CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: NP3Y
Operator(s): NP3Y WP3C WB8JUI
Station: WP3C
Class: M/S LP
QTH: PR
Operating Time (hrs): 47.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 3
40: 668
20: 1224
15: 989
10: 352
------------
Total: 3236 Prefixes = 1144 Total Score = 11,426,272
Club:
Comments:
Great way to break in my new callsign, NP3Y on WPX weekend! I obtained this call
about a month ago through the vanity process, seemed to be the only NP3 on this
week.
Highlights:
We had power all weekend, the power went out at 0100Z at Al's home right after
the contest and was still out as of Monday morning. Lucky us!
Weather for the most part. Lots of strong thunderstorms near the QTH, especially
at the QTH Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Almost had to disconnect, but
cooperated enough to keep operating.
Antennas performed well and no major glitches on the remote set-up for Rick, who
supported us remotely. No issues with RFI and internet connect.
Tested multi-flex capability and added many MULTs as a result. We may have
uncovered something, we cant do multi-flex with two local computers??? Need to
check in on this, we have never tested at the station, all remotely, which
multi-flex worked fine.
Detailed Summary:
Friday night, Rick started on 20M for the first hour and a half. Great runs and
many QSOs. Went to 40M for the extra points. The QRN on 40M all weekend was
really bad and lots of QSB. Often had to ask for # again or call as QSB and the
noise from near by storms made it extremely difficult to copy full callsigns.
Bands were hot all night, heard QSOs on 10/15/20M all during the night time and
had good runs by 15/20 in midnight and between 1-4AM local time. Saturday
morning came and of course the summer conditions kicked in once the sun rose.
Bands were not horrible, but 10M was a major flub this weekend during late
morning early afternoon. Had some okay runs on 10M, but very slow. We probably
spent a little too much time on 10M and should have stayed on 15M during these
times, oh well. Once late afternoon came, 15M was hot and so was 20M. Had many
YB stations call in extremely loud and easy copy and many other Asia stations
all throughout the day and night. Had some strong thunderstorms Saturday between
1900z-2100z and strong wind gusts and heavy rain. We believe that caused the
issue with Rick's connection, thus Al or I took over. Al and I powered through
the night with lots of success again. 80M seemed better Saturday night, but us
being LP and lots of noise on 80M, we just decided to stay on 40M instead. At
times even 40M sounded like 160M during the Summer with all the noise. We also
may have located another source of noise near Al's house around 40M that may
contribute to the noise too. Sunday morning came and conditions were a lot worse
on Sunday than they were on Saturday. 20M was basically dead, as well as 10M,
only signals on 15M. Rick powered us through these times Sunday. It seemed we
were stuck on 8 and 9M for hours and couldn't get the score up fast enough. Once
conditions improved the score sky rocketed and Al had lots of success on 20M. I
finished the contest on 40M S/P in the last 40M that produced around 50 QSOs.
People have to remember that in WPX, basically everyone is a MULT so I am as
rare as a WP4, 9V1, VP2 and this contest requires a mix of S/P and RUN.
We posted on CQCONTEST and strongly encourage all to post, regardless of class
participation or even if it is a casual effort. It is really fun to watch the
SOAB operators go back and fourth and push each other to the next level. It is
not about adding any pressure to any operator or score or even having the
satisfaction of dominating a category, but to make it fun for those watching,
also for us in the Multi category to watch when not operating. There really is
no valid reason/excuse not to post your score in my opinion. You will always see
a score posted from our stations (WP3C, NP3Y, NP4DX, etc) regardless of entry
category and regardless if we win or put 1-2 hours in a contest.
Speaking of which, we were lucky enough to watch our local Boricua brothers
dominate their respective categories - Felipe operating WP4X and the remote (yes
I said REMOTE!) team of Ken WP3X. It was truly a pleasure to watch them and see
their scores live and hear the similar notes about the conditions from their
perspective. It was also interesting to see us going back and forth with QSOs
and MULTs. We tried keeping up with Ken's group, especially in terms of the QSOs
on 40M and the MULTs and we held our own against them in those important and
respective categories. Even though our stations are on different parts of the
island, we could always hear their signals loud and clear.
Thanks for all the callsigns and the respective calls this weekend! We surpassed
our score from a few years ago and are extremely pleased with the score. I
really don't know what else we could have done except get the GXP 40M antenna
working to have 2 antennas on 40M at the same time (1 for EU and 1 for NA), but
other than that, we did as well as we could on the low bands and the MULT
count!
73's Paul / NP3Y (Ex. WP3TT, WQ2N)
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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