This one sucked! I was not feeling like a contester. I had
drive or desire to compete this weekend. 10 meters was out for lunch which
forced EVERYONE to 15 meters and made the band very crowded. I did manage to put
100 DXCC countries in the log.
The real excitement came when Tom's neighbor was burning trash
and it got away from him. The fire spread to Tom's property and was moving in on
the 40 meter tower and some beverages. They managed to get the fire out before
any real damage could be down and Tom's tower survived but the beverage antenna
got a little cooked. I did not even know this going on until the contest was
over.
One bright note was I used the Ten Tec Orion in the phone
contest and seemed to perform very well. I think it needs some tweaking for
phone use but overall it was a fine rig to use.
Here is 3830 post and it loks like I might eek out a to 10
finish despite the bad operating I did.
ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: N5TW
Operator(s): KC5YKX
Station: N5TW
Class: SOSB/15 HP
QTH: Central Texas
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 575 100
10:
-------------------
Total: 575 100 Total Score = 171,600
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
I just was not feeling it this contest. Never got into a groove during the whole
time. My aggression level was way down. I guess since 10 was bye bye EVERYONE
was on 15 and it was hard to find a spot to run. Like I said I did not feel
aggressive and therefore most likely did not jump into a spot that I normally
would have. The band was good but the low power JAs just where not making it
into Texas this time. Looks like the west coast got a ton of them. As for EU,
well the east coast wall was up and higher than ever for this Texas boy. It is
hard to find a place on the band when almost all the east coast is 20 over! the
EU I did try to run where weak. Maybe the band was WAY long and they where
hopping right over but I dout it. I think it goes back to what I said in the
start of this rant, I just did not feel it. I did manage to get to 100 mults
before it was all over. Thanks to all who made it into the N5TW log.
Reid