2002 ARRL International DX Contest (Phone)
03/15/2002 |
W8ZA
W8ZA operated a multi-multi to maxmize points produced for the PVRC club effort. We have 4 posisitions and averaged 2-3 active during the test. Anetnnas can be swaped around to different positions. We use bandpass filters and MFJ voice keyers. Radios are usually all TS-850S. The station consists of 2 towers, with 5 El monobanders for 20-10 M and 3 el short 40M (I think it was moved up top) on top of 80 ft tower with fixed 4 El yagis on Eu stacked below. Only on occasion do the stacks outperform the single yagis. 2nd tower is about 50 ft with 3 El short 40 M yagi and TH5MK3. There are slopers for 80 M and an inv. vee for 160.
Ten meters really played well with hourly rates peaking around 130-150. Several weak and watery SE asian/Indonesian stations called both days during the morining runs including 3W and DU, one HS (HS0AC?) was loud. Best time Saturday was 17-19Z when I found a hole around 28535 and called very few CQ's in between Q's. Eu was runable til about 2015 and the JA's were in by 2115Z, so not much time for mult hunting. The packet cluster helped a lot. JA's were ruanble, but spread out too much and not enough answering CQ's. One 1W JA was good copy and several 5W JA's were worked. Evening time was split between calling spots and CQ'ing. Sunday, we hit the wall around 19Z, and no more Eu were runable. Northern EU stations reported an aurora about this time which wasn't real obvious, but condx were down.
It was hard to run on 15M anywhere low in the band; it was packed with signals from Eu even into the JA opening. We spent most of our time around 21400 kHz which hurt the total a bit. It was difficult to run many JA's on 15 as well. 20, as expected was pretty worhtless during the mid to late morning hours, but great at night. Activity could have been better at times. The low bands suffered from high flux and everyone up on the higher bands, but 40M condx were quite good.
Bob, W8ZA is a very gracious host and kept our tummys very happy. Thanks much! This was our best effort ever, 3441 Q's x 497 DXCC = 5,130,531. -- N8II
Ten meters really played well with hourly rates peaking around 130-150. Several weak and watery SE asian/Indonesian stations called both days during the morining runs including 3W and DU, one HS (HS0AC?) was loud. Best time Saturday was 17-19Z when I found a hole around 28535 and called very few CQ's in between Q's. Eu was runable til about 2015 and the JA's were in by 2115Z, so not much time for mult hunting. The packet cluster helped a lot. JA's were ruanble, but spread out too much and not enough answering CQ's. One 1W JA was good copy and several 5W JA's were worked. Evening time was split between calling spots and CQ'ing. Sunday, we hit the wall around 19Z, and no more Eu were runable. Northern EU stations reported an aurora about this time which wasn't real obvious, but condx were down.
It was hard to run on 15M anywhere low in the band; it was packed with signals from Eu even into the JA opening. We spent most of our time around 21400 kHz which hurt the total a bit. It was difficult to run many JA's on 15 as well. 20, as expected was pretty worhtless during the mid to late morning hours, but great at night. Activity could have been better at times. The low bands suffered from high flux and everyone up on the higher bands, but 40M condx were quite good.
Bob, W8ZA is a very gracious host and kept our tummys very happy. Thanks much! This was our best effort ever, 3441 Q's x 497 DXCC = 5,130,531. -- N8II
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