CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: N7ZG
Operator(s): N7ZG
Station: N7BV
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: WWA
Operating Time (hrs): 47
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 23 12 12
80: 102 21 39
40: 186 25 57
20: 352 28 72
15: 48 15 30
10:
------------------------------
Total: 711 101 210 Total Score = 589,345
Club: Western Washington DX Club
Comments:
First things first. I want to thank Chuck, N7BV and his XYL Karen for their
hospitality in hosting me as a single op for this contest. Much work went
into getting the station ready for the contest and for the wonderful meals
served up to the operating position. This went along way to keeping me in the
chair and plugging away. We had a computer glitch in the SO2R keying setup and
managed to get it sorted out. I missed the first half hour of the start. .
The bad news first. I was expecting at least brief runs on 15 to JA. We had
decent openings during the SSB leg and my VOACAP printouts were indicating good
SNR ratios for at least an hour. Needless to say that I only worked a handfull
from this location.
The much better news is that the low bands rocked. I worked quite a few zone
15 multipliers and even a handful of zone 14 on 40M. There were two openings
to EU. During the early evening I used a new wire antenna constructed by Chuck
and designed by Chuck and Ward N0AX. It played well for the early evening
opening. We had solid long path openings in the morning that I used Chuck's
sloper system to nab even more EU mults.
80M was wonderful. I didn't manage to work any EU there (I did hear CU2A but
was unable to make the contact with Toni). The africa openings were great on
both nights. I bagged ZS4TX, V51AS on 80 (and 20). I managed to work 3X5A
and D4C on 80, 40 and 20. I must have missed the zone 38 openings on 40M both
nights. I thought I played the short 20M EU openings pretty well. It seemed to
favor zone 15 the first day and 14 the second. Maybe its just me. I'd like to
hear from anyone else who experienced the same prop. I was too eager to get
to 40M in the evening so I must have missed out on zones 23, 26, and 29 as a
result. 15 never seemed to open broadly or strongly to me. Even the JA
opening sucked (see earlier comments). It was so poor that I just gave up on
10 completely. 160 was a pleasant surprise netting 12 countries in 12 zones.
Not bad for not having a separate receive antenna.
All and all good fun. Many thanks to all the great ops, especially the JA's
who were so patient and plentiful on 20M. I'm getting better at SO2R, but I
still need work. It is especially difficult to do when tired/fatigued.
73 - Guy, N7ZG
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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