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This is my contest station ..... |
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This year's contest was my best effort yet - my 13th log submission for the 10 mtr contest - yet, not my highest score. Still sorting out a contest logging program I only use once a year! Conditions were good but not great in Southeast Louisiana - not as much VK/J activity as years previous, but lots of Carrribean... I guess the ol' sunspot cycle is waning, (sigh).
Pretty good conditions when Idaho can get top 10 with just a tribander! Even though Europe was weak, the JA and US participation made up for it. I'll be back this year, you can be sure of that.
I operated for a few hours from inside my motel room in cold northern Minnesota, with only an FT-817 on 5 watts and a small whip antenna (Maldol AH-28, 42 inches/1.07m long) and worked a bunch of states, VE2 and VE7 to the north, and 3 European countries (GM, OK, ON). Had to shut down after 3 or 4 hours to attend a family reunion, but the short time on the radio was a nice alternative to the motel room's TV.
http://www.geocities.com/wd9ewk/mn-dec2k1.html
73! Patrick
This 10M contest in 2001 was a first for me.
In my 33 years licensed, all my contesting activity had been with groups, never alone, so I never really had a guage on how I was progressing or how I would stack up against others.
Thanks to W3PP, I was able to accomplish the goal of learning, with objective evidence, where I was in the realm of being competent at the crazy contesting game.
W3PP offered me the use of his excellent station. Dallas' station is at configured as such (after lots of years of his hard work!) which levels the playing field with other competitive folks in terms of hardware, location, and facilities. This level playing field meant that the only real variable (besides props and Murphy of course!) would be my own skill level.
So, with this goal to test myself and see where I rank in mind, I ran unassisted CW single op low power and set off to see what would happen. My goal was not to win or place highly.. but to test myself and see where I would fall in terms of my skills and abilities.
However, as time went on and Q's accumulated the thought that I might place well inspired me to become more aggressive in seeking Q's and mults. My adrenaline starting running when I thought I might actually have a chance to crack the top ten W/VE LP for 2001.
I had not made any plans for attempting to do so, but seeing that the possibility existed made me more agressive in hunting mults and Q's. When the results came out it was a pleasure to be able to actually get some quantifiable data concerning my own abilities after all these years.
Band conditions were great. Lots of activity! W3PP is a great host and station and the 10M contest is a great contest! (regardless of where I scored, It was a blast!)
73
Chuck K3FT
Congrats to K1KI for setting the SOHPCW record! 2001 was clearly the peak of Cycle 23 conditions for the ARRL 10 and I'm sure Tom's record will stand until Cycle 24 peaks around 2010. I'll be back with a single-band SO2R setup and try again then!
DX cndx sucked, agn! Good training exercise. Need to get packet wking but difficult to do from remote radio QTH. Wudda found more mults if pkt available!
We put up our 8 element 60 foot boom "Elephant Gun" in the field, our tradition for this contest. Even though were were at only 4500 feet elevation and in Southern AZ, we got rain and snow on Saturday. At one moment there was a beautiful rainbow over the tower and beam, but I was too slow with the camera.
Good conditions and lots of fun except when the 6 over 6 over 6 fellows beat you out!
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