CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: K0EU
Operator(s): K0EU
Station: K0EU
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CO
Operating Time (hrs): 44.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 13 7 9
80: 133 21 54
40: 1000 32 101
20: 539 34 97
15: 481 32 99
10: 409 28 96
------------------------------
Total: 2575 154 456 Total Score = 4,410,910
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
First off, congrats to K0SR, Steve, who cleaned my clock in this one. The zero
land bragging rights head back to Minnesota. Wish I had the signal strength in
Europe that you do...some RBN plots show that your sigs on 10/15 are mostly 5-10
dB louder than K0RF, and K0RF is 10 dB louder than me. But...when it comes to
JA, it's a different story :->. How many yagis/elements do I need to make a 20
dB improvement?
Conditions seemed pretty good, but I was never able to get any big runs going
into Europe on the high bands, try as I might. The big band for me was 40M.
As seems to always be the case, my mult totals are pretty poor. DXCC should
have been easy on 10,15, and 20 but I fell short by just a few countries.
Serious problems with interstation interference in the SO2R setup hampered
things. Never heard any Euro's on 160, and it was slim pickings for Central
and South America. With every DX station was as loud as PJ2T is on top band!
My Mother called 15 minutes before the contest to discuss some important
things, and I didn't have time to go through the pre-contest checklist which
includes "start a new log in N1MM". About 30 minutes in, I find ZK2V CQing on
10M, but N1MM says it's a dupe! I realize immediately what happened, and end
up spending 4-5 minutes deleting all the dozens of QSO's in the log that I made
in the week leading up to the contest. Maybe there is a better way, but I
deleted them one at a time from the log window, via the control-D command. Not
a great start. On top of that, I couldn't get any rate going on 10M or 15M, so
had to settle in on 20M to get a fair stream of JA callers.
A word to the wise...DO NOT drink 4-5 of the so-called energy drinks (Amp,
Monster, Rock Star) during the first day of operation and then expect to
magically fall asleep when you take your first break after 30 hours in the
chair. It's not going to happen! I got the most hours ever in the chair in
this one (44-1/2), but I really suffered the last 18 hours. Next year, it's
back to gator aid, water, and an occasional cup of coffee.
Everyone else says it, so I may as well chime in...you DX guys need to I.D.
more than once every blue moon. How about placing your call in front of the
"TU" ramped up to 50-60 wpm. It wouldn't take up much time. If someone didn't
I.D. within 3-4 exchanges, I would send "CL?" or would just work them and send
"CL? 5nn4". Not everyone is using packet, at least not yet ;o}. I managed to
find quite a number of stations that had not yet been assimilated by the Borg
and were a piece of cake to work. Once the Borg found someone, it was a lot
harder to get through, although my station seemed to rock and roll through some
of the big piles, especially the Africans. One practice that seems on the rise,
and I applaud it whole heartedly (although I don't do it myself), is I notice
stations are now sending the callsign of the DX in front of their report.
Great stuff. When someone does this, and I've already got it worked, I move
on. If I need it, but don't hear the DX send his call prior to my busting the
pile, I will send "(his call)?? 5NN4". Usually the DX gets the message and
sends his ID.
God bless the JA's. Without them, things would be real boring here in
Colorado. I had this standing bet with myself that I would never get a JA to
send me the suffix that I lacked without first sending his entire prefix, which
I already had correctly. For example, JP1XYZ calls, and I get the JP1 part but
miss the suffix. I send "JP1?" and he responds with "JP1...QSB...QRN". Try
again...same thing. Murphy plays a big part in the timing of this, as it seems
that the prefix always comes through solid copy. Or, if they also send "DE", I
get 100% rock solid copy on "DE JP1...QSB...QRM". Lo and behold, near the end
on 20M, I was called by a JA1. I send "JA1? 59904". He comes back with...his
suffix only, sending it twice, and it's 100% copy! Sweet! Life is good!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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