Behind every summary sheet is a story...
This contest began about 6 weeks ago when Bill, KM9P, asked if he could
come up and operate again. Condx have been pretty bad, and when he found
out what a ticket costs, he decided to pass. But he had gotten me thinking
about the contest. I was in need of a fix!
I decided that I wanted to make a serious effort. I even found a 2x1
call that I could "borrow" for the weekend to improve my
chances.
My wife had originally decided to go out of town for the weekend. But
then on Wed, she changed her mind. And she started putting on the pressure
that I didn't really need to operate this contest either (I am sure you
married guys know the routine). I did not have a good week of preparation
with lots of hours at work and not much sleep. Friday morning, I agreed
that I would "give up" the contest and just mess around.
I got home about 1 hour before the contest started. I cooked dinner and
got a final decision. This would NOT be a serious effort. I could operate
but she would let me know when it was time to quit for some "family
time." It didn't help that the weather outside was best so far this
year.
I didn't want to use the "borrowed" call if I wasn't going to
be serious, so I started out using K5ZD (or KH7D, or KH8D, as many
Europeans copied it). I wanted to be able to compare notes with my
neighbor W2SC (aka NR1E) so I decided to do my operating as seriously as
possible...for as long as I could get.
It looked to me that the double points on LF were the secret to
success. I got a great start on 40 while listening to the competition run
on 20. The difference was my rate was worth double points! 40 turned out
to be fantastic both nights. I too had the hash noise reported by K3ZO. It
was frustrating but signals were probably that extra 3 db louder up here
so I could still run. Same on 20m Sunday. Still, it caused lots of extra
repeats.
80 was good but not much activity. Almost all of my QSOs there were
S&P. Just could not get anyone to call me. Did get one "run"
of about 10 stations on Sat night. It included 5Z4FO calling, with HZ1HZ
right behind. Wow! New England was blessed with incredible sunny clear wx
all weekend so all the static was coming from SW. My beverage was the
difference in being able to hear effectively. Even used it on 40 once or
twice.
The signals on 160 both nights were great. G3LNS was booming the first
night. Everyone was loud the second. Unfortunately, there just wasn't much
activity and I couldn't spend much time.
Went to bed Friday at 0715z (milked those LF Europeans as long as I
could). Set the alarm for our sunrise (0845). Never heard it -- but a
miracle occurred as I woke up at 0930!!!
Contest was basically single band 20 all day. Used the second radio to
periodically tune up and down 15 for the occasional new LU or PY. Took an
hour off around mid-day to refresh and eat lunch.
Despite the comments to the contrary here on the reflector, I do use
prop forecasts to help make strategy decisions. I had good info from
several sources (tnx KY1H) that a disturbance was expected Monday but it
might appear earlier. So I made the decision to operate as much as
possible the first day, then burn off time on Sunday. It worked perfectly
as condx were still good Sunday, but the rate was way off.
Worked lots of Europeans that weren't moving the S-meter. Sure wish
some of them would learn to send numbers. Nothing more frustrating to have
to ask for multiple repeats because the guy wouldn't send the number the
same way twice. Or because QSB would get the same digit each repeat.
Urrrrgh!
I didn't know what the record score was, but I had the last few years
of results out on the table. By lunch Saturday, it was looking really good
compared to the previous scores. I begged my wife to let me continue and
she grudgingly agreed (I still don't know how much it is going to cost
me!).
My second "miracle" occured on Sunday morning. I went to
sleep around 06z with the alarm again set for 0845z. I woke up about
1015z! No alarm. I looked at the clock again to discover that it was
showing 6:15PM, but the alarm was set to 4:45 AM!!!! I can't believe I
woke up TWICE during a contest with no alarm. I knew I was going to win
right then.
Sunday was slow but steady. Got to watch most of the Indy 500 while
either pushing F1 or killing off time. This would be an incredibly fun
contest if it had better activity.
Existing USA Single op record was 5.3M by KM1H in 1992. My 5.7M looks
like a new one. Biggest factor in breaking the record was the high number
of QSOs on the LF bands. Look at those points/QSO ratios! We also probably
had as good of condx as we could get for this contest. AD5Q was right. It
is better for the Northeast when we are the only ones getting across the
pond.
I really enjoyed this contest for several reasons.
