CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: P49Y
Operator(s): AE6Y
Station: P49Y
Class: SOSB15 HP
Class Overlay: Unassisted
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 2581
10:
------------
Total: 2581 Prefixes = 979 Total Score = 7,466,833
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Well, that was certainly an interesting experience. For various reasons, I
didn't want to keep butt in chair for a solid 36 hours, so I thought doing a
single band effort would be a good alternative. I had done SB40 before in this
contest, but thought with the superb 10/15m condx earlier in the week that 15
would probably be the place to be. A single-bander can get boring as rates drop
as the band starts to close or you have just about worked everybody, but it's
also a fun way to experience a full 24-hour cycle of propagation.
Contest highlights included a very energetic start, featuring a 170-QSO first
hour (I think my personal best for this contest). The band was open to EU and
NA, and kept it up till about 0430Z (that's after midnight local time -- what a
change from recent years!). In a similar vein, the early hours on Sunday
morning, starting at about 0830Z, featured a long EU run that was an unexpected
treat for so early in the morning. On Thursday, at about 1230Z the band had
been actually open to JA/BA, but none heard at that time during the contest.
The second highlight was how useful our little two-element SteppIR antenna
turned out to be. We had put it up in our recent antenna rebuild, and it is
just at 30 feet fixed North-South. When we had bad noise, for some reason it
was the quietest of the three antennas (5 el JK at 55 feet and Mid-Tri at 43
feet being the others). With the 5 el running EU, most of my US Qs were worked
on the SteppIR. We also had thought it would be useful for SA callers. It was,
but pointing North! Reversing it to South would increase the noise level by 10
dB or so, but pointing north gave the best SA signals. So this one turned out
to be a very pleasant surprise.
On the negative side, here are my contest excuses (everyone has to have some,
right?)
1) My score would certainly be improved with use of internet for multiplier
harvesting. Searching for Qs from here isn't normally very productive, but
focusing on needed new mults would obviously be a helpful strategy, which I did
not use.
2) I took lots of short breaks to get up and walk around, eat, etc. Though the
WPX clock says 35 hours, the actual operating time is closer to 27 hours. More
BIC time probably would have helped the score.
3) We had some very bad local noise, that also plagued P44W. It was
particularly bad to the to the Northwest, making it difficult to use an antenna
aimed to the western US. For that reasons, only a few JAs could be heard.
4) Too many dupes: over 100! Why? I sent my call after 99% of my QSOs, but
even got duped by the same stations more than once. Very frustrating.
5) The score includes a handful of Russian stations, and even a few Ukrainians.
Since these are all new prefixes, there will presumably be a score reduction
from the log checkers.
The social scene here is somewhat muted these days, but John Crovelli, W2GD and
P44W, and I broke bread several times together. Jean-Pierre, P43A and Cris,
P43C, continue to take good care of our place and have completed a number of
significant upgrades. In fact, great accolades go to co-owner John Fore, W6LD,
who spent several weeks here two months ago and accomplished a great deal of
deferred maintenance, including a new operating table, new a/c, and new washing
machine (though in all honesty, in 20 years I had never had occasion to turn on
the old one!). John also did a lot of organizing and shelving of our outside
aluminum pile (i.e., old antennas and tower sections), while JP and a friend
raised the cinder block wall in the yard to help keep out the neighbor's
aggressive (maybe friendly?) dogs.
BTW, Lisandro (P43L) and wife Lissette have completed building a remarkable
astronomical observatory in their backyard, complete with a 10" reflecting
telescope and a control room that looks like it came from NASA Mission Control.
He and his Space and Nature Aruba Foundation were recently featured on local
TV!
73, and as always, thanks to the many excellent CW ops that make this contest
so enjoyable for us all, Andy, AE6Y, P49Y
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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