CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: W2UP
Operator(s): W2UP
Station: W2UP
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: PA
Operating Time (hrs): 42
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
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160: 42 11 29
80: 266 20 88
40: 608 32 112
20: 574 37 137
15: 940 34 141
10: 899 31 121
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Total: 3329 165 628 Total Score = 7,539,051
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
On Friday morning, before the contest, I was chatting with one of the guys on
the FRC repeater, and he asked me what my goals were for this contest. I said,
"Same as always. Beat K3WW, but I know that will never happen..." Why not? Cuz I
like to sleep, and Chas is the 48 hour Ironman and too good an op to not compete
hour to hour. For me, a little sleep is worth more than trying to operate in a
quasi-hallucinogenic state on Sunday. With the low solar flux and the high K
index, and the way condx sounded, I figured 20m wasn't going to open to Europe
at their sunrise. So, there was my opportunity to catch a few hours. I thought
it more beneficial to sleep from EU sunrise till about an hour before our
sunrise (about 3 hours), rather than curse and groan at S&P'ing South Americans
on the low bands for a few hours at some pitiful rate. The sleep, plus my relay
box which automatically transfers both ears of my headphones to radio 2 while
radio 1 is transmitting gave me the energy and motivation to use the second
radio more extensively than ever.
Highlights:
1. My best score ever, just barely better than CQWW CW 2000, which had much
better band condx.
2. The runs seemed fast, furious, and endless. Seemed odd that one of the locals
commented on the Cluster that he couldn't run anything on Sunday afternoon, and
my rate meter was at about 100 at that moment.
3. The coolest thing was running JAs longpath on 40 on Sunday afternoon for
about 20 minutes. Got the idea to try after I heard a JA that C4W was working
when I tuned across him. It's amazing how quiet 40 gets when the beam is pointed
southeast - like 10m! It did help when one of the JAs spotted me on the Cluster.
It's always interesting to search one's own call on DX Summit after a
contest... Was hoping for an HL too, but the only other call in that part of the
world on 40 was YB1A (though did have VU2WAP call in on Friday).
4. The rain just before the weekend quieted my power line noise. It started
coming back Sunday afternoon.
5. After many years, finally convincing the XYL that I haven't quit contesting
yet by her ignoring me this weekend, and helping by bringing food to me is
appreciated. Who knows - maybe a contest Dxpedition will be next!
Lowlights:
1. I set up my Writelog files a week before the contest, and was all set, or so
I thought. Log my first call at 0000Z, and notice the zone didn't appear. I
think to myself that's what I get for using a Writelog beta version in the
contest. At 0004Z and 11 QSOs later, I notice I had loaded the WPX module by
mistake! What to do? Can't keep entering zones and not knowing my mults all
weekend, so I quit my great 40m run, save the file as is, and create a new
Writelog file, just as I'm thinking it's too early to quit after only 4
minutes... About 10 minutes later, was back in business, but had to find a new
freq to get started. Damn shame someone took my freq after only 10 minutes :.)
2. The packet pileups were more horrendous than ever. Does anyone ever listen to
the DX to see if he came back to someone after less than 15 calls?! There's one
guy (too close to home) who has the knack of ALWAYS sending his call just as the
DX comes back to someone.
3. OY1CT answering my CQ and it was a dupe :.(
Questions to ponder:
1. Do you also get that nagging feeling in the back of your neck that someone is
about to take your frequency when one of those QRPers calls you at 10 WPM like
this:
W2UP W2UP de DL1XXX/QRP DL1XXX/QRP K and so on...
2. Have you ever worked an old timer so many times, you know his call by his
fist, after he only sends the first 2 characters? For example, as soon as I
heard IS, I knew it HAD to be IS0IGV. I was fooled - it was IS0RDY! Must be a
new call or his twin :.)
73,
Barry
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