CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: OG6N
Operator(s): OH6NIO
Station: OG6N
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: Mieto
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 120
40: 325
20: 561
15: 1221
10: 114
------------
Total: 2341 Prefixes = 1089 Total Score = 5,715,072
Club: Contest Club Finland
Comments:
Operating SO1R with FT1000MP + AL80A, 800W
The long workweek effectively limited my precontest preparations. Main
amplifier out of order, no second radio and no JA beam direction on 20m. Also
missing the second 40m beam (I hope that its only a feedline problem). This was
the scene for the 2012 WPX CW. I never expected that this could lead to a
personal record score.
The optimal operating hour selection was not possible because Monday was a
workday. Too bad that I could not utilize the fine propagation on 15m in the
end of the contest. Working EU in the noontime instead :(
The days prior to the contest had quite high A index so I didn't expect much
from this contest. However the weekend offered some nice and unexpected
openings to the contest community.
10m: There were some short skip openings for one pointers especially on Sunday
although I have seen much better ES openings for example the last year. Some
Africa, the Middle East and South America were the only DX that was available.
I should have worked the 3 pointer on 15m instead. There was some RFI from 10m
to the relay box power supply so I had to reduce the output power to 400W.
15m: The band was quite good but the pileups were never anything special
although the band was open all day long. The best hour was only 90 QSOs into
EU/Asia. There were some JA stations active but the pileup was much thinner
into Asia than for example in the SSB leg. I had to S&P for multipliers a lot
to get a decent flow going. S&P in between running was required also during the
afternoon hours on the prime time of the US opening. Later in the night and
early morning hours the band opened to the west coast and stayed open longer
than I was capable of staying awake. The rates were ranging 60 - 80 Q/h. I have
experienced this unexpected early morning opening only a few times during my
contesting years. Unfortunately the second direction beam was not turning so
the main antennas were rotating a lot during the weekend.
20m: The band seemed to be open into NA from the beginning of the contest. Too
bad I was very tired and could not hear the alarm clock that was set to go off
just before the contest started. I woke up later and this cost me 2 valuable
hours with the opening into NA. During the day 20m was not producing very high
rates. Usually I am able to work very high rate to EU but not this time.
Therefore I had to S&P a lot to work a lot of multipliers to balance the
slowish flow of 1 pointers. The lack of the JA second direction must have hurt
the score some.
40m: It was open to USA in the Saturday morning but I was mainly S&Ping for
multipliers. In the evening I was beaming Asia although most of the stations
that came back to CQ were from EU area. The second beam could have helped a
lot.
80m: I worked only a bit over one hour there. The new guy wire dipole seemed to
work as well as one could expect it to work. At least it was noticeably better
than the old inverted L with a poor radial system.
160m: I did not work at all. Too busy working the other bands.
In all it was a very nice contest weekend with a lot of exiting calls on the
air. Thanks for the QSOs.
73 de Teijo OH6NIO
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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