2004 ARRL International DX Contest (Phone)
04/03/2004 |
KC1XX
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 -- KC1XX
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 -- KC1XX
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