CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: W2UP
Operator(s): W2UP
Station: W2UP
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: EPA
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 75 12 55
80: 583 25 102
40: 689 33 122
20: 1514 36 132
15: 386 25 99
10: 50 14 30
------------------------------
Total: 3297 145 540 Total Score = 6,430,095
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
The contest started on a low note for me. N2NT, who is about 30 miles from me,
said in his comments, he just couldn't get a run going on 40m. Same here.
Usually, I have a first hour of about 100 Qs on 40m. This time, only 40 Qs on
40m, and many were S&P. HG6N, usually 20 over, was about S-6. Given the lack
of sunspots, I thought to myself, "what would K3ZO say about this?" Fred would
say the MUF has dropped below 40, so let's go to 80, so that's what I did at
0100Z. It worked pretty well. The 40m condx reminded me of the time I operated
from K8AZ in OH about 10 years ago (one of those
Thanksgiving-we-visit-the-in-laws rules when the kids were younger). Tom put me
on 40m at the start of the contest and I was running about a 60/hr rate. He had
stacked Yagis on 40, so I would have expected better. When I commented to the
other guys in the shack, "I can't get a good run going on 40," someone responded
with "Welcome to 8-land!" That's what it felt like for me, but I'm only 60
miles from the Atlantic. That's not supposed to happen here!
I usually grab a few hours of sleep after the EU sunrise peak, (though there was
no peak this year) so that's what I did about 0730Z. I awoke about 1100Z, an
hour before our sunrise to grab a few low-band Pacific mults, then QSY to 20m
for the EU run. It came as expected. 1200-1800Z all were 100+ hours, with a
peak hour of 176. I used the second radio to grab a few QSOs on other bands,
and kept monitoring 15m, waiting for it to open to EU. That never happened.
Could the SFI be so low that 15m acted like 10m? Not quite, but close. My
dilemma was should I give up the great 20m run that kept going and going for a
QSY to 15m? I decided to stay on 20m, thinking to myself that 15m couldn't be
this bad on Sunday. If I was wrong, I'd miss a lot of easy mults. As it turned
out, 15m did open well to EU on Sunday for about 2 hours, so I quickly picked up
a lot of common EU mults that are usually in the log by that time. During my
15m Sunday run, it was interesting how the opening seemed regional. For a
while, all I worked were DL, F, HB9, etc. I noticed that ON wasn't in the log
yet and sure enough a couple came along as part of that patchy opening. A
little later, everything seemed to be I, 9A, S5, then Scandinavia, etc. RU1A
stood out as the only Russian worked on 15m. 10m frequently does that, but I've
never experienced it on 15 before.
Saturday afternoon, I went to 40m a little earlier than usual, during the 1900
hour (sunset being about 2130) hoping I'd catch a decent opening. It was pretty
good, with 86 Qs on 40m during the 2100 hour. The rest of the evening included
jumping around the low bands with mediocre, but expected rates. Speaking of the
low bands, 160 was frustrating. Besides the usual endless callers, there were a
bunch of EUs calling CQ, with good signals, that just couldn't hear me. I don't
know if they're running big amps or just had a lot of QRM on their end. A few I
finally worked in the last 30 minutes of the contest, after many attempts.
Because it was relatively slow on Saturday night, I was thinking about going to
bed early. For me, I find the cost-benefit ratio of being well-rested for
Sunday is higher than having a few hours of ~20 QSOs in the middle of the night.
That little voice in my head, which by the way, sounded just like W3BGN, kept
saying "stay in the chair... stay in the chair..." The Steve-voice is older
than it used to be and isn't quite so loud any more, so we compromised and I
went to bed shortly after 0600Z, sleeping for about 4.5 hours, again waking up
shortly before our sunrise.
Sunday morning gave me 5 consecutive 100+ hours, first on 20m, then on 15m. My
gamble did pay off and 15m opened well for about 2.5 hours, though a bit spotty
as mentioned above. Never worked a JA on 15m. We won't even talk about 10m
other than to say I didn't work a single European.
During Sunday afternoon, I again went to 40m early, shortly before 2000Z. I had
the best Sunday 40m run ever, with 125 Qs during the 2000 hour and 102 Qs during
the 2100 hour. It was very draining though, as atmospheric noise was up a bit.
I was so tired at 2200Z when 40m slowed down I was thinking of quitting early,
but that little voice kept me in the chair. One of the calls that almost did me
in was an extremely weak F/G3XWK/P. It must have taken 10 tries to finally be
sure. I really didn't use the second radio at all after the 40m run. I was
just too tired. The other problem was the relay in my homebrew SO2R audio
switchbox developed an oxidized contact and the left ear kept fading and
possibly phase-shifting, as the signal sounded like it was spatially moving
around inside my head. I need to find a new 4PDT relay.
Congrats to K5ZD on a great single-op score. Randy, I hear you about packing it
in as a single op. I think the same thing every year. We're getting older
(though still young by US ham standards, sorry to say)... One thing that keeps
me from doing more multis is I thrive on the high rate hours. CQing and tuning
for mults endlessly on an almost dead band would drive me nuts. My single op
days will end, for sure, in about 3 years though. Current plans include moving
to Colorado (I want to continue life as a ski bum), once my younger daughter is
off to college. We'll be downsizing to a condo or townhouse, so the home
contesting will be finished. If anyone wants to buy a contest-winning QTH
(4BR/2.5 bath, 3 car garage, custom in-ground stone pool, dedicated shack, 400A
electric, etc., about 4200 sq ft, on 6.5 acres) in suburban Philadelphia with no
HOA and CCRs against towers, including all gear, let me know...
No significant frequency fights this year. One little squabble that comes to
mind was on 80m. I found a quiet freq, listened, did a QRL?, then started
CQing. Several QSOs later, I'm asked to move. Sorry, but if you're on the
second radio somewhere else, and I have time to make at least 2 undisturbed
QSOs, it's mine now.
I worked 7 different TFs on 20m. Didn't know there were that many active hams
in the country!
About 2% dupes. Seems like a lot. Is it? I was even duped by a couple of
stateside guys. What's that all about? Either you have the zone 5/USA mults or
you don't.
Someone (I forget who, but it was a club or contest call) answered my CQ at
about 70 WPM. I presume it was someone I met at the QRQ competition in
Macedonia over the summer. I worked a bunch of them during the contest. Always
neat to be able to have an on the air QSO after an eyeball QSO. Yes, I copied
it correctly.
Only station I asked for a QSY was ZS1EL from 15m to 10m. It worked. Thanks!
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
OffTime
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- 40/37 20/28 1/2 --+-- 61/67 61/67
D1-0100Z - 65/43 11/6 13/5 - - 89/54 150/121
D1-0200Z - 54/11 38/25 - - - 92/36 242/157
D1-0300Z 14/18 60/12 12/10 1/1 - - 87/41 329/198
D1-0400Z 10/7 33/16 12/12 - - - 55/35 384/233
D1-0500Z 5/5 46/4 19/15 1/0 - - 71/24 455/257
D1-0600Z 9/9 38/8 7/1 - - - 54/18 509/275
D1-0700Z 6/7 17/4 3/3 1/0 - - 27/14 536/289
28
D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 536/289
60
D1-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 536/289
60
D1-1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 536/289
60
D1-1100Z - 2/0 8/12 26/19 - - 36/31 572/320
14
D1-1200Z - 1/2 1/1 128/24 - - 130/27 702/347
D1-1300Z - - - 145/2 13/19 - 158/21 860/368
D1-1400Z - - - 157/2 10/14 - 167/16 1027/384
D1-1500Z - - - 160/7 1/0 - 161/7 1188/391
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 102/17 10/9 3/6 115/32 1303/423
D1-1700Z - - - 85/7 9/9 18/21 112/37 1415/460
D1-1800Z - - - 49/5 22/16 14/7 85/28 1500/488
D1-1900Z - - 18/3 22/8 19/7 1/2 60/20 1560/508
D1-2000Z - - 48/4 18/6 2/2 - 68/12 1628/520
D1-2100Z - - 86/0 14/4 8/2 - 108/6 1736/526
D1-2200Z - 18/3 23/0 9/3 1/2 - 51/8 1787/534
D1-2300Z - 42/6 11/2 2/2 - - 55/10 1842/544
D2-0000Z 1/1 17/5 17/2 2/3 --+-- --+-- 37/11 1879/555
D2-0100Z 1/1 40/3 1/2 - - - 42/6 1921/561
D2-0200Z 4/2 21/1 1/1 2/1 - - 28/5 1949/566
D2-0300Z 1/1 34/3 6/0 - - - 41/4 1990/570
D2-0400Z 10/6 30/2 2/3 1/2 - - 43/13 2033/583
D2-0500Z 4/3 43/0 5/2 - - - 52/5 2085/588
D2-0600Z 5/4 5/2 6/3 - - - 16/9 2101/597
23
D2-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 2101/597
60
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2101/597
60
D2-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 2101/597
60
D2-1000Z - - - - - - 0/0 2101/597
60
D2-1100Z - 1/2 7/5 8/5 - - 16/12 2117/609
20
D2-1200Z - - - 105/2 1/1 - 106/3 2223/612
D2-1300Z - - - 135/0 20/11 - 155/11 2378/623
D2-1400Z - - - 27/2 138/9 1/2 166/13 2544/636
D2-1500Z - - - 24/3 91/5 3/4 118/12 2662/648
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 78/0 22/5 1/1 101/6 2763/654
D2-1700Z - - - 74/5 2/2 3/1 79/8 2842/662
D2-1800Z - - - 41/1 10/6 3/0 54/7 2896/669
D2-1900Z - - 21/0 48/1 4/2 3/0 76/3 2972/672
D2-2000Z - - 125/3 - 1/1 - 126/4 3098/676
D2-2100Z - - 102/2 1/1 - - 103/3 3201/679
D2-2200Z 3/1 7/0 25/1 10/2 1/0 - 46/4 3247/683
D2-2300Z 2/2 9/0 34/0 5/0 - - 50/2 3297/685
Gross QSO's=3375 Dupes=78 Net QSO's=3297
Unique callsigns worked = 2347
The best 60 minute rate was 176/hour from 1413 to 1512
The best 30 minute rate was 194/hour from 1426 to 1455
The best 10 minute rate was 210/hour from 1449 to 1458
The best 1 minute rates were:
5 QSO's/minute 6 times.
4 QSO's/minute 54 times.
3 QSO's/minute 194 times.
2 QSO's/minute 366 times.
1 QSO's/minute 518 times.
There were 595 bandchanges and 280 probable 2nd radio QSO's.
The following stations were worked on 6 bands:
9Y4AA PJ2T WP2Z HC8N KP3Z 6Y7A
V26K P40W 8P5A 5J1W
Thanks for all the QSOs and see you in ARRL CW.
73,
Barry
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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