ARRL CW Contest Scores

[N1API]

Here are my results.  A great weekend.   The bands were wild.   I was ecstatic over the results especially 40 meters.  Best contacts on 40 were Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia.   I did not expect those.   I heard Alaska and Japan on 40 but they were weak and the big guns were going at them.  Asia was great on 10, 15 and 20.   20 meters opens to Asia in the morning then it fades and comes back in the evening.  As we get toward the spring and summer 20 and 17 and maybe 15 will have an early morning opening to ASIA  The Japanese stations were strong on all bands.   Usually they have "Arctic Flutter" on their signals which makes them hard to read but there was not much of that, most of them were pretty solid.   One thing that I noted, I especially needed the Vanuatu station on CW, it's the last mode that I need.   They must have minimal antennas, (but they were using 500 watts), I kept seeing them spotted on 10 and 15 but just could not hear them.   They were spotted on 20 and at the time I was working Europe and turned to their frequency and could hear them.   So I swung the beam toward them at 275 degrees and lost them.   Everyone else was working them and I wondered what was going on.  I turned the beam back toward Europe the their signal came back up, weak but readable.  Then the old brain went into gear.  I moved the beam down to 96 degrees, LONG PATH!  They were on the long path, 2 calls and they were in the log.   I wonder how many worked them off the back of their antennas not realizing they were on the long path.   That was the only time heard them all weekend long.   I checked both paths for 10 and 15 and never heard them.  Lesson recalled..  Check the long path and backscatter.   Remember the plan of action, "Time On Target", know where and when your enemy is.

OK here are the results.

START-OF-LOG: 3.0

LOCATION: CT
CALLSIGN: N1API
CLUB: Meriden ARC
CONTEST: ARRL-DX-CW
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: ASSISTED
CATEGORY-BAND: ALL
CATEGORY-MODE: CW
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CLAIMED-SCORE: 475200
OPERATORS: N1API
NAME: Al
ADDRESS:
ADDRESS-CITY: Meriden
ADDRESS-STATE-PROVINCE: CT
ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: 06451
ADDRESS-COUNTRY: UNITED STATES
GRID-LOCATOR: FN31OM
EMAIL:
CREATED-BY: N1MM Logger+ 1.0.9811.0

Contest:  ARRLDXCW
Band      QSOs      Pts      Cty
  7             81      243      45  (!)
14           145      435       75
21           106      318       84
28           218      654       84
Total        550    1650     288
Score:  475,200
1 Mult = 1.9 Q's

Yes I did DXCC.   I believe 102 Countries, I'm hoping for some new ones on 40.
Quite a few statons on 4 bands.

Hope you all had time to play.   If you are a MARC contester please use Meriden
ARC for your log.