CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: KA1IS
Operator(s): KA1IS
Station: KA1IS
Class: SOSB40 HP
QTH: ME
Operating Time (hrs): 27:37
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 0
40: 1231
20: 0
15: 0
10: 0
------------
Total: 1231 Prefixes = 715 Total Score = 3,504,930
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
WPX CW is one of my favorites. Almost skipped it due to getting sick earlier in
the week. But by Friday felt like giving it a go. 40 Meters was a sensible
choice after practicing sleeping during the day.
First big contest from the new shack on Witt Hill. Picture on qrz.com. Wow, the
floor is flat. Larger insects remain outside. Upscale living means no stories of
blizzards and stuff. Mostly correct. From now on - while you are reading these
accounts - imagine the voice of grandpa's detailed saga about removing a
woodchuck from under the porch.
40 opened with a bang. Average rate was 100 for 5 hours. Local sunrise was less
brisk but offered a variety of multipliers from Asia and the Pacific to round
out a steady diet of w3's and w8's. Saturday the band cooperated with my
excessive sleep demands by not really opening to Europe until around 2100z. By
the way, check out K3UA'a 2021 WPX CW log when he set the SOSB 40 record from
K3LR. Apparently nobody bothered to tell us you can work Europeans all day on
40? Surprised the log checkers didn't catch this? Rumor is the entire K3LR QTH
is a non-linear temporal anomaly. Most of the stuff you buy from DX engineering
actually comes from the future, where Tim gets it super cheap at flea markets
and sends it back using time machines.
The non-reciprocal nature of band openings is frustrating - because you can
actually hear EU stations on 20 and 40 most of the day but try telling that to
the Sun. We should invent some phase shift balun gizmo that solves this problem.
Wasn't that the function of the original Wouff-hong?
After the band opened on Saturday afternoon, it was solid up through EU sunrise.
I felt bad for the 40 meter ops at NR4A during the late morning - early
afternoon slots. They were running a beacon CQ but nobody was answering.
Sunday morning there was a short run to Australia, good for QSO points and a
variety of VJ, VK, VL multipliers. Zero QSO's from Japan. Super weak. But the
band didn't really open to Europe until around 2200z - and then it was rough
going. Especially with 4 digit serials, QSB, and pileups for prefixes. I usually
don't look at a score window until near the end of contests. But this time I
watched throughout. There's a huge advantage to 6 point QSO's, once you have a
bunch of multipliers.
Apologies to stations I worked twice. When my energy waned, I kept forgetting to
hit Enter, after QSO's, and ended up losing stuff. Certainly there will be
deductions from the raw score this year. Didn't work (or hear) any other KA1's.
Not even Geoff.
The new shack is awesome. Should have done it years ago. After the contest I
lock the door and go home instead of packing up gear.
Antennas: 4 wire beams: 4 el NE. 3 el. SW, SE, and NW. All at around 40 to 50
feet high. Mostly aiming downhill.
73,
Tom
KA1IS
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