ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST CW 2018

I didn’t waiting something special during end of Solar Cycle 24, and it realy was fighting with closed bands.

From my point of view – it was almost 2 band contesting, 20m and 40m. 160m with only one so-so opening on Sunday morning. 80m with weak signals sunk in the band noise. Just 1 (one) miracle 15m QSO and completely closed 10m. 40m was the only one with few worthy pileups. 20m was usable, fortunately, but the times of long pileups of hundreds of S9+ stations are over…

I built K9AY loops again, it was useful, especialy on 160m. Also new multibander is big antenna setup improving. Especialy 3 elements for 40m compared to old Inv Vee is doing its job + 4 elements on 20m compared to 3 old ones. Hardware worked fine this time, except of some strange behaviour of ACOM 2000A from time to time, so sorry, if my signal came from S9 to noise level…

Thanks to all participants, to all Solar Cycle minimum enthusiasts, hi.

Final score:   772 365
Category:      SO AB HP
Rank:          WW #61   EU #6   OM #1

Call: OM7RU
Operator(s): OM7RU
Station: OM7RU

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Dolna Micina
Operating Time (hrs): 32:40
Location : Northern Europe

Summary:

Band    QSOs  Mults
----------------------------------------
 160:     21   10
  80:    189   39
  40:    815   53
  20:    357   52
  15:      1    1
  10:      0    0
----------------------------------------
 Total: 1683  155  Total Score 782,595

Used equipments:
Yaesu FT-1000MP MarkV Field
ACOM 2000A (1,5 kW OUT)
MicroHAM microKeyer, MicroHAM StationMaster
DXLog.net

Antennas:
160m: Vertical (35m tower + 2 elevated radials)
80m: OptiBeam OB1-80 rotary dipole @34m
AD-3446 multibander:
40m: 3 elements
20m: 4 elements
15m: 4 elements
10m: 6 elements
K9AY RX loops

73!
Riki, OM7RU