CQ Worldwide DX Contest - SSB
Call: WO1N
Operator(s): WO1N
Station:
Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 2 2 2
80: 30 10 20
40: 51 14 37
20: 218 25 89
15: 263 30 104
10: 361 30 109
-------------------------------
Total: 925 111 361 = 1,222,480
Club/Team: YCCC
Comments:
My goals were 1.2M and to improve on my 99 effort. I was hoping that 1000Qs
might be doable.
Having had the station ready to go days in advance led me to decide to take
down the 160M Inv L and put up an 80M vertical. I slipped out of work a couple
of hours early and I'll skip the part where I ran my cycle out of petrol about
1/2 mi from the gas station on the way home. The vertical was up in no time
flat (Field Day experience does have its benefits) and a 1/2 dozen random
length radials were strewn about the yard. Every Q I made on 80M was with the
vertical, the dipole just wasn't hacking it on 80M.
I started on 10M but that was non-productive. Moved to 15M for a few Asian
mults. I was already falling behind my 99 pace after the first hour. I moved
band to band all evening long and at 0600Z I was 2Q's and 17 mults behind. The
rates weren't good so I took a sleep break. I overslept a bit but was on 10M as
early as 1100Z compared to last year not hitting 10 until 1300Z. A lot of S&P
but I could not get a run going. Steady hours of 30-40 finally at 1700Z I was
able to get a run going with a 73 hour, equaling my best hour of the 99 test.
Moved to 15 once Europe disappeared and had a couple of good hours, every so
often trying to get a run going, without much success.
I just kept rowing through the bands all evening long, finally pulling the plug
at 0700z for a 3 1/2 hr sleep break on the shack floor. At that point I was
627/385, or 70 Q's ahead, 12 mults behind 99's effort. The low bands were
tough. I was hoping for more good propagation for the daylight hours, of course
it was not to be.
I attributed the lack of mults to a non-existent packet cluster connection. The
node I was to use had some technical problems and was unreachable. This
compares to last year where I didn't get kicked off at all. Sure you can see
the spots when unconnected but a lot of them roll off the top of the screen
because of repeats. I spent a lot of time editing the announce screen to make
sure I wasn't missing spots the 2nd day. Of course I couldn't contribute spots
either, and with all the tuning I did, especially day 2, I could have
contributed a lot.
Sunday was tough, as a lot have reported. Europe would come and go on 10M most
of the morning, never steady. I followed the propagation down the bands. On a
sweep of 20M starting from the bottom I found a nice hole at 14.160 and started
calling CQ. I could only muster the last 10 to about 30. I had better rates
S&P. I then started tuning up the band and stopped to listen to a few of the
locals whose stations I've seen or know about and they were struggling to make
any rate also. There was one exception. At the very top of 20M there was K1AR
cranking out contacts like he was the only one on the band. Call recognition,
superior equipment, superior location or superior skill? OK, probably all of
the above!
Some highlights: Kuwait on a couple of bands, Easter Isl on 3 bands, working
K1KI 24hrs into the test for a double mult on 15M (Thanks Tom!), listening to
3E1AA complain the pile-up was cutting into his cigarette break! Some
lowlights: just about any local beating me in the pileups, not being able to
get some good runs going and the lack of propagation to the deep Pacific like
was easily workable last year.
All in all, Murphy kept clear and the weather co-operated. Yes, it was too
windy/snowy/cold to do the suburban ritual of raking every damn leave within a
500' radius of your yard as an offering to the gods of the big trucks. This
allowed me to rack up some 35 hours of chair time, by far the most in any
contest I have ever operated from the home QTH. From an effort perspective, it
took nearly 10 additional hours to work 15 more Q's and 37 more mults than the
year prior. From a results perspective, this was my best ever from my home
station.
Ken
WO1N
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