CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: P44W
Operator(s): W2GD
Station: P44W
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: ARUBA
Operating Time (hrs): 35:50
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 86
40: 767
20: 500
15: 940
10: 547
------------
Total: 2840 Prefixes = 988 Total Score = 10,746,476
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Station:
K3S, Win-Test Software
160/80 Inverted V
3 ele 80m and 4 ele 40m Wire Beams (EU)
F12 Delta 240
F12 C31XR
F12 C3S
Beverages NE, NW, N/S, E/W
This was the first contest I've operated from my station on Aruba since last May
(having operated from the rebuilt P40L/P49Y QTH for IARU, CQWW PH and CW and
ARRL DX this past year). Aside from a few broken beverage antennas everything
seemed to work as it had the last time here for WPX CW 2021. Setup posed no
surprises. Found the three CWT events on Wednesday useful for testing antennas
and getting a feel for propagation. Unfortunately the sun didn't play nice for
us later on the weekend.
There have almost always been line noise problems here, particularly over the
past ten years, as the area around the station became more populated. Long
periods of little or no rainfall are also a problem - salt builds up on the pole
insulators - arching problems are inevitable. Such was the situation this week
after nearly two months of no significant rainfall. Beaming toward the US and
JA, the dreaded 'buzz' was there 24/7 at a healthy S-8 to 9 on 15 and 10 meters.
Found two things that helped. The noise blanker on the K3S set at MID6 was
effective, didn't eliminate the noise, but took it down several S-units. The
other tool was using the Force12 C3 tribander on my second tower as an RX
antenna, oriented so the side null was pointed at the noise. Between these two
workarounds I had something that helped me avoid alligator status.
Came prepared with a plan to chase the LP record held by YL2KL @ D41CV. The sun
really teased us the three days leading up to the starting bell with nearly
around the clock prop on 20 and 15. But it wasn't to be our weekend. BAM -
just an hour or two into the event the K index shoots up like a rocket from 2 to
5. Signals on 40m become mush in an hour and stayed that way. 80m seemed
worse. That dream I had had of 3600 QSOs and 1100 multipliers vanished. An
unexpected mental letdown - say it isn't so Batman!
If you were LP or QRP this weekend you had to work all that much harder for
every QSO. The fading was terrible, generating many requests for repeats.
That's not to say there weren't a few bright spots. Fifteen and ten at this
latitude opened to EU both days. The top gun stations were loud as usual, but
the less equipped guys and gals were often a whisper. Seemed that every time I'd
ask for a repeat the critical missing digit would get lost in another fade every
time.
Ten meters was open both days and provided my best hour of the contest. It was
a mix of EU and USA, stateside dominating. Same type of opening on Sunday
afternoon, but less intense.
I've posted the hour by hour below. No monster rates ... only little mini-runs
that would often peter out. So much CQing ... thank god for F1.
Thanks to everyone who called or answered. Wish I could figure out how to make
P 4 easier to recognize.
See you again as P40W in CQWW PH and P44W in CQWW CW.
73, John W2GD
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 124 0 0 0 124 124 4.4
0100 0 0 105 0 0 0 105 229 8.1
0200 0 0 78 0 0 0 78 307 10.8
0300 0 50 18 0 0 0 68 375 13.2
0400 0 0 66 0 0 0 66 441 15.5
0500 0 2 52 0 0 0 54 495 17.4
0600 0 0 38 0 0 0 38 533 18.8
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 533 18.8
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 533 18.8
0900 0 1 14 0 0 0 15 548 19.3
1000 0 0 36 12 0 0 48 596 21.0
1100 0 0 0 7 100 0 107 703 24.8
1200 0 0 0 0 5 0 5 708 24.9
1300 0 0 0 6 0 4 10 718 25.3
1400 0 0 0 2 74 0 76 794 28.0
1500 0 0 0 0 86 0 86 880 31.0
1600 0 0 0 0 69 14 83 963 33.9
1700 0 0 0 0 0 132 132 1095 38.6
1800 0 0 0 0 4 94 98 1193 42.0
1900 0 0 0 0 24 65 89 1282 45.1
2000 0 0 0 39 71 0 110 1392 49.0
2100 0 0 0 133 0 0 133 1525 53.7
2200 0 0 0 55 14 3 72 1597 56.2
2300 0 0 0 95 0 0 95 1692 59.6
0000 0 0 43 4 0 0 47 1739 61.2
0100 0 8 35 3 3 0 49 1788 63.0
0200 0 9 56 0 0 0 65 1853 65.2
0300 0 11 39 0 0 0 50 1903 67.0
0400 0 0 43 0 0 0 43 1946 68.5
0500 0 0 1 11 0 0 12 1958 68.9
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1958 68.9
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1958 68.9
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1958 68.9
0900 0 3 0 0 0 0 3 1961 69.0
1000 0 2 7 4 23 0 36 1997 70.3
1100 0 0 0 6 40 0 46 2043 71.9
1200 0 0 0 11 2 0 13 2056 72.4
1300 0 0 0 2 7 2 11 2067 72.8
1400 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2067 72.8
1500 0 0 0 0 105 0 105 2172 76.5
1600 0 0 0 3 59 0 62 2234 78.7
1700 0 0 0 0 68 0 68 2302 81.1
1800 0 0 0 2 33 18 53 2355 82.9
1900 0 0 0 0 5 88 93 2448 86.2
2000 0 0 0 0 0 103 103 2551 89.8
2100 0 0 0 0 81 24 105 2656 93.5
2200 0 0 0 40 67 0 107 2763 97.3
2300 0 0 12 65 0 0 77 2840 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 86 767 500 940 547 2840
Gross QSOs=2873 Dupes=33 Net QSOs=2840
Multi-band QSOs
---------------
1 bands 1425
2 bands 328
3 bands 126
4 bands 69
5 bands 21
6 bands 0
(Report courtesy of K8IA)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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