va2wdq
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Posts: 962 | | Karma: 11
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Re:ARRL DX CW 2017 - 2017/02/20 11:10
CallSign Used : VA2WA
Operator Category : SINGLE-OP Assisted Category : ASSISTED Band : ALL Power : HIGH
Band QSOs Pts Cty Pt/Q 1.8 126 378 61 3.0 3.5 532 1596 91 3.0 7 659 1977 103 3.0 14 1260 3780 108 3.0 21 411 1233 93 3.0 28 23 69 18 3.0 Total 3011 9033 474 3.0
Score : 4,281,642 Time on: 41 h The best hour: 181 q/h (Sat 12z-13z on 20m)
That was a last minutes decision to go as SOAB as I was planning to try SOSB-80. I've installed a new RX antenna K9AY to improve receiving from Western directions as they couldn't be covered by BEV to EU. BTW I like it for a very comfortable S/N ratio due to a real F/B ratio being at least 20db. Even being behind my short EU BEV that small "flags" helped me a lot on 160-80 so I'm thinking about keeping it for a long time.
The first contest night was rough here in FN36 as a result of high latitude ionosphere disturbance (K=3/4). I've noticed on the http://cqcontest.net/ page all southern East Coast competitors were running with much better rates on low bands. The 40 was terrible. I couldn't get run on 40 and I've been barely readable for most EU's I tried to call. The 80 m band was much better option so I switched to run on 80 mixing up with rare jumps to 160 and desperately attempts of getting new mults on 40 by a second radio. Next day propagation was great on low bands and on 20 as well, The 15 meters was not bad but still too far from a really good shape. I guess our north QTH couldn't be the best since I've found all the northern EU countries such as GM,LA, OH, SM have been under noise when EA, I, 9A were booming with huge signals. The same time W3/W2 skimmers were spotting all the northern stating I could barely hear. The 10m band was almost dead except trans equatorial traces to SA starting over 3200 - 3500 kms. I couldn't copy north Caribbean multipliers such as 6Y, HI, CO but have been able to get P4, PY, LU, CX, CW etc. I've been lucky to catch D4 on ten but didn't copy EA8 and other AF's have been running on the band at the same time.
Anyway this ARRL DX brought a lot of fun and hope we all enjoy this event. I found a great option to use online scoring system http://cqcontest.net/. That gives me a lot of motivation and always encourage on some better effort to chase all these guys in front of me.
73!
Victor
Post edited by: va2wdq, at: 2017/02/20 11:39
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