CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
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160: 0
80: 453
40: 172
20: 1135
15: 1008
10: 189
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Total: 2957 Prefixes = 1005 Total Score = 7,239,015
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". HA! Worst propagation I
can remember in this contest since 1987! What would we have done without
stateside?
The biggest reason that WPXSSB is my favorite contest is that EVERYONE can work
EVERYONE! I shudder to think what this weekend would have been like without
those 1 point US qso's. A better description of propagation this past weekend
can be found in DL6FBL's post. Quite funny too! Good comment by NT1N also in his
post.
I have been so busy lately that I didn't even bother to hook the station back up
until Friday morning. I knew better but I didn't want to think about it. This
resulted in real panic when I discovered that one of my FT1000MP's would not
transmit! I sent off a desperate plea for help to the reflectors after spending
an hour systematically troubleshooting (almost) everything. I suspected a
simple problem and simple cure (it almost always is) and fortunately, N2MG told
me the obvious, which is was and saved me from an SO1R fate this weekend.
THANKS MIKE!!!! I should also add that I called Yaesu tech support, spoke to a
VERY nice tech named Michael, who actually called me back 90 min later to give
me details of what the problem could be. What a GREAT experience with Yaesu
tach support. MANY THANKS!
On to the contest.... With the Sunspot count quite high and the flux quite high
I was pretty confident that the bands would recover quickly from the coronal
hole and nasty aurora. At least that is what used to happen... I gave up on
hoping the aurora would subside after the third day! It never dipped below 7
and was often "Pegged" at 10!
Cndx were SO bad that it wasn't until about 15z on Saturday that I actually
heard an EU station on 15, skewpath of course. 10 was, well, basically dead.
The bands never really recovered much during the weekend although there were a
few almost normal hours late on Sunday.
On Saturday evening my XYL, Barbara, came downstairs to bring me dinner, which I
promptly devoured. Since the rates were so pitiful, I was able to call cq, eat
dinner, play with my 3 1/2 year old daughter Melissa and talk to my wife at the
same time. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for competently juggling all
this - "Gee what a great contest op I am!" :-), that was, until I moved the
plate which jammed the ctrl key on my keyboard and promptly locked up my
computer. OOPS! So I restarted the computer and called cq and worked a few EU
stations which I paper logged. No problem until I looked over at the computer
and noticed that the CT serial number NOW was showing 4895 instead of 1818! OH
SH-T!!! I didn't feel so smart anymore! :-(
I took a few minutes off to try to figure out what to do. For the version of CT
that I was using, there was no way to reset the serial number, and obviously
giving out a serial number of 4895 on Saturday evening was NOT going to work
either. After a few more pathetic attemps to reboot the computer hoping that
the problem would go away (which of course it did not!), I had a brainstorm...
What if I just skipped a bunch of numbers and then SUBTRACTED 3000 from the
serial number on the computer screen? Well that's what I did for the next 24
hours. So while DK5AP was given #4898 on the computer, he was actually given
#1898 in the contest. I am sure that K6AW will love this! Sorry Steve!
With the bands so poor that most of the time SO2R was largely ineffective (only
about 300 q's on the 2nd radio) I got a chance to listen a lot to KM3T, K5TR and
others. Every time I tuned past K5TR he was running guys really well. The
upsetting part was that he was working EU stations that I could not hear. On
15, on 20, during the day, during the night - didn't seem to matter. Always
running and always pulling away in q's. Ok, obviously not a good year for
competitive NE scores. Must have been REAL UGLY in the Midwest and elsewhere!
But then all of a sudden I would tune across other stations in the SW, and NW
and Midwest and they would be running guys that I could not hear either - some
even in EU! The best part was when I repeatedly got thumped on 15, 20 and 40 by
EVERYONE into Africa. Even the midwest repeatedly kicked my butt in EU on 40!
It felt like the twilight zone!
80 played well until the rain/snow static came - clearly no band and no run was
to remain unscatched for long! :-) It was almost laughable after a while.
With not much left to work on 80, I figured there had to be a few VE's on 160 to
call. That's when I discovered that my 160 antenna was dead. Actually, I was
very curious to hear the level of activity on 160 given how poor cndx were on
the other bands. Usually that's the place to go when there is no place left to
go. I will have to remember to check my antennas on Thursday next year. :-)
I got excited on Saturday when I actually heard and worked not one, but TWO JA's
on 15! I even worked TWO skew path EU stations on 10 on Sunday!
Looking at the scores and postings of other guys, I must have called in pileups
only at times when everyone else was louder than me and I must have tuned across
stations only when they were running EU stations that I could not hear. :-)
Actually, propagation was SO WEIRD and changeable that this may have been
actually what was happening.
Often the band noise would change and signals would come up all of a sudden and
I would work 5 - 10 EU's in 2 - 3 min, and then almost nothing. Then the next
wave and then nothing. Since I was working guys in bursts, I couldn't afford to
really listen to the second radio. I was really only listening when it was time
to band change or give up on the run, which was of course the time when I knew
that I was NOT runnning and the other stations I tuned across were running!
Maybe they had the same experience?
Some examples of the weird propagation:
Sunday 1648z VERY slow run with almost no stateside/EU. Then a REAL S9 T30ONM
calls me. Huh? He said he was using a vertical.
Satuday on 40 about 0330z - I can't run EU but ST0RY calls me! Then a little
later, 5U7JB.
Often during the weekend a LOUD EU station would call me and tell me I was
S9+20, S9+30 (and he would be equally loud) and NO ONE else would be calling.
Not before and not after. It appeared random.
On Sunday, 15 opened about 1100z and there were LOUD UA/UN/LY/UR stations. Real
S7 - S9+. Ok, sounds like a good band opening right? WRONG! You call cq would
2 - 3 weak UA's and that's it! Occasionally a loud UA9 would call in and
NOTHING ELSE. Not a DL, not an IK8, not a S5, NOTHING! It was like that for
the next few hours. Calling cq continuously on 15 produced awful rates of 40 -
60/hr of which more than 1/2 was stateside. I actually had to take offtime in
the middle of what should have been a primetime EU run.
I decided to finish out the contest and try to make my score respectable by
concentrating on the 6 pt q's and the SA mults. I had no hope of being #1 and
with many other stations giving out 3000+ numbers hours before the end, I
figured I would be lucky to have a Top 5 (US) finish.
I was truly shocked to see K5TR with a 6.5 meg score and realize that I had 7.2
meg! Even more shocking was that I actually had a few more mults than George!
This was almost incomprehensible given how many more US and JA stations he must
have worked. (I worked 42 JA's and 1217 US stations). Obviously, I worked many
more EU stations which are chock full of mults. But you don't know any of these
details DURING the contest - all you hear is the Serial number.
Clearly 40 and 80 made the big difference up here with all the EU stations.
With EU counting 6 pts on the low bands, working 100 EU's was worth the same
number of point as working 600 US stations!
This is clearly a huge advantage for a Northeast station on the lowbands in an
SSB contest. It also introduces a huge stategy element in this contest......
Not only do you have to successfully pick the right on and off times which is
tough enough given the erratic propagation, but you need to carefully consider
the point value of the stations you are working as well as whether or not they
might be mults. I always focus on the low bands precisely because the only way
you can make up for those EU 6 pointers is to work lots more mults. It is a
luxury we usually have in the NE, but generally not elsewhere.
WPXSSB is really a wonderful contest because lots of interesting DX shows up and
is more easily workable due to reduced pileups. In addition, the SA stations
really enjoy using many new and unusual prefixes and they get on with great
zeal. On a weekend like this you really appreciate all that LU, PY, CX, YV and
other SA and Caribbean activity. There is plenty of room to cq, there is time
to sleep and there is the ability of most guys to be "a mult" in the contest.
Of course, everyone can work everyone else and that is really the best part of
all!
I hope that eeveryone had as much fun as I did and will be back next year.
Congrats to K5TR, V47KP - way to go Joe and Alex!, and everyone else who stuck
it out this weekend. A special thanks to those stations that traveled to put a
new prefix out on the air! CU in WPXCW.
73
Bob KQ2M
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