ARRL 10-Meter Contest: 0000Z, Dec 12 to 2400Z, Dec 13

I worked Japan from South Australia on the 12th. 28.450Mhz USB

 

Nothing here today

 

Little bit of activity (mostly DX to Mexico and SA) between about 10 am and 2 pm local. Otherwise dead. Got spoiled Friday night, but I guess that was a bit of Sporadic-E, and it is....well, sporadic. Sunday around noon, +/- 2 hours, is probably going to be all there is left.

 

Rough day today on 10m. I heard some SA stations also. But not much else.

 

Terrible conditions here in Socal. Had a couple locals, a few South America, a couple Texas, and that was it.

 

Well it opened a bit earlier than that on Sunday (was open when I got up at 9 am ), and hung in there until about 3pm local, but the band is dead now.

 

Gave it up after 3 hrs and 39 minutes of S & P. Terrible QSB. From Central Oregon I had brief N/S openings into Mexico and South America and one short E/W opening to the Midwest and East Coast. 61 QSOs 19 Multipliers for a total of 2318 points.

 

92 QSOs, 27 mults. Conditions were best on Friday night, OK Saturday, worse on Sunday. Antenna here was an MFJ-1786 mag loop, a few times I used by 40 wire vertical for xmit. I want to put up a 10m Moxon hidden in the trees, will move that up to a late summer/fall 2021 project to spring 2021.

 

I got *no* 7's. 72 contacts, 31 multiplier = 4464 points. All S&P - I worked hard for those, and had lots of fun.

 

I spent a few hours in a hunt and pounce mode during the contest.

Did work a few stations in South America and others as far west as California...about 21 contacts total with 6 countries worked.

Best DX heard (not worked) was D4Z( Cape Verde)!

I am located in southeast Alabama...running 100 watts to an ICOM 7300 and using a portable,tripod mounted,vertical.

Enjoyable contest...lots of fun!

 

All of 1 contact from South America.
Like they say, (whoever "they" are) better luck next time.

 

Gosh that was fun! 160 Qs 27,000 points even worked Africa!

 

As I posted previously conditions were not great in the PNW. My QSO totals were certainly not what I had hoped for. However on the positive side---as with every contest I have operated over the years I learned some things which will benefit operations from this station in the future. I recently re-built the operating desk, relocated the antenna switch to be more convenient, etc. It was a big improvement. However in this contest I discovered three more modifications (simple) that needed to be made. #1. The foot switch that I use to key the transceiver and amp was just a bit too far under the desk. It is velcro'd to the floor mat so it doesn't slide around. Relocated it 9 inches forward towards my operating chair. Contributed substantially to eliminating the leg cramp I was developing from having to stretch my leg to reach it.

#2. I don't use a mic/headset. I used to but I prefer to have my mic on a flexible boom mount so I can swivel it out of the way when leaving the op desk. I found myself having to lean forward in order to have my mouth at the proper distance from the mic. So I re-located the base which holds the flex boom and no more leaning forward needed. #3. I like to have multiple displays on my computer screens. Logging program, grey line map, etc. In the past those displays were on two different monitors and I found myself having to swivel my head left or right to see whatever was on interest at the moment. Well I now use just one very large monitor and appropriate different parts of the screen to different displays. The monitor is directly in front of me so no more head swivel.

As I said these are all minor changes but when operating for a long period of time incorporating them into the station layout makes for more convenience and less operator effort and fatigue. At my age those are important things.