CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: K3TN
Operator(s): K3TN
Station: K3TN
Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: 5
Operating Time (hrs): 17
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 37 10 25
80: 110 15 58
40: 309 27 90
20: 308 32 101
15: 260 30 110
10: 346 29 112
------------------------------
Total: 1370 144 496 Total Score = 2,439,040
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
My Elecraft tuner was sent back to the Elecraft for repair, and the station was
sort of in disarray after an aborted remote operating attempt for Sweepstakes.
I also had commitments that would lower my operating hours. So, decided to go
with 100w so I could use the K3's internal tuner to match the OCF dipole while
I rapidly bounced around the bands doing mostly S&P.
The first night the low band conditions didn't seem that impressive - 80 had a
lot of QRN. 160 was noise free but the signals were way. 40 was pretty much
forty.
Due to other commitments, I got a late start on Saturday but when I finally sat
down 10 and 15 were just endless seas of loud CQers. I CTRL-down arrowed my way
across 10m working the stations that were ready and moving on if they weren't.
It took me over an hour to reach 28.100, and I had worked 112 stations in that
hour. 28.100 been abandoned by someone, so I called CQ with my 100w and a wire
- and proceeded to work almost 180 stations in the next 90 minutes, when
someone moved in on the frequency. Amazing how UW3U couldn't hear my 100w QRL!
QRL! but later on when I was sweeping the band, I got through to them on the
first call as a QSO...
15 was in the same amazing shape, with polar stuff coming through earlier,
followed by VK/ZLs and other PAC mults at local noon. On 20, lots of echo on
the signals on Saturday, band was kind of meh.
I got up at about 0800, made some QSOs on 160 - signal strengths were way down,
but there was near zero noise. I slogged it out on 80 for a bit, but the noise
level was high and 100w wasn't cutting it.
I got back home on Sunday at 1700, missed the entire morning runs. I most did
"turbo" S&P, once I was I could reach DXCC on at least 3 bands.
On 20, I did some running while also picking off mults on the K3s second
receiver. During on excursion, I worked Fred at HS0ZAR in the middle of huge,
random pileup - having Fred come back with "K3TN K3TN HI JOHN 5NN 26"
is like having a Redskins cheerleader run into the crowded stands and say
"Hi, John!" other than the fact that Fred in a cheerleader outfit
would be a scary sight.
I also managed to bust some huge pileups for KH8B, AH2R and many others. There
seems to be a lot of blind calling going in - see the spot, dump in your call,
without figuring out the rhythm of the pileup. Like in breaking crypto, brute
force gets you there eventually but pay attention and throw in a few tricks and
those loud stations would be in and out much faster.
The last 45 minutes I spent on 40 hoping to get 10 more mults to break 100, but
I found a nice hole at 7020 and had a great run for the last 30 minutes or so -
although several were from helpful zero pointers calling in.
I hadn't thought I'd even be able to put in as much time as I did, but with
these conditions I'm glad I did - we may be lucky and get one more year of
something close to this, or it may be a looong time before I'll be able to
S&P up 10m and never reach an end of stations!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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