CQWPX FEB 9,10 2002
Call: WX4TM
Class: SOABHP
Radio: YAESU FT990 @ 10-20 WATTS W/AMP
40 WATTS W/O AMP
Amp: 750 WATTS (till it smoked!)
Ants: Hy-Gain TH5MK5 tribander
80/40 inverted V's
40M vertical 'Z' experimental.. worked great!
Software: WRITELOG
Band QSOs PTS PRE
80M 8 18 2
40M 89 318 56
20M 279 607 97
15M 336 779 96
10M 431 1176 200
total 1143 2898 451
claimed score, 1,306,998
Soapbox:
Wow, what a contest! Started off great with a new AMP and a new
40M Ant and lots of great expectations. But Fri nite was a bust.
I could hear and work EU stations on 40M but it just seemed there
were only a few there. 80M was terrible with noise and flutter.
Then Saturday was really fantastic here. Had about the best run
ever on 10M that lasted for 4 hrs - during which I got a 75-80
QSO per hr rate for a good 2 hrs! Conditions stayed great all
day and I was predicting I'd hit the 1K Q mark by late evening.
But things started down hill at 2300Z when I made a bad (make
that dumb)decision to take my 1 hr break instead of going to 40M
which I noted was wide open. When I came back on at 0001Z, the
CW contest had started and it was just terrible. Maintaining
any rate at all was out of the question so I went back to 15M
which was still 'hot'. Then at 0130Z ..disaster. My brand new
amp smoked! What a let down!. Lost 30 mins trying to figure out
what had happened and then continued the contest with 40 watts
out of my FT990. I might as well have been running QRP. It
became impossible to get any kind of run going on any band from
then on. But I think I did pretty good at S&P which I still very
much enjoy. End result, however, was that I barely missed
equalling my last year's LP score. Not too shabby, I reckon. All
in all it was a great contest in which I had lots of fun. Many
many thanks to all who worked me; especially to the 'casual'
participants who seemed to be there when I needed them most
Sunday afternoon. Without you, there'd be no contest! And, of
course, a big thanks to the Contest Sponsor for a great event.
I like and am in favor of keeping the 30 Hr limit for SO (you'd
think I was in the 'over 60' crowd.. hi hi). IF the CW Sprint
test moved in on the CQWPX RTTY contest then why should the CQWPX
RTTY contest sponsor consider changing dates? And finally, again
raising that 'no, no SO2+R issue', I still strongly support
implementing a new SO2+R class for 'more equally defined'
competition.
73,
Tom WX4TM ex kl7q
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