CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: K0RC
Operator(s): K0RC
Station: K0RC
Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: MN (CQ-4)
Operating Time (hrs): 28.2
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 27 7 9
80: 56 16 29
40: 112 21 53
20: 231 30 84
15: 180 24 74
10: 28 11 18
------------------------------
Total: 634 109 267 Total Score = 629,800
Club: Minnesota Wireless Association
Comments:
Soapbox : This contest started off really bad! I threw in the towel after 2
hours with the bands in crappy shape Friday evening. I was having troulbe even
working Canadian and Caribbean stations let alone real DX! I understood we got
a solar blast on Thursday, so I didn't expect much. I made 22 contacts on 40
and 2 contacts on 20m and threw the switch about 8 PM.
Well, knowing that conditions can really peak after a solar event, I was hoping
things would get better. So I fired the radio back up about 11:30 PM Friday
night... Wow! Things were still the same... I plugged along for another 2 hours
and my log showed 61 contacts when I threw the switch the second time at 1:30
AM.
That's about 4 hours of effort, 61 contacts, and an average of 15 Q's per hour.
Well maybe conditions will really take off by morning.
Saturday morning (8:30 AM) I stumble out of bed and hit 80m... Wow! Things are
still the same... But I did put some Pacific (KH7X, ZL4PW, VK4EMM, and ZL6QH)
in the log on 80m. I usually sleep through those openings! I hit 160m for VE6SV
and KH6ZM contacts then it was off to 40m for my first sprint of 5 EU stations.
About 9:30 AM I move up to 20m and the yagi on the tower. In a half hour I put
16 EU stations in the log and wander out of the shack to see if there's
anything more interesting going on.
About an hour and a half later I come back and "just for the heck of it", I
check 10m. With highly inoized layers you might luck out with some propagation.
Well there was just enough magic in the air to tease 5 stations into the log, a
mixed bag of four SA, W3LPL, and 6W1RW. That took 15 minutes so I could see my
rate was skyrocking at this point!
I figured if 10 was okay, 15m might be good... Well, it was not too bad... I
spent the next hour and a half working 33 stations, with a quick jaunt back to
10m to put zone 4 in the log (W0AIH). The stations were a mixed bag, but mostly
SA, with a few EU, AF, and E51YAQ thrown in to keep it interesting.
Then it was off to 20m to start an hours worth of crawling up the band and
dropping a hodge-podge of continents in the log. The rest of the afternoon was
spent bouncing from 20 to 15 with an ear on 10m for any fresh activity (a total
of 4 new contacts). When the half-time bell rang, I had 312 contacts in the
log.
With 100 Watts I S&P most of the time, and this weekend was no exception. My
normal habit is to start at the bottom and work up the band. The N1MM Logger
(and several other contesting programs) have the capability to post realtime
scores. I was using this feature this weekend. I have to admit, it sucked me
in!
Friday night I was in 5th place in the Single Op Assisted, Low Power category.
On Saturday I checked the scoreboard at (www.w1ve.com) periodically to see my
standing. I could see my score inching up slowly. This did provide an incentive
to keep me in front of the radio to see if I could "just push it up a little
higher".
By Sunday, propagation was beginning to recover. All the "easy" stations were
already in the log, so finding new stations became the challenge. Normally my
number of QSO's begin to taper off the second day. But this year was different
with nearly a 50/50 split for the two 24-hour periods. Propagation continued to
improve as time went by so I think this brought the casual contesters late to
the game.
The last few hours are usually pretty fun, and this year was no exception,
Especially when signals start to arrive from the Pacific and Asia. I put some
of those rare prefixes into the log once again, although the pileups were no
match for my barefoot signal. I had to let some slip away in order to balance
multiplier vs. rate. There were a few occassions where there seemed to be a
pipeline for the signal so I got lucky on those QSO's.
The creme-de-la--creme was finding Minnesota Wireless Association member Tony
Wanshura, KMÃ?O running XU7MWA on 20m. I heard him within the last 15 minutes
of the contest! I even worked him! Go MWA!
I worked 32 of 40 CQ Zones. I missed these: 18-19-21-22-23-29-36-39.
73 de Bob - KÃ?RC in MN
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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