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Good news from the Scores Dept.

The results for this year’s ARRL DX CW are already out. I place seventh worldwide. The writeup says:

Only two of this year’s Top 10 (but just one operator) repeated this year, and both stations finished in the same positions.

Score comparison between 2012 and 2013 for the ARRL DX CW contest, HP 'assisted'.
Score comparison between 2012 and 2013 for the ARRL DX CW contest, HP ‘assisted’.

That made me compare scores since I seemed to remember I placed 7th before. Turns out I was also #7 last year, but in other contests too. Notice the dramatic score improvement for all operators. Glad to be on the winning end for a change 🙂

 

7 replies on “Good news from the Scores Dept.”

Phenomenal! And you were only 10% increase away from top 5.

Let’s hope the 2014 ARRL DX conditions (as well as this fall) are at least as good as 2013, as it is likely to be all downhill after 2014!

73 John K3TN

About conditions going downhill: I spent 2006-2010 looking out for a fantastic peaking cycle. I came on HF late 2000 and enjoyed two years of good propagation even with a simple low dipole. Then I experienced what ‘conditions going downhill’ means. Especially the ‘staying downhill’ began working on my nerves. I had tons of fun on 10 meters in 2001/2002, I wanted to experience that again.
The long boring dip in propagation lasting over four years would soon be forgotten when cycle 24 would ramp up and have a long sustained peak, right? Bummer! We’ve had a few rollercoaster periods (Q4 in 2011 comes to mind), but all in all cycle 24 hasn’t satisfied my long DX openings needs in contesting.

I’ve had more fun on the low bands during those cycle low years than I’ve had fun on the higher bands during the recent so called peak. So far! Maybe cycle 24 will susrpise us for a grand finale and NOT open yet another a can of whoop ass solar distrurbances like we’ve had recently.

73!

Thanks John. You know what amazes me the most? That I’m consistently up there with some really big bun stations with antennas that may have longer booms than my tower is high. While I have a simple one tower small tribander + wire mess station, with almost zero visual impact when I’m not active.

I really like the ARRL contest. It’s 48 hours yet enough ‘propagation down time’ for plenty of sleep. Never having to wonder where to aim the yagi at. Every contact is DX (granted OR and WY are ‘DXier’ than PEI), and most of all: W/VE are very snappy CW ops which allows for some fast hours when the band opens. And while I have no analysis to back up my hunch, I can tell that the QTH plays best towards USA.

Honnestly: this one is even fun in the cycle low period. I worked almost 100 contacts on Top Band in 2009. Maybe when my RX loop will have a permanent spot in the garden, things will even get better.

Oh yeah, just to toot my own horn: a pretty pristine log checking report!

2709 Claimed QSO before checking (does not include duplicates)
2703 Final QSO after checking reductions

8127 Claimed QSO points
8091 Final QSO points

272 Claimed mults
272 Final mults

2210544 Claimed score
2200752 Final score
-0.4% Score reduction

The reverse can’t be said from the dozens that clicked the OY5M spot Sunday afternoon! 🙂

Dag
Zeer mooie score !!!
Maar dat zal niet op de uba site vermeld worden… sinds jaren vermelden ze geen
contest resultaten meer van hun leden. Tenzij onlangs van een 6 m contest.

73
dirk
on4ct

Gôh ja Dirk, wie is daar in België nu in geïnteresseerd? We zijn maar met een paar tiental Belgische OM die eens een contest meedoen en wij volgen die dingen zelf wel op.

Bedankt voor je bericht!
73 / prettig zomerverlof.

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