CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: DL3YBM
Operator(s): DL3YBM
Station: DL3YBM
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Haltern
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 88 6 43
80: 290 12 57
40: 315 18 83
20: 411 25 80
15: 454 30 101
10: 403 28 101
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Total: 1961 119 465 Total Score = 2,145,616
Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association
Comments:
Thursday
Drove up to the contest site which is my parents' home, some 400 km north of
where I live now. Even though I arrived late, it was a fun evening as I passed
by Wolf's (DF2PY) QTH who had offered a backup rig. Not only did he shift some
of his QRL appointments in order to be back home early enough for me, he also
proved once more to be a top notch chef (those steaks surely provided a
marvellous nutrition basis for the weekend). Thanks again Wolf, your support is
a great example of what ham spirit is all about, I believe.
Friday
The ?contest site? mentioned before consists of the station I built up as a
teenager. Just a 3 el tribander at 10 meters and a vertical for 40. For 80 / 160
I always have to erect an inverted L, supported by several large trees in the
garden. This time, configuring and wiring the station plus erecting and tuning
the antenna took around 6 hours, much more than originally planned. The inv L
just wouldn?t go up and didn?t stay where I wanted it to be. In the end, I left
it in a position where it almost touched one of the trees. I didn?t feel happy,
but figured that getting some rest before the contest started was worth the risk
of setting the whole thing on fire, hi. I did make some last minute changes to
my strategy, planning to stay on the low bands as long as possible the first
night and moving up to 15 and 10 as early as possible the second morning. Guess
that strategy basically worked ok. Set my personal goal on 2K Qs and 2 million
points.
Saturday
Started on 40 as always, then moved to 80 and 160. A pretty long nite, only
surprise was how well the inv L worked on 160 (in the end I netted 6 zones and
43 countries which I found quite ok for just 20 mtrs of wire, the vertical
section being hardly half of the total length). Got the first decent run at 0730
on 20 with the antenna beaming 210 dgs. As planned, I arrived late on 10. That
band opened to the US at around 1300 for me. Did mostly S&P, which was fun and
productive with the band being packed with stations all the way up to 28200.
Passed 1 K Qs at 1704, 1 million points at 2358.
Sunday
Good ears award goes to W0AIH, who I worked for an ESP contact on 40 at 0115.
Never had any high hopes for working ZD8A who had an awesome pileup on 40.
Finally worked him for a double mult at 0356 after being on and off his QRG for
some 45 minutes. Worked PT5A and V26K within 1 minute for 2 double mults on 80.
Hey, I then realized this thing I threw into the trees actually worked fb this
time. Started a run on 3570 at around 0440, and much to my surprise even some US
stns called in (later I found out that some brave soul on the east coast spotted
me on packet ?). I had another occurrence of working 2 double mults within 1
minute on 40 when I worked PJ5/K1NA and ZF1A at 0521, and that happened again at
0739 on 10, where AH2R and 7J1AAI as my first JA on that band got into the log.
Had a nice run on 15 later in the afternoon. Probably the hardest contact here
was 3G1X, who had a big EU pile. Finally got through at 1747. Shortly thereafter
my mum asked if I want to join her for a short dinner. I did and also accepted a
glass of red wine ? big mistake!! All of a sudden my motivation for continuing
the test went down the drain, whereas my desire for some more of that liquid
stuff increased to unbearably levels.
As I had kind of accomplished my ham radio goals for the week-end by then, I
realized that I am a weak soul and switched off the rig ? hope my dear
team-mates will forgive me.
Very special tnx go to Wolf, DF2PY, my mum for keeping my caffeine levels up all
weekend, my XYL and son for letting me play radio and of course the CQ contest
committee for organizing the event.
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