CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: N2WN
Operator(s): N2WN
Station: N2WN
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Grainger County
Operating Time (hrs): 43:3
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 68 13 36
80: 164 20 65
40: 245 24 95
20: 365 29 90
15: 317 22 88
10: 61 15 32
------------------------------
Total: 1220 123 406 Total Score = 1,792,252
Club: Tennessee Contest Group
Comments:
First, many thanks to my wife Rita for supporting this effort...
I had gone into this with the goal of making 1000 QSOs and breaking 1M points:
goals achieved. I had not planned on putting so much time into the effort, but
I seem to be an addict ;o)
My pre contest plans were to have a two element phased vertical array on 40.
Managed to get both up and then started running into issues. Something is
making tuning an issue, and while I was willing to forgo "perfection", the
phasing network SWR was astronomical... so ran with the less than perfect but
works pretty darn well inverted delta loop.
Also changed out the coax to the Steppir and retuned and reoriented the 80m
dipole so that it faced EU. Not sure that the feed to the yagi helped, but
pretty sure the orientation change helped (or were conditions on 80 THAT
good?)
So pre-contest work was pretty much done by Friday AM. I hadn't been sleeping
very well the past week, so tried to catch a little afternoon snooze. I guess
it helped, Rita said I didn't look my normal droopy self the entire contest.
Strange eh?
I decided to start high on 20M and work down. Bad choice, 20 was dismal.
Dropped down to 160, mostly because I consider that my "better" antenna. Should
gone to 80, which is where I went next: MUCH better! So now I have some momentum
going. All is moving along well hopping the low bands, about 3AM I all hell
breaks loose outside the shack. Apparently I hadn't been informed of the coyote
convention being held in the valley. One of the howlers was right outside the
shack window! One the plus side, it was a gloriously beautiful night out. All
the cold air was a great refresher! Back to the game...
Morning rolled around and I felt pretty darn good, started a run and was doing
OK. The run slowed a bit and decided to check 10, probably spent a little too
much time there as I missed some of the better EU on 15. VERY nasty noise
popped up after 9AM, even the K3 NB had trouble with it. At first I thought it
was a bad PS, so swapped it with a spare. In the process I fried my keyer, not
a major deal although doing fills with the straight key was more awkward. Funny
the noise basically died right around 5PM, so I'm guessing it is a piece of
electrical equipment somewhere. The noise cropped up again on Sunday with the
same pattern. Apologies to those who had to do repeats or I couldn't copy
during those times.
Some of the pileups were fugly, for lack of a better description. The ST2AR
pileups were probably the most out of control, it is very impressive that he
can maintain a 200Q/h rate in that insanity. The A73A was pretty bad too, but
the call was OK to look at on the screen for a while, kinda reminded me of
cat's ears around a 73 (OK so I was 30+ hours into the contest at that point
hihi)
Still liked some of the split pileups, but they showed how many folks were not
listening and just following spots. The plus side, if you could hear through
the mess, was that one could get in and out pretty quickly. I can't imagine the
ZD8O pileups being breakable in any amount of time by a LP op otherwise. ZD8O
was pretty masterful at moving multipliers too. Heard it twice and waiting was
better than fighting!
I'm always thankful for the many Canadians who play, NA can be pretty sparse
otherwise. Seems like I worked more XE stations this year, which is nice.
Decided to go multiplier chasing, still had some "easy" things like Zone 12
missing on 15 or one of the Caribbean stations missing on 20 about two hours
before the end of the contest. Found most of them, although somehow missed
VP9I (CONGRATS on your engagement Kyle!) on 20, but found a few new one shot
folks in the search. 40 was very productive with 4 new ones the last hour,
finding 6V7Y all by his lonesome for the last multiplier was icing on the
cake.
Just quickly perused some of my fellow LP demons and happy to see many
excellent scores!
I was running my vintage K3, a 4 element Steppir @ 15m, 80M dipole below it,
40m inverted delta loop and my squiggly 160m Tee.
As always thanks for all the QSOs. Thanks to the lil' guys for playing,
although the "rare" DX makes the headlines, you make the game worth sitting in
the chair for 40 hours!
See ya in the next one and happy holidays to all!
73,
Julius
n2wn
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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