[MiQP-Mail] Fw: MiQP DL2HBX(@DF9LJ) Single Op HP

[Ulrich Ann]

Sorry for the repost but some hidden HTML tags screwed up the first submission...

Call: DL2HBX
Operator(s): DL2HBX
Station: DF9LJ

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: JO52FI
Operating Time (hrs): 12

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
80: 14 0
40: 70 23
20: 69 52
15: 3 3
10:
--------------------
Total: 156 78 CW Mults = 67 Ph Mults = 54 Total Score = 47,190

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:

My best QSO Party (MI and OH) from the DX side ever. Chasing the mobiles
resulted in more than 100 QSOs out of 234 contacts - fun, fun, fun!

My sincere thanks to Joerg, DF9LJ for another opportunity to work from his
great station. He has only one beam antenna at 60ft but that Optibeam OB17-4 is
a real killer! The antenna setup was complemented by a wire vertical for 80m in
the trees. A KW Alpha with automatic tuning/bandswitching made QSYing a
breeze.

Things did not start out well. Due to some software issues which we discovered
briefly before the contest, I had the choice to either use the TenTec Orion and
have PC keying or, use the Elecraft K3 and do all the keying manually. I went
for option 2 and it was the right decision. I love that K3 with its filtering
capabilities and usability.

For some reason, I could not adjust my keying speed but I did not try hard
during the contest to find out why. Apologies to the fast guys (K8MR, etc.) for
me going slow and to the slow guys for being on the fast side.

I was on par with my 2010 result when my host Joerg told me around 20z that a
neighbor was complaining about RF interference to his wireless headphones. This
forced me to reduce SSB activity and run Low Power for almost an hour until the
neighbor's favorite TV show was over.

I had a head-to-head battle with Laci, OM2VL for most of the contest. I was
slightly ahead until that Low Power episode, when he passed me by a few QSOs.
Laci stayed in the lead for a while, then, our paths did not cross for several
hours. At 01z, I heard him again and miraculously I was ahead by some 15 QSOs,
a lead that I kept until the end. Laci is an avid county hunter and I assume
that he got sidetracked by some juicy counties in Nebraska and the Dakotas in
their corresponding QSO Parties.

I made 90% of the QSOs on 20 and 40. Propagation was good and I worked at least
two QRP stations twice each (K6JSS and KT8K). 15m was wide open but there was no
critical mass to attract more MI stations for them to stay on that band longer.
Joerg's 80m wire vertical played pretty well and most stations that I called on
80 heard me too. 40m SSB was not optimal because the antenna is tuned for CW, so
I only had about 400W into a somewhat mismatched antenna. The main issue,
however, is that fact that we are not allowed to use frequencies above 7200 in
Europe. I heard many loud stations calling CQ around 7235...

Thanks to all the stations who QSYed for a new multiplier! K8MR is out of this
world in that regard but many others also made the switch to the other mode
which was really appreciated. I almost ended the contest with another QSY multi
but the SSB frequency that W8CAR and I went to was busy and we could not
complete the QSO in the last minute.

The mobiles and rovers were great again this year. K8MR stood out in all
respects but I really appreciate the effort of the other teams, especially the
three groups up in the snowy UP! They cover way fewer counties in the same time
frame due to the larger county sizes but they provide very rare ones to all of
us. I was able to work every county in the UP this year thanks to NE9U, K8IR
and WI9WI. Overall, I had QSOs with 70 counties.

Top 5 mobiles were:
K8MR: 63 QSO, 29 counties
NE9U: 15 / 12
K8IR: 13 / 11
W8CAR: 10 / 9
W8ZZ: 7 / 3

The old DX record of 34k is gone and it is now up to the competition and the
log checking to determine who will hold the new one.

73! Uli, DL2HBX (KK8I)