CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 35:39
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 3
40: 967
20: 1339
15: 848
10: 22
------------
Total: 3179 Prefixes = 10418 Total Score = 11,011,826
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Congrats to L1LZ and N1NT (@ N1LI), and probably to KC3R who hasn’t posted yet
as I write this. I think NV1N was in the mix, too.
This was a personal best for me and the first time over 11 million points
claimed. There was a time when a score like that would have blown away the US
record, but now you need 10,000+ QSO points and 1,000+ prefixes just to make
the top five or ten. As participation in this great contest grows, the bar
keeps getting higher and higher. That’s a good thing.
I was a bit concerned about how I would do because it’s been three years
since I did my last full effort in WPX CW (and any other contest). Too many
things on my plate in 2013 and 2014. But I guess it’s like riding a bicycle
�" after fumbling with the keyboard for a few minutes it all comes back.
Conditions were quite good, even though 10 never opened enough to run. Not
unusual for this contest. 15 wasn't particularly strong here on Saturday, but
judging from the numbers I've seen it was better down south. All in all, 40-15
were open to the world, with lots of great over-the-pole propagation: JA, BY,
HL, 9M, VU and loads of Asiatic Russians. I can’t remember when I worked JT
on two bands from my home station. I heard JAs at times of day when I’ve
never heard them before, and quite a few times stations came in off the back
and sides of the beam as loud as if the antenna was pointing at them.
I could write a book about the troubles I had with equipment, but I’ll keep
it brief because in the end I don’t think any of it made a material
difference. It always comes down to the op and the antennas �" still a
work in progress at WC1M.
It started with a thunderstorm on Wednesday that knocked out a few random items
in our house, most importantly our well pump �" a critical item for the
family. Spent Thursday fixing the pump, and didn’t get around to firing up
the station until late at night. That’s when I discovered my MOAS II relay
switching board wouldn’t talk to the computer �" probably a victim of
the storm, though I’m not sure how. My station is dead in the water without
that board. Spent a fair amount of time on Friday trying to fix it (I hate
surface mount chips!) and eventually decided I didn’t have the right parts on
hand. So I fired up an old Hamation switching system I had kept in mothballs
and spent the rest of the day getting it to work. It was touch-and-go for
several hours and I thought there was a chance I’d be out of the contest.
Finally got the station working about a half hour before the contest. The
system performed OK, but the substitution led to a few annoying and
time-wasting anomalies during the contest. The old-timers will say that “he
who lives by the sword dies by the sword” (i.e., use mechanical switches, not
computers.)
Saturday evening, a large group of thunderstorms came through and I had to shut
down and unplug everything for a couple of hours during prime time on 40. I lost
some good rate, but thank goodness for break time. Once I could bring the
station back online, it was a couple of more hours before 40 settled down
enough to get decent rate. There was a forecast for more storms on Sunday, but
they didn’t materialize.
On Sunday morning my main run radio stopped being able to change frequency (the
display moved, but the frequency didn’t.) It’s similar to a problem I had
after updating the synthesizer boards in the radio, and was supposed to be
fixed in firmware. A power cycle fixed it, but a little while later the radio
stopped receiving altogether and cycling the power wouldn’t fix it. I spent
so much time trying to find a way to get it back that I had to take an
unscheduled break hour. It was a bad time to do that: 1330z to 1430z. I was on
verge of replacing the synthesizer boards with the old ones, which would have
cost another hour, when the radio magically returned. It stayed OK for the rest
of the contest. Dodged another bullet.
Why not go SO1R? I considered it, but I try to hit the second radio very hard
in WPX. It really helps both the QSO and mult totals.
Anyway, the extra break messed up my plan for the rest of the contest and I
ended up having to burn 20 minutes of operating time.
As K5ZD said, one of the few disappointments in this contest was super-wide
signals. You can’t hide from that, even with a state-of-the-art radio with
brick wall filters. And while I understand the perils of everyone in a pileup
being zero-beat, there’s a limit to how far off you should go. Quite a few
times the serial number I was copying was obliterated by someone plopping down
on my frequency and calling a station a few KHz up or down. And maybe it would
be nice if everyone asked QRL? before calling CQ. (And to the guy who called me
a jerk after I hung on to a frequency I had been running at high rate for 10
minutes �" I asked several times!)
Thanks for all the Qs, and see you in the next one!
Antennas:
160M - trapped vee @90'
80M - delta loop @75, trapped vee @90'
40M - Cal-Av 2D-40A @110', 4-square
20M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 4-el @72'
15M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50', 5-el @50'
10M - 4/4/4 SteppIRs @96'/64'/34' on TICs, C3E @50'. 6-el @115'
Tower#1: Force 12 EF-610, Cal-AV 2D-40A, 4-el SteppIRs, 160/80 trapped vee
770-MDP: Force-12 EF-420
AB-577 #1: Force-12 EF-515
AB-577 #2: Force-12 C3E
Delta loop hung from a tree
dual 580' beverage aimed 20/220 degrees (not working?)
Equipment:
Elecraft K3 + Alpha 87A, Elecraft K3 + LP-PAN + Acom 2000A, Writelog,
LP-BRIDGE, PowerSDR-IF, YCCC SO2R Box, homebrew Windows antenna
switching/tuning software ("AntennaMaster"), iPad running TwoMon USB
for touch-screen "button box", K1XM MOAS II USB Switch (Hamation
relay drivers in this contest), TopTen and KK1L SO2R switches, Green Heron and
Hy-Gain rotor controllers, microHam Stack Switch and Stackmatch
QSO/Pref by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- 126/115 4/4 --+-- --+-- 130/119 130/119
D1-0100Z - - 135/96 13/12 - - 148/108 278/227
D1-0200Z - - 107/69 17/14 - - 124/83 402/310
D1-0300Z - 3/3 110/57 13/9 - - 126/69 528/379
D1-0400Z - - 102/42 18/10 - - 120/52 648/431
D1-0500Z - - 71/38 14/4 - - 85/42 733/473
D1-0600Z - - 45/20 29/17 - - 74/37 807/510
D1-0700Z - - - 1/1 - - 1/1 808/511
D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 808/511
D1-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 808/511
D1-1000Z - - 4/4 110/35 - - 114/39 922/550
D1-1100Z - - 1/1 111/33 2/0 - 114/34 1036/584
D1-1200Z - - - 44/9 63/19 - 107/28 1143/612
D1-1300Z - - - 1/0 122/31 - 123/31 1266/643
D1-1400Z - - - 2/1 116/24 - 118/25 1384/668
D1-1500Z - - - 4/1 99/26 - 103/27 1487/695
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 1/0 --+-- 1/0 1488/695
D1-1700Z - - - 48/11 18/8 - 66/19 1554/714
D1-1800Z - - - 63/17 18/6 - 81/23 1635/737
D1-1900Z - - - 73/23 2/1 9/7 84/31 1719/768
D1-2000Z - - - 86/15 6/6 - 92/21 1811/789
D1-2100Z - - - 82/16 3/3 7/4 92/23 1903/812
D1-2200Z - - - 82/17 9/6 - 91/23 1994/835
D1-2300Z - - 4/0 48/11 9/4 - 61/15 2055/850
D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- 64/8 13/3 --+-- --+-- 77/11 2132/861
D2-0100Z - - 12/1 3/0 - - 15/1 2147/862
D2-0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 2147/862
D2-0300Z - - - - - - 0/0 2147/862
D2-0400Z - - 12/3 1/0 - - 13/3 2160/865
D2-0500Z - - 51/7 14/4 - - 65/11 2225/876
D2-0600Z - - 45/12 18/5 - - 63/17 2288/893
D2-0700Z - - 8/5 53/4 - - 61/9 2349/902
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 2349/902
D2-0900Z - - - 8/2 - - 8/2 2357/904
D2-1000Z - - 4/3 75/19 - - 79/22 2436/926
D2-1100Z - - - 10/2 85/8 - 95/10 2531/936
D2-1200Z - - - 4/3 80/12 - 84/15 2615/951
D2-1300Z - - - 15/3 10/1 - 25/4 2640/955
D2-1400Z - - - 2/0 43/6 - 45/6 2685/961
D2-1500Z - - - 5/4 74/11 - 79/15 2764/976
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 3/1 50/11 1/1 54/13 2818/989
D2-1700Z - - - 1/1 - - 1/1 2819/990
D2-1800Z - - - 7/1 - 2/2 9/3 2828/993
D2-1900Z - - - 63/12 4/2 3/2 70/16 2898/1009
D2-2000Z - - - 84/12 4/2 - 88/14 2986/1023
D2-2100Z - - - 60/14 9/2 - 69/16 3055/1039
D2-2200Z - - 4/2 23/2 21/5 - 48/9 3103/1048
D2-2300Z - - 62/7 14/2 - - 76/9 3179/1057
Total: 0/0 3/3 967/4901339/354 848/194 22/16
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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