topped only by the 2009 - 2010 seasons at the sunspot minimum.
I also learned a number of years ago that this contest, like
CQ WW is a combo of very enthusiastic contesters working
you on all the bands they can and a large but much less time
dedicated group of casuals who like calling and collecting
mults but will not work you on multiple bands and seem to
geometrically multiply to do this on 10 when it is open. (I
am not sure what they do for most of the years otherwise.)
And of course, from the east coast, especialyy the Northeast
of the USA, this cotest is all about EU. And when the conditions
get hot on the high bands, and 80 and 160 are being hurt, the W1
location gives just enough edge to make some Qs or do a little
running that is just not possible otherwise. Half of my 160
Qs were very marginal - we both want to work each other for
the mult so keep trying - kind of Qs. Its when you remind
yourself that yes - the extra 1 to 2 dB on 160 by setting
up the 2nd element of a wire array and laying down 10,000 ft
of radial wire over the past year was worth it.
Then there were the hgh band speeds.
Best clock hour of 220 followed by a 203 hour.
A total of 16 hours over 100.
The best clock hours I have had in this contest are the following
prior to this year.
2011 - 168 with 5 over 100
2012 - 160 with 7 over 90
2013 - 150 with 10 over 90
So what is up with that? Well 10M for sure, since I had over
1200 Qs on 10 which is actually equal to the total of Qs on
10 in this contest I have had in the past 10 years. But its
more than that this year. 20M being open both nights solidly
to EU - especailly Northern EU and Russia from 06 - 0830Z
both days was a second add that transformed hours in the
middle of the night from 30 an hour S & P events into nice
SO2R netting 70 to 100 an hour. Both nights. I knew that
the record was likely to fall when I was already up 250 Qs
over my personal best score at 10Z on day one and I was
sure 10M would be wide open all day to EU. In fact, I
beat my personal best score at 06Z on day 2 and the LP
record at 12Z on day 2 - incredible!
But even THAT is not what totally generated this amazing
score and Qs total - essetially 1000 Qs better than the
existing record and 1200 Qs better than my personal best
ever phone cotest. Its maybe half the increase - but not
all I don't think. Vermont was especailly rare this year
as the normal Multi Op at K2LE turned into a casual SO
for the first 12 or so hours and thats it. I was therefore
probably the only running Vermont station in the contest
(please let me know if I wasn't after 15Z Saturday). I
heard many local ops tuning the bands and working people
and helping spread the mults but not running.
Also, many strong competitors in this contest were not on
and therefore I believe the USA loud runners to EU
especially in the morning were not as plentiful allowing
my 150W to sound even stronger than normal in comparison.
K1DG and VE3EJ were single band 15. There was no op at
KC1XX (hey I worked Matt in Dominican Republic - beach?
Matt?). K1LZ was 10M single band. K1RX was SO and not
full time - the list goes on. That is A LOT of Qs and
khz swept off the table. Pour in the same number of EU
stations looking for Qs and MULTS and you have the perfect
storm for a Vermont mult only runner to get "tsunamied"
every time the cluster posted my call. If you can keep
up with it and not lose rate, which I pretty much can,
then its a recepie made in heaven alone to have some
serious fun, excitement, and shatter existing records!
The station I have assembled works great - but its not
that great to deliver this score. It just needs to be
ready for the opportunity when its presented and it, and
I, apparently were.
Time to land back on earth. That one could be a "career
weekend" for me.
Apperently, according to K1TO's post, I stepped on a few
toes trying to be competitive. We have all had it happen,
I am sure. You are away to go to the bathroom, and when
you get back "is my frequency still available"? What
defines a frequency in use? I lost mine for a variety
of reasons - its part of the game. My favorite is when
a station starts CQing on you and says they are listening
on another frequency. So, I will accept the critism, and
and simply say its a competition - and it sounded like an
empty frequency when I got back. Never knew who I was
talking to since you never signed your call, Dan.
>From a total conditions basis, CQWW (both modes) was better.
And I am not talking mults and numbers of JAs or anything.
I mean just signal strength and length of openings. 10
and 15 were open longer and way louder to Asia in CQ WW.
And 40M to Asia was way way louder than in this contest.
Still this contest has not seen a SFI over 110 I think in
the past 11 years - so it was the best one since 2002
when the existing record in Low Power was broken. It
was interesting to note that K3LR's score this year
almost, but didn't, break the KC1XX record from past
cycle. So from a "holistic" comparison, this year was
not as good as then - since for sure there are more
EU active contesters in this than 10 years ago and K3LR
would have beaten that record if it were there. I think.
I would like to thank my wife, Christine - KB1PQN, for
putting up with me and my crazy hobby all these years.
Thanks for all of the amazing support that coninues
still with every contest and "antenna day".
73 and see you in WPX.
Ed N1UR
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