CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: AA8IA
Operator(s): AA8IA
Station: AA8IA
Class: SOAB LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 17.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------------
80:
40: 55 83 25 10 7
20: 95 203 22 35 19
15: 141 343 16 55 21
10: 285 760 11 59 22
------------------------------------------
Total: 576 1389 74 159 69 Total Score = 419,478
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
Being tired of low wires in contests, likely having achieved near max number of
new DXCCs that I'll pick up in a DX contest, and not wanting to suffer
excruciating back pain for the sake of a hobby, along with the fact that we had
threats of thunderstorms at least one of the two days, I had no intentions of
doing more than a couple of hours.
But, the propagation gods smiled upon us and 10m was open. I couldn't resist.
I ended up with a little over 17 hrs of BIC. Once I got up to 400 Qs and
realized there was still a whole Sunday afternoon left to play, I figured I
might actually try and best my previous Q count. I did that, by just a
handful.
The difference between this year and last year is that I spent no time on 80m
(no 80m ant up right now) and much time on 40m. On the other side of the
equation, I played a lot more on my favorite bands of 10/15m.
What a blast. I managed to work a nice handful of new DXCCs to boot -- with
some of the most unexpected having already confirmed via LOTW.
Now that I've recovered from the back pain, I can say that I'm really happy
that I chose to put in enough time to best last year's score.
The downside is that I finally came to the realization that 18 hours is about
my maximum, in any contest, and that I likely will never be able to put more
time in than that... nor would I want to. 18 hours in 36/48 contest is doable
[for me]. Anything more is not.
I'm also happy to report that during my time spent in the contest, I didn't see
any bad behavior. Although there were a few DX that I felt gave up on picking
out my call way too soon. If they had a pileup, I'd understand them wanting
to move on. But if they were CQing for a full minute before I arrived and
then a full minute after they dismissed me and started CQing again, I'd say
they weren't too busy to put in the extra effort to try and actually pick out a
call.
I had swore to myself that I would try to have a portable beam of some sort to
stick up for 10/15 this year, just for contests like this. But, it never
happened. I always put that stuff on the back burner until it's too late.
And, given where we are in the solar cycle now, you never know when a great 10m
opening will be the last one that we have for a long time.
Thanks to all of the great ops, especially those that answered my CQs and those
who gave me a new DXCC. What a great time.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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