CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: AT5X
Operator(s): VU2CDP
Station: VU2NKS
Class: SOAB(A) HP
QTH: nr Mumbai
Operating Time (hrs): 29.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80: 50 13 29
40: 426 29 98
20: 104 17 49
15: 440 24 70
10: 4 2 3
------------------------------
Total: 1024 85 249 Total Score = 941,880
Club: VU Contest Group
Comments:
The contest can be broken into two distinct halves:
Day 1 - Unassisted, High Power; Day 2 - Assisted, Low Power.
I went into the contest with an accumulated deficit of sleep over the week
which was made worse by a Friday evening party that ended in the wee hours of
Saturday. By the time i reached VU2NKS on Saturday afternoon, the contest had
been underway for 9 hours already. I started off on 15m and after a brief run
realised my mental capacity was falling apart. When that happens, it is time to
take a nap or do something else. I chose the less wiser option and stayed put in
the chair continuing to S&P. With gradually deteriorating concentration i
should have called it quits. Instead i chose to rely on caffeine and that kept
me in the chair all right! By the time i couldn't take it anymore, it was
already 0130z on Sunday. The result of all this self-inflicted misery were a
paltry 400 qsos.
Once the sun was up, i chose to check 10m and started a CQ there. It was
probably the 3rd or 4th sequence of CQs when i noticed the amp was not giving
out any power. After checking for any obvious errors, it was concluded that
something had indeed gone wrong with it. That effectively ended day 1 for me. I
dozed off for a few hours resuming at 7z.
The loss of the amp meant Sunday was going to be a struggle with 100w. A quick
check on 10 netted a measly 4 qsos after which i slid down to 15m and had three
straight 100+ hours. Talk about condx and low power! I was short of qsos on 20m
from the previous day but couldn't cover ground on Sunday as 20 folded much
sooner than expected. From that point on, it was going to be a long evening
ahead on 40 and 80m. I decided to focus on mults by going assisted. 100w on 40
and 80 dipoles was not going to help me hold my run frequency and i was proved
right on two occasions while running 40. Kept alternating between 40 and 80
regularly and netted some good dx. Big thank you to all those stations whose RX
is so much better than mine. I appreciate your pulling out my sub-100w signal
and giving my score a fillip.
The final tally was 1032 qsos (gross). Hope it survives log checking without
too much damage! Thank you to Nandu VU2NKS for letting me use his fine station
and overall hospitality. Log will be on LoTW by Sunday.
73 de Deepak VU2CDP
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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