2015

Steve and Larry (K7SV) teamed again for this running. Steve worked from the beginning to about 03Z and Larry operated from 03Z to about 08Z.  Steve took over from about 09Z to sunrise. That was both nights. Conditions were not stellar, but certainly not bad. QRN was minimal but at times the band was really packed. We had a problem with the 8 circle, so RX antennas were NE, SE and NW beverages. Transmit antenna is a pair of phased Tees with about 100ft vertical. rig = K3 driving a single 4-1000Z.

Another one in the books. Enjoyed the good propagation on most bands.  Really kept things hopping. Never enough operators.  One night time op had to go home sick, another canceled on Friday, and two could only put in 3 hours each, which made things kinda 'thin' at times.  This was especially true with two first time operators. But, overall, this kind of operator shortage was expected with this family holiday weekend.  Always a tough weekend for ops.

Like everyone, we would have liked 10 meters to be in better shape. At least the flux stayed at 120 with a low K value.
Just before the contest found that the top 40 meter yagi would not turn, although there was voltage at the base of the tower. Rotators for the 15 meter stack are still acting 'squirrely' and had to be rotated from out in the equipment shack, not locally.

Great to get back into WPX CW again after missing last year due to a wedding and station construction. We had a great crew and everyone seemed to have a good time for this one. Condx weren’t bad. Ten obviously left a lot to be desired, but we’ve gotta get used to that. Fifteen was fair Saturday and much better Sunday. Twenty was better in the late evening/early morning than during the day. 40 produced well considering the considerable shorter opening to Europe. As expected, with flux down, 80 was quite good and noise surprisingly low. Not much to be said for top band.

Wx was a player in this weekend's operating. With the extreme cold, 4 operators could not make it due to wx related issues at home and another two to limit their time here. After receiving a few more inches of snow during the day Saturday, the snow turned to sleet in the evening. The 80 meter delta loop array collected ice and was detuned enough for us to quit using it. 15 meters showed a slight rise in reflected power, but not enough for concern.

Contest started off miserably. Software put the contact times all over the place. I know this is going to kill our score. For a SFI of 125, 10 was a big surprise. My first EU QSO Saturday morning was
with IW9FRA at 1153 UTC, and we consistently made Q's on 10 for the next 12+ hours. Had a nice, but short 10m LP opening to Asia Saturday AM, with some JA's and one BY in the log.

Found condx first night to leave a lot to be desired. Stations were not
as strong as I've seen them past contests, and just didn't seem to be as
many at any given time. Just didn't have the seemingly endless pile-up
as in the past.

Idea was to have fun. John, K3TN, came to visit and joined us for a couple of hours of operating. Larry, K7SV and I 'putzed' around the rest of the time.
Had a K3 go 'belly up' with a 'voltage error' and refused to put out anything more than the 12 watts from the low power stage.  <sigh!> That was not a fun thing, so without fun, I quit for the night.