Contest: ARRL RTTY Roundup
Date: January 2-3, 2010
Mode: RTTY
Period: Starts 1800 UTC Saturday; ends 2400 UTC Sunday

BAND/QSO/S&P/DXC
80 / 106 / 3 / 0
40/ 101 / 5 / 20
20 / 422 / 45 /15
15 / 23 / 2 / 0
TOTAL: 652 QSO / 55 S&P / 21 DXC
SCORE: 49,552 (TIME ON: 22 H 34 Mn)

SOAPBOX: I have been a bit tardy posting my results of the recent ARRL RTTY Roundup. Thankfully I was able to participate for just over 22.5 hours out of a possible 24 hours. I messed up my off and sleep schedule or else I could have added another 50+ QSOs and bettered my personal goal.

As it was, I still posted the best numbers yet in any contest I have entered since I started participating in contests. I finished with 658 QSOs, worked 55 US states and Canadian provinces, worked 21 DXCC entities and had 6 dupes. I tallied 652 points for a final score of 49,552.

I missed the start of the contest by about 20 minutes but was able to post a 30 rate for 3 of the first 5 hours. Not stellar mind you, but still some of the most consistent numbers I have put up. I know those figures would have been doubled if I were able to locked down a run frequency before the contest began. As it happened, I did nothing by search and pounce.

As 20M started to close, I ended up working a few JAs before moving to 40M and 80M. I must say I was impressed with the SteppIR BigIR Mk III and how it worked on both bands. Recently all my working on 10-20M have been on the 5-band hex beam (Thanks DXE!), rarely do I worked 40/80M when the sun goes does. I was able to post back to back 34 rates between 03-04z. I should have gone one more hour on 40/80M, but decided to shut it down for the evening.

I slept from 04-0930z and woke to good activity on 80M. It was slow going, but I still managed to makes some Qs and finished 80M with 106 QSOs, on 3 states and provinces and no DXCC entities.

On 40M I had similar success I worked 101 QSO, 5 states and provinces but added 6 DXCC entities. Most all of my time was spent on 20M, were I had 422 QSOs, 45 states and provinces and 15 DXCC entities.

The last 4 or 5 hours I closed by running frequencies on 20M. There was RTTY activity from 14.055-14.120. I found a few quiet frequencies and was able to record my best ever, a 51 rate between 20-21z. I finished the last hour up with search and pounce in order to add to my totals.

I was somewhat frustrated by the lack of DXCC activity. 15 and 20M were often good in the early mornings from EU, but I only logged England, Wales, Spain, Finland and Europe Russia. The Pacific seemed stronger, but probably not as active as EU. Along with Hawaii, I worked China, South Korea, Japan and West Malaysia.

While I had trouble working all US states (missed 3, plus DC) I came up 4 provinces short as well. But it was the lack of DXCC entities that hurt my overall score. Still I surpassed my 500 QSO goal, so I am pleased with that. I now need to start looking at improving my multi score by working those contacts that qualify and increase my score.

The second thing I need to look at, especially for RTTY is the an SO2R setup. Of all contesting, this would be the easiest to achieve. There was considerable downtime between running a frequency that I could have been searching for new Qs. This would have greatly added to my totals. Maybe in February I will look at an SO2R setup for RTTY WPX.

Nonetheless I am pleased with my score and will only work to build on it. This weekend it NAQP CW (100w max). It should be great fun, hopefully I can knock out the states I need for my ARRL Triple Play award and my WAS on CW.