CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: NS3T
Operator(s): NS3T
Station: NS3T
Class: SO(A)AB LP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 40
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 38 10 18
80: 145 14 64
40: 268 25 92
20: 234 26 86
15: 399 27 104
10: 251 27 93
------------------------------
Total: 1335 129 457 Total Score = 2,165,856
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
I'm not sure where to start. This was a personal best for me, even with some
crazy twists during the contest that kept me from an even better score.
I made 8 contacts in the first two hours, because we had relatives in town. I
finally sat down in the shack at 0220z. All was fine until my telnet/spots
stopped working around 1100z, and then my contest computer crashed just before
sunrise. The troubleshooting and restarts cost me about an hour, and left me a
bit rattled and frustrated.
I just told myself to stay cool - it's a long contest. But it took a while to
calm down. I stuck with my game plan of focusing first on mults when
S&P'ing. I also called CQ a bunch on Saturday with the good conditions, and
worked the second radio a bunch.
After missing about an hour to take a walk with the family on Saturday
afternoon, Murphy arrived again - this time in the kitchen. Those problems
required two emergency trips by me to the grocery store. More contest time
lost.
While the high bands were good on the first day, 160 had been somewhat
disappointing on the first night. Saturday night was much better - but I just
couldn't get over the hump to really make a bunch of contacts. My 100 watts can
only do so much. Still I was happy with the numbers. I made it until about
0700z and slept for five hours.
I was back in the shack just after 1200z. I missed about an hour on Sunday
morning to drive one kid around town - but I was making good progress.
Conditions weren't as good on Sunday for me on 10-15-20. I couldn't get any
traction while CQ'ing on day two, so I just S&P'd up and down the bands
repeatedly.
About 4 pm local time, it felt to me like the high bands were going to close
early. Boy, was I wrong. Around 2145z, the bandmap suddenly filled with JA
stations. I worked 27 JA's on 15 meters - which is not normal for me (1 or 2 is
a big haul). And even better, I could actually hear rare DX from Asia and the
Pacific that I only read about.
It looked like I was going to have a fast finish. But Murphy decided to show up
again. With about 90 minutes to go, my radio for 40 meters refused to transmit
for an unknown reason. Like my telnet troubles on Saturday, I was suddenly
wasting valuable time to troubleshoot while everyone else was making QSO's. I
finally was able to patch the line over to the first radio, but I lost a lot of
time and focus.
It was a frustrating end to an otherwise really good contest! Over 2 million
points is pretty good for simple wires in the trees. Hopefully Murphy will go
bother someone else next year.
73 Jamie NS3T
Rigs: Kenwood TS-590-SG's
dipoles 80-10
inverted L for 160
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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