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We decided to pull the antennas and make a good Multi/Single effort. Tom KB1FWM, and myself buzzed around the radio for the weekend, hitting off some suprisingly good runs into EU on early morning 15. A larger dissapointment was 10 meters, which seemed determined not to open, until we found Kx1x two towns over also running on 10. The fact that we could hear each other so well on a band that was supposed to be open was frightening, and we left to head up to 20 meters. All the same, it was a fun weekend, plenty of multipliers, and the rate was enough to keep any contester going.
I had a great time on the radio. I realy great enjoying my 39th birthday weekend on the radio. Doing what I love the best. Dxing. I got several new countries. I can't wait until 2005. I know the band conditions were terrible at times. What the different. I enjoyed it. It a hobby and a lifestyle.
Congratulations to K3LR on his team's victory, cleaning our clocks on the "middle" bands (40/20/15). And also congratulations to W3LPL on a great score.
It's not whether you win or lose (winning is nice), but how you play the game, and we had lots of fun, as usual, so that's all that mattered.
160: Bill K1GQ did his usual iron-pants job. Once again, Friday night into Saturday morning produced the majority of our QSOs, but he kept at it through Sunday morning, working an additional 15 QSOs in 9 hours for 5 additional multipliers. He had at least one QSO in each of those 9 hours, but did not work anything after 07Z.
80: Conditions were down compared to previous years, but once again John W1FV beat the pack. The 2-over-2 stack did not have any problems this year. He logged a single JA Saturday morning and two more on Sunday.
40: Jim AD1C and Ken K1EA started off the contest by ripping off almost 70 QSOs in the first hour, beating every other band. Ken had trouble working the Caribbean Friday night using the new four-square, until Bill K1GQ reminded us that the transmit antenna for the multiplier station was tied to the transmit antenna for the run station (4-el beam aimed at Europe). Oops. This is something we'll want to address in the future. Most remarkable contact was VQ9LA at 1243z Sunday morning beaming over the South Pacific, 1.5 hours after our sunrise. Dick WC1M helped a lot here to keep us from going mental.
20: Conditions were down from past years, but Bill W2RQ and Steve K6AW are still the go-to guys for this band. Unlike past years, the nighttime opening to the Pacific was very short. Sunday morning was very slow, resulting in hours of 1-1-1-0-1 QSO from 05Z to 09Z.
15: This was our money band this year, and Doug K1DG is the money operator. With 10M virtually closed to Europe, everyone moved down to 15M. It was nice to have HS and YB0 call in over-the-pole Saturday morning. It's not often that 15M beats 20M in multipliers, but that's just what happened this year.
10: Matt KC1XX just can't say enough good things about 10 meters. He had more fun listening to the FAA tower in Nashua. At times on Saturday, he could not hear the Caribbean, but stations in North Carolina and northern Brazil were coming in fine. He struggled to work D44AC at 1625Z (first non-North/South America) and ZS6WPX at 1633Z, but did not work Europe until working CT1BOH at 1900Z. That was the ONLY European worked on Saturday, Sunday was a little better, but still stations only 100 miles to the south were working Europe that Matt could not even hear.
Thanks as always to Christine and the girls for keeping us well taken care of.
See everyone again in the fall!
73 - KC1XX team
First Arrl Dx Contest under this callsign, worked to figure out QTH capabilities (3550 feet a.s.l., 100w into a 3/3 10/15/20 at 18 feet over a down slope towards EU and AF, and an up slope towards AS and OC, under 5% for 15miles)
Worked 12 hours total, 150 handpicked qso for 89 countries on 10/15/20 and 1 (for fun "HP") on 40m dipol. 15 new dxcc on 20 including EX, UA2, ER and UW. 20m on 3-7-04 was the best I have ever heard in 26 years of "hamming". EU was open for 8 hours, not only the Big Guns. 15m was normal, EU towards SP and YO as ODX. 10m no EU/DX.
Got mislead by VQ5A, at first, but my logger asked for DXCC, so I found out it was "The big gun in my front yard" (:-),hihi. Never heard more than noise from 3b9, although I worked them before the test. All in all, need higher mast, no linear needed from here, had lotsa fun not working the Carribean...they were always 59-59++.
I guess, the autumn WPX 2004 will be my first try to get into the list; with rotor-turnable antenna at 30 feet (I hope).
TNX to all the dx that picked me up.
Last QSO on sunday morning on 80 |
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The results a little bit worse that 2003, but the conditions, specialy on 10m, were no very good. The path from here seem better to the west coast in the upper bands.
My son take this picture when I was operating.
73 and many thanks for the QSOs
Smokey the Goat kept coming over to see what we were doing. I think some of our contacts heard him on the air. |
Conditions were far better than I expected. Using only a vertical antenna and 5 to 10 watts of power, I only had to call once or twice to get through. All of the ops we heard or worked were very courteous, and now my son and I are planning to work QRP from several counties in Wyoming and Colorado.
I was almost ready for 15 meters single band operation.
Just 20 minutes before the contest starting, Gozilla(Strong Wind)
came to my station and broke my tower down.
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This was the really big event of the contest weekend, my 4 year old "Jon-Jon" learning to ride his bike without training wheels! |
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