CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: N5AW
Operator(s): N5AW
Station: N5AW
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 42
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 6 5 6
80: 59 18 35
40: 192 26 74
20: 299 31 102
15: 441 28 104
10: 509 31 102
------------------------------
Total: 1508 139 423 Total Score = 2,362,648
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
Lots of problems this year. Our summer was extremely dry - only 0.2 inches of
rain from late June until time for CQWW. Then what happens? We get 7 inches
(almost 18 cm) of rain over the weekend. Much of it came down in thunderstorms
Friday evening and Saturday morning. Rain static on all but one antenna (my
NW-SE 40 meter Lazy H) was S9 for extended periods the first evening including
prime time for Europe on the low bands. Even when the rain static died down the
lightening crashes made 80 and 160 virtually impossible. Fortunately the
lightening and heavy rain let up during the day Saturday and the second evening
I was able to make up for some of the lost time on the low bands.
Murphy was not done though. When I turned my second K3 on just before the
contest started I got a filter error message I had never seen before. Recycling
the power a couple of times cleared the message but the audio sounded like it
was coming out of a tin can. No amount of adjustment would improve it. My SO2R
ability on phone is limited anyway due to severe hearing loss in one ear (don't
fire a deer rifle without hearing protection) so this put a further crimp in
that. At times it would mysteriously clear up only to revert back for no
apparent reason. Sunday morning I discovered wiggling the plug I had added just
before the contest to provide a second earphone connection for audio recording
would clear up the problem. Must be a bad contact somewhere in the connectors -
the error message on the K3 doesn't seem to have anything to do with it.
That was not all of my problems. Saturday evening I discovered the 20 meter
Stack Match was not working properly. I could select individual antennas but
when I combined two I got a different combination than indicated and with all
three the SWR went way up and signals way down. Not sure when this problem
showed up but the Stack Match was working OK at the start. Perhaps it is
related to all the rain.
Anyway all these problems did not help the score but it was not a disaster. Ten
and fifteen meters were both better than expected based on recent conditions. I
was able to make up for some of the low band problems when the static let up
the second evening. Numbers may be down a little on 20 but that was partly due
to not spending quite as much time there. Score is down from the past three
years but that can be attributed to ten meters - Q's and multipliers on the
other bands were higher than last year. Ten, while better than expected, never
opened well to the northern portions of Europe - worked only a few DLs and did
not work an SP until very late. Never was able to establish a run to Europe on
ten though I did have some decent ones to JA and SE Asia.
If conditions are this good for the CW weekend I won't complain. Last year they
were actually better for CW than phone.
I do worry about the health effects of these marathon contests. Woke up with a
head ache. Last night my vision was a little blurred. Wish the powers that be
would see fit to put in a 36 hour limit for single ops like that for WPX.
Amazing what some of us will do to be competitive but you might have to
question our judgment!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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