IARU Radiosport

I was fortunate to be part of the LZ7HQ team for the 2011 Radiosport.  We were assigned to work 20 and 40 CW from the LZ5R station.  40M setup was an IC781 and Acom 2000 to a SteppIR Monster 40-6M beam.  20M setup was an IC7800 and Acom 2000 to one of two antennas: 6 el on 20M, or a Force 12 Log periodic. As an HQ station, everyone needs you for the mult so the strategy was to run, run, run.  It was also strange to be started a major 24 hour contest at 3pm in the afternoon local!

20M started out strong, with 9 straight hours of 100+ rate; the first 1000 Qs were in the log by 2000Z.  USA stations, to me, were surprisingly weak; only a handful were over S9.  K5 and K0 stations were the same strength as the East Coast stations; the only difference I could discern between the signals was that the East Coast stations were the first to work us and the last to work us.  We did work a KL7 but no VE7; VE7IO was spotted numerous times but we could never hear him.  We did miss a few mults- XU7 and JU1 being two of them- it would have taken too long to crack the pileup when you're doing good rates.

40M started out slower but continually cranked; the first 1000- Qs were in the log by 0100Z.  Conditions, again, seemed to be down; few US stations were S9.  Just like 20M, the K0s and K5 stations were just as loud as the East Coast stations, except the time we could work them as compared to the East Coast guys was even shorter.  NU1AW/5 was spotted for several hours on 40CW before we could hear them.  The West Coast suffered even more; one never called me, and it was Bulgarian sunrise before W1AW/6 and several other zone 6 stations could be heard here, and then they were quickly gone.  Missed VE7 again, even though it was spotted we could never hear it.

We finished with these band totals:
20CW    1894 QSOs     45 HQ stations     45 Zones
40CW    1342 QSOs     40 HQ stations     41 Zones
Total      3246 QSOs      85 HQ stations     86 Zones

Bottom line- it was a lot of fun!  Its nice to be the hunted, and have the stations line up for you.

First US station to work us on both 20 and 40M was George W1EBI.  Congrats!