CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: OG6N
Operator(s): OH6NIO
Station: OG6N
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: Mieto
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 1
80: 65
40: 186
20: 200
15: 1257
10: 860
------------
Total: 2569 Prefixes = 1187 Total Score = 6,981,934
Club: Contest Club Finland
Comments:
I did not have chance to sleep enough before the start so I had to sleep a bit
longer than I originally planned and that ruined my operating plans. I spent
Friday evening fixing the rotating system of my main tower. I partly managed to
solve the problem but the tower would not turn properly. Something was stuck and
I could not turn it towards Asia. Then it got dark and there was nothing I could
do. My main beams were stuck westwards. I still had to prepare the shack before
I could hit the sack. I woke up after 05Z and prepared quickly a sandwich and a
mug of tea and started to S&P Asian stations on 15m with a low fixed beam
pointed to JA. After a while I tried to run but I felt weak compared to the
stack that I would normally have used. Around 07Z I was surprised to get a
reply from N4WW and WE4H but nobody else from the states seemed to be aware of
the opening. After a fruitless trial on 15m I moved to 20m and then to 10m
where I had only a low 4 element beam fixed to south. The main tower would
still not budge. About 0830Z I took a break and tried to force the tower
manually but something was still blocking the lower guy wire ring. I lost some
valuable operating time in these activities. Nothing resolved I came back to
the house and had a bite. Then I returned to the shack and continued to S&P
on 10m. Once in a while I tried to turn the main tower when lo and behold it
started to turn properly again. Soon I QSY'd to 15m with my stack pointed to
USA ready for the pileups. The rates never went very high for some reason but
stayed between 80 to 110 Q/h. 1845Z the band went down and I needed a break.
After that I moved to 10m to see if it was open anymore. The rates were not
very good but the propagation was interesting. 21Z I had to take a break
because of my voice and throat problems. I continued on 15m and when it was
closed around 2315Z I moved to the lower bands because 20m was not very good.
My 20m totals were disturbingly low. After toiling on the lower bands to get
some double points I went to bed because I felt that I was losing my voice. I
woke up next morning after 06Z which was already too late but finally I managed
to work some USA on 20m. About 0730Z I moved to 15m to try to work some JA
pileups because I was able to turn the stack towards Japan. There were some
JA's coming through but not plenty so after 40 minutes I moved to see what 10m
has got to offer from the east. The band was wide open and it was easier to
work the stations there than what it was on 15m. After 10Z I moved back to 15m
to secure a running frequency before the band opened into the states. W2OIB was
the first one to come back to me at 1150Z and there was more to follow. Then it
was time to move to 10m before 14Z. The pileup thinned out around 1930Z but
there were many stations to be worked by S&P. Now even 15m and 20m were in
poor shape so after a break I had to continue on 40m and 80m. 7M points was
very close so I tried to push but finally missed it by only a mere 20k points.
If I had been able to operate the missing 90 minutes that it took for the extra
breaks I would have passed the milestone with flying colors. In all this was a
memorable contest and I was surprised what I could do with just one radio, 700W
and a compromised setup. I hope I'll manage to fix at least a few things in the
long to-do list before the CW leg.
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