ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: WO1N
Operator(s): WO1N
Station: WO1N
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 34
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 39 28
80: 144 68
40: 318 86
20: 406 92
15: 265 74
10: 21 14
-------------------
Total: 1193 362 Total Score = 1,294,512
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Station: FTdx5000, C3-SS@38', 40M Dipole@50', 80M Dbl-L, 160M Trap L, N1MM+
Soapbox :
Insanely good conditions on the low bands at the start. I even worked a new
country with my cheesy 160M antenna. All fun. Tried to do the smart thing
and get a few hours sleep Saturday morning before sunrise. Managed to
miss the alarm, but not by much.
However, I found the high bands to be a grind for the Low Power/Low Antenna
station, both days. W1MSW said "low power is hard work" at least
once.
Just add some low antenna to that equation.
After a dinner break Saturday evening the low bands just didn't seem to be
playing, either. 160M had some local interference that affect the entire
bottom of the band. Picture lumpy and that's how 160 sounded. I stuck with it,
but by 11:00 PM local, I was a bit frustrated so I got up for a 1/2 hour
break.
When I came back the low bands seemed to be fixed! 160M was playing great
into the Carribean again, though I could not hear Europe, let alone work them,
as I could on Friday night. DX'ed until about 3 AM local.
At that point took another extended break which I now regret and
here is why. I've been using the online scoreboards since they were
promoted by K1TTT and W1VE since, what?, maybe 2008 or so. I was
reporting and watching the current implementation and I was 1st place
world SOALP all weekend. Keep the competition well into the rear view
mirror. That is until Vitor (PY2NY) showed up Sunday
afternoon! Suddenly I'm 2nd place. Grrrr! Tried like hell to make up
the delta, we were probably on 50K points apart, but I just ran out of Q's
that I could work. Makes me want to take back that extended break!
Sunday was just a whole lot of attempted runs, tuning and hammering the band
map. No frequency fights but more problems with stateside stations that
probably
couldn't hear me when they nestled in a little close. I'm not sure the spot
dithering is in our best interests as then their callers would end up on
my frequency and it was really tough to figure out if they were working
me or the other station.
Best rate was a 108 that lasted about 1/2 hour (48Qs) Saturday. Best run
was 63Qs 18Z-19Z on Sunday. All weekend I'd send CQ, work the initial
skimmer pile up and then the calls would trickle in after that. Never
saw the "Last 10" rate above 180 all weekend.
N1MM+ says 34 hours, which is a bit below some of my better efforts but
the breaks were clean i.e. more planned and of fixed duration rather than
sneaking away for distractions or cat naps.
All in all, though there may be better ways to spend a winter weekend in
New England, this still ranks pretty high on the fun list for me.
73,
Ken - WO1N
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