2007 ARRL International DX Contest (Phone)
03/30/2007 |
TI5N (W5AJ, OP)
A great weekend in Costa Rica operating the ARRL DX SSB.
This is my 4th year to operate in TI for the contest.
It was going to be rough on sleep as I stayed up all Wednesday night packing and an early flight on Thursday morning. Had everything setup and a good working antenna per band by Friday noon. Got the amp setup for HP entry on Friday afternoon and took the precontest nap.
About 0400Z started a run on 160 and by 0410Z was using an aux antenna to listen with. My rig went deaf shortly after that. Everyone was about 40 db weaker and it effected any band I tried or antenna. Sadly I realized a rig change out was in order and my radio went to the side. My host had a rig as standby and it was put into service. About 80 minutes lost during prime time.... rats. Could ten help make it up?
Saturday ten was pretty poor and only a handful of QSO's went in the log. The guys in FL were telling me I was 60 over but it seemed like a brick wall for anything further north.
On Sunday it was not a full coverage of NA but the Ten Meter Magic came into play as that brick wall moved far north for us in TI and I was getting 60 over reports all over the USA. In just a little over a hour and 38 minutes a pounding 800 QSO's and 40 sections later and I was a happy camper in TI getting a super run during this contest with low sunspots.
Enjoyed working and talking with the younger contesters and many times could hear the the pilot helping out. Impressive to see we are working on getting more into the hobby and letting them share the experience of propagation and talking DX via RF.
73 w5aj
The log for this contest is uploaded into lotw -- W5AJ
This is my 4th year to operate in TI for the contest.
It was going to be rough on sleep as I stayed up all Wednesday night packing and an early flight on Thursday morning. Had everything setup and a good working antenna per band by Friday noon. Got the amp setup for HP entry on Friday afternoon and took the precontest nap.
About 0400Z started a run on 160 and by 0410Z was using an aux antenna to listen with. My rig went deaf shortly after that. Everyone was about 40 db weaker and it effected any band I tried or antenna. Sadly I realized a rig change out was in order and my radio went to the side. My host had a rig as standby and it was put into service. About 80 minutes lost during prime time.... rats. Could ten help make it up?
Saturday ten was pretty poor and only a handful of QSO's went in the log. The guys in FL were telling me I was 60 over but it seemed like a brick wall for anything further north.
On Sunday it was not a full coverage of NA but the Ten Meter Magic came into play as that brick wall moved far north for us in TI and I was getting 60 over reports all over the USA. In just a little over a hour and 38 minutes a pounding 800 QSO's and 40 sections later and I was a happy camper in TI getting a super run during this contest with low sunspots.
Enjoyed working and talking with the younger contesters and many times could hear the the pilot helping out. Impressive to see we are working on getting more into the hobby and letting them share the experience of propagation and talking DX via RF.
73 w5aj
The log for this contest is uploaded into lotw -- W5AJ
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