2004 ARRL 10 Meter Contest
12/14/2004 |
VK2CZ
Hi all,
Experienced extraordinary peaky band conditions where the doors were wide open for brief periods, then long periods of signals near the mud - ridden with slow QSB. Using the best of QRP techniques with a high power station, managed to extract 10~30 QSO's per hour out of seemingly dead air. 4M5DX was the most audible station here in Sydney. Conditions almost mirrored that of long distance 2m SSB, but on a far grander scale.
Only missed MA,ME,NH,NY,RI and WY, but at least this year the AK stations were strong. Nothing from the northern latitudes in EU either, nothing heard of G,EI,SM,OH or OZ - or indeed Africa - again, but to be fair, I only beamed into north Africa / southern EU.
Oddly, I snared the exact same number of SSB multipliers as for 2003 (subject to adjudication).
Using a 65' boom(19m) 'hot' home brew long yagi with 8 elements up at 55' - the identical station as per 2003, it all just seemed a lot of hard work, and came away feeling as if I'd made 2000 QSO's, not the measly 713.. I started doodling an even bigger yagi design... A/B switched a small 4 ele 10m yagi during the event to look for high angle signals proved a waste, but it heard nothing bar the electrical storms.
Apologies to those I asked for repeats or missed altogether, Sydney experienced some of the wildest storm weather over the weekend, rolling blackouts, closing Sydney Airport for 4 hours, damaging 6 'heavy' aircraft 767's and Airbus's, and the lightning cracks were shaking my windows and of course my receivers. The big yagi was flexing into a serious C shape by the wind - with around 8'~10' lateral deflection for those mechanical/structural engineers.
Always good fun, and a good challenge at least for a while longer.
Cheers,
David, Sydney. -- VK2CZ
Experienced extraordinary peaky band conditions where the doors were wide open for brief periods, then long periods of signals near the mud - ridden with slow QSB. Using the best of QRP techniques with a high power station, managed to extract 10~30 QSO's per hour out of seemingly dead air. 4M5DX was the most audible station here in Sydney. Conditions almost mirrored that of long distance 2m SSB, but on a far grander scale.
Only missed MA,ME,NH,NY,RI and WY, but at least this year the AK stations were strong. Nothing from the northern latitudes in EU either, nothing heard of G,EI,SM,OH or OZ - or indeed Africa - again, but to be fair, I only beamed into north Africa / southern EU.
Oddly, I snared the exact same number of SSB multipliers as for 2003 (subject to adjudication).
Using a 65' boom(19m) 'hot' home brew long yagi with 8 elements up at 55' - the identical station as per 2003, it all just seemed a lot of hard work, and came away feeling as if I'd made 2000 QSO's, not the measly 713.. I started doodling an even bigger yagi design... A/B switched a small 4 ele 10m yagi during the event to look for high angle signals proved a waste, but it heard nothing bar the electrical storms.
Apologies to those I asked for repeats or missed altogether, Sydney experienced some of the wildest storm weather over the weekend, rolling blackouts, closing Sydney Airport for 4 hours, damaging 6 'heavy' aircraft 767's and Airbus's, and the lightning cracks were shaking my windows and of course my receivers. The big yagi was flexing into a serious C shape by the wind - with around 8'~10' lateral deflection for those mechanical/structural engineers.
Always good fun, and a good challenge at least for a while longer.
Cheers,
David, Sydney. -- VK2CZ
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