WAE DX Contest, CW - 2020
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Stanford
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
80: 2 0 8
40: 96 54 99
20: 458 508 88
15: 36 30 36
10:
-------------------------
Total: 592 592 231 Total Score = 273,504
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
My fourth time in WAE CW, first two were low power in a better part of the
sunspot cycle. I just reread my comments from last year and most of them apply
to this year - summarizing:
- Low bands noisy despite Beverage, heard more stations on 80 and could match
the callsign fragments with packet spots but no chance copying serial numbers.
- Popping noise on 20 during daytime that was highly correlated with FT8
start/end of transmission as seen on panadapter
- Small number (5) of EU heard and worked on 15 on Saturday but either more were
there or a better opening on Sunday. Last year I remarked that I tuned across
and worked YL7X - same thing this year, no RBN spots in the US on 15 for YL7X.
- I expect more copying errors than I usually make due to the noise.
That covers what was almost the same as last year. Better conditions and/or more
activity improved my Q count and score to be more than twice last year's.
What seemed to be a problem with one amp at the start of the contest kept me
limited to one high power radio for the first evening and I used the second
radio just as a second receiver. After my sleep break I remembered that there
was another amp that could be reached by the cables I was using, but not visible
from my operating position. I set up that amp for 20m on the second radio which
enabled high power SO2R and just kept that radio on 20.
Post-contest troubleshooting of the "faulty" amp by W6LD revealed that
it was working normally and I had mistakenly entered mismatched settings which
led me to first suspect cabling or connector issues (our most common problems)
and then to assume the amp was faulty instead of checking that I had the correct
band settings. I had set up and tested everything, except for turning on the
amps, the night before the contest.
Towards the end I offered QTCs to one loud station who replied they already had
QTCs from me, even reporting that it was my batch #73. I'd only given out 61
batches at that point so I'm not sure who they got this batch from but it wasn't
me.
In the last few hours there was a lot of activity at the W6YX shack which was
distracting for me and I missed out on a few late mults on 20. Our EME
contesters were working to replace a 10 GHz coupler that had developed a 6 dB
loss, the student club officers were preparing for a club meeting to be held
outside the shack and online this week, and W6LD and AA6XV were also at the
shack.
73,
-Mike, N7MH
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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