CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: NR6O
Operator(s): N6BV
Station: NR6O
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: California
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
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160: 0
80: 20
40: 408
20: 783
15: 648
10: 33
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Total: 1892 Prefixes = 671 Total Score = 2,828,265
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
This contest was pretty frustrating for me, but it was a good exercise in
learning humilty?
On Thursday evening N6RO, Ken Keeler, called and told me that the other operator
couldn?t make it to N6RO. The other operator had expected to do single-band 20
meters, while I operated single-band 15 meters. So, with those change in plans I
decided to give the single-operator all-band category a try, despite never
having operated that category in WPX before. I figured I could at least give my
club, the Northern California Contest Club, more points in the all-band rather
than single-band category.
Ken also mentioned that there had been some winds out at ?Radio Oakely? the past
few days and that some powerline noise had kicked up. He was not kidding.
When I arrived at at Radio Oakley on Friday and had reconfigured the station for
single-operator mode I listened to the bands and found them in pretty poor shape
because of that recurring Coronal Hole we?ve been enjoying for several monthly
rotations of the sun. I also found that the powerline noise was very strong and
that it peaked up right at the azimuth for Europe. In a 2.4 kHZ bandwidth the
noise spurted up to S9 on 20 meters and hit S7 on 15 meters. This was going to
be a long contest?
I apologize for being an ?alligator? all weekend. I know I called CQ back in the
face of a number of stations, particularly in Europe but also in other
directions. I could hear bits and pieces of call signs but couldn?t pull them
through the QRN (and QRM). I know I asked for many repeats on serial numbers
too.
My single-operator results in 2003 were interesting to compare with those from
the multi-operator operation in 2002:
20-m Europe 20-m Japan 15-m Europe 15-m Japan
2002 43.6% 15.4% 32.7% 25.1%
2003 33.5% 10.5% 11.4% 13.1%
Part of this was due to the decline in propagation on the downslide of Cycle 23,
but some was due to the powerline noise too. And to think that conditions will
only go downhill from here!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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