ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: V47T
Operator(s): K5ZD
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: DX
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
160: 261 44
80: 926 59
40: 1554 59
20: 2035 60
15: 2046 59
10: 4 4
Total: 6826 285 Total Score = 5,836,230
Comments:
Thanks to N2NT for the use of the station. Nothing better than being on a hill on an
island!
A few notes as I reflect on the contest:
40m beam had failed. Replacement was an Inverted vee with top at 50′. Didn’t have the same confidence without the beam, but based on the signal reports, I should have pushed the band harder.
Who knew there were so many hams in Delaware?! Or in Florida? FL must have been the landing point of the first bounce from here because they were loud on every band. And lots of them!
Power line noise sucks. It started Sat morning and lasted through Sat afternoon. Then the same on Sunday. It was only in the direction of USA and impacted all antennas. Combined with the rapid QSB, I spent a lot of time asking people to repeat their call and state. Sorry if I was an alligator on 15 and 20 at times.
I had a bit of a mental breakdown on Sat due to the line noise. It was a full breakdown on Sun morning. I decided to close up the station, drive 30 mins to my AirBnB, take a shower, then drive back. Took 75 mins total. But, when I returned I had my sanity again and was able to power through the line noise until it stopped just in time for 20m. (Getting up and down the hill is an adventure that requires all wheel drive and a road that does not permit speeding unless you want to break the suspension…)
In a bit of line noise frustration on Sat, I went to 10m and decided to call CQ. K3LR answered my first CQ. He spotted me and I was able to work K8AZ, VE3EJ and K1TTT. That was it for the band. Impressed to be found on the very first CQ.
From the DX side, this contest reminded me of Sweepstakes. There are limited mults. It is all about running guys. I think I called 3 people all weekend.
Only had one radio. Every band change was a leap into the unknown. I had to stop whatever run was happening, go to the new band, retune the amp, find a new frequency, and then hope to be spotted. This cycle took 5 to 10 minutes each time. Worst was to change bands and then have to go back and not be able to find a spot.
Great to have 20m open for the first hour. Got a fantastic start that dried up toward the end so ‘only’ a 299 hour. Best 60 mins was 312.
Worked only 4 stations on 6 bands. 141 on 5 bands.
Slept 90 mins the first night. 3 hours the second. Cost some QSOs, but was hoping to be fresh for the high bands. No telling what the line noise would have done to me without the sleep!
Really struggled for mults on 160. Missed VE2 and everything in W0 except Colorado! How could that happen?!
Writelog software worked perfectly (as always). Made a full recording of the contest in one hour mp3 files. Might be a few hours that would be fun to listen to.
Thanks to everyone who called in. Was a great experience. Doing SOAB from the DX side in ARRL DX has been a bucket list item for me. Very entertaining. Congratulations to N6MJ @ TI7W for a commanding win and to W2SC @ 8P5A for putting me back in my place.
Randy
Rates:
Click on the Listen link to hear the audio for that hour. The transmit audio is a bit stronger than the received audio – sorry about that. Didn’t have a way to check audio levels before the contest. What you hear is what I was hearing in the headphones.
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm Off
0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 299/47 --+-- --+-- 299/47 299/47 Listen
0100Z - - 208/41 58/3 - - 266/44 565/91 Listen
0200Z - 199/45 15/1 - - - 214/46 779/137 Listen
0300Z 63/23 64/6 48/4 - - - 175/33 954/170 Listen
0400Z 3/0 - 219/6 - - - 222/6 1176/176 Listen
0500Z 42/8 123/4 - - - - 165/12 1341/188 Listen
0600Z 24/2 43/0 77/1 - - - 144/3 1485/191 Listen
0700Z 1/0 36/1 65/0 - - - 102/1 1587/192 Listen
0800Z 8/2 6/0 --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 14/2 1601/194 39 Listen
0900Z - - 18/1 - - - 18/1 1619/195 45 Listen
1000Z 3/1 39/0 37/0 - - - 79/1 1698/196 Listen
1100Z - - 126/2 - - - 126/2 1824/198 Listen
1200Z - - - 138/1 - - 138/1 1962/199 Listen
1300Z - - - 46/1 69/23 - 115/24 2077/223 Listen
1400Z - - - - 197/14 - 197/14 2274/237 Listen
1500Z - - - - 296/14 - 296/14 2570/251 Listen
1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 271/1 --+-- 271/1 2841/252 Listen
1700Z - - - - 203/0 - 203/0 3044/252 Listen
1800Z - - - 5/0 173/0 - 178/0 3222/252 Listen
1900Z - - - - 137/0 4/4 141/4 3363/256 Listen
2000Z - - - 188/2 62/0 - 250/2 3613/258 Listen
2100Z - - - 217/4 54/1 - 271/5 3884/263 Listen
2200Z - - - 236/1 7/0 - 243/1 4127/264 Listen
2300Z - 26/0 - 150/0 - - 176/0 4303/264 Listen
0000Z --+-- 13/0 181/1 --+-- --+-- --+-- 194/1 4497/265 Listen
0100Z - - 182/0 - - - 182/0 4679/265 Listen
0200Z 34/2 115/1 42/0 - - - 191/3 4870/268 Listen
0300Z 1/0 129/1 - - - - 130/1 5000/269 Listen
0400Z 40/4 - 115/0 - - - 155/4 5155/273 Listen
0500Z 34/2 - 70/0 - - - 104/2 5259/275 Listen
0600Z 4/0 31/1 - - - - 35/1 5294/276 38 Listen
0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 5294/276 60
0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 5294/276 60
0900Z 1/0 19/0 - - - - 20/0 5314/276 45 Listen
1000Z 1/0 41/0 4/0 - - - 46/0 5360/276 Listen
1100Z - - 58/2 1/0 - - 59/2 5419/278 Listen
1200Z - - - 41/0 - - 41/0 5460/278 Listen
1300Z - - - 27/0 - - 27/0 5487/278 30 Listen
1400Z - - - 73/0 - - 73/0 5560/278 2 Listen
1500Z - - - 44/0 25/0 - 69/0 5629/278 4 Listen
1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 5629/278 60
1700Z - - - - 97/2 - 97/2 5726/280 34 Listen
1800Z - - - - 171/1 - 171/1 5897/281 Listen
1900Z - - - 2/1 164/0 - 166/1 6063/282 Listen
2000Z - - - 106/0 120/3 - 226/3 6289/285 Listen
2100Z - - - 192/0 - - 192/0 6481/285 Listen
2200Z - - - 172/0 - - 172/0 6653/285 Listen
2300Z 2/0 42/0 89/0 40/0 - - 173/0 6826/285 Listen
Total: 261/44 926/59 1554/59 2035/60 2046/59 4/4
