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[3830] WPX CW KQ2M SOAB HP

To: 3830@contesting.com, kq2m@kq2m.com
Subject: [3830] WPX CW KQ2M SOAB HP
From: webform@b4h.net
Reply-to: kq2m@kq2m.com
Date: Wed, 30 May 2018 01:46:05 +0000
List-post: <mailto:3830@contesting.com>
                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: KQ2M
Operator(s): KQ2M
Station: KQ2M

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs): 32
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   72
   40: 1060
   20: 1536
   15:  160
   10:    2
------------
Total: 2830  Prefixes = 980  Total Score = 8,850,380

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

On May 15th Newtown, CT and two neighboring towns experienced a devastating
T-storm with 110 mph winds that tragically killed two and injured many others.  
The vicious swirling winds produced frightening periods where I was unable to
see the barbecue on the deck less than 5 feet away through the insanely intense
rain, hail and flying debris!   I thought that were were having the 3rd tornado
at this qth but the NWS called it a Macroburst and which they said was worse
than a tornado because of the very wide area (nine miles!!) area and length that
was impacted.  I later learned that after the storm, Newtown alone had 175+
roads that were either completely impassable or had a tree and/or power lines
blocking at least part of the road!!  Hundreds of power poles were damaged or
snapped off!

After surveying my trees and the massive limbs and trunks which were snapped off
all over my qth (including across my driveway), and being without power for 4
days, I realized that there was no time to get all the antennas back up and
working before the contest.  No 40 meter 4-square – my only 40 meter antenna
would be the 3L wire beam fixed NE.  No 160 either.
 
On Friday morning I hooked up the station for the first time since WPX SSB
ended, I thought that everything was working.  I was wrong.  Friday evening the
left radio began to run hot and shut off by itself – which was odd considering
that I was not transmitting on it.  Each time I had to wait about 10 – 15
minutes before the radio would turn back on.  Since I was barely using the
second radio on Friday night this was only a curiosity at first, but then this
repeated many times more on Saturday until the radio audio completely died at
which point I had only one radio for the rest of the weekend. So much for SO2R.

I got off to a good start with 158 and 142 hours on 40 but then it was a
struggle the rest of the weekend between feeling weak - not getting answers and
having EU and US stations constantly cqing on me – and being weakened by the
typical rapidly escalating and persistent heart arrhythmias the rest of the
weekend that did not respond to medication.  There is something about the
combination of lack of sleep, intensity of operating and the physical position
of leaning over slightly to operate that is extremely bad for my heart.  When
this happens I get out of breath and suddenly become extremely tired because my
heart is not pumping blood properly - I do my best to conserve energy but it is
difficult to do anything except to try to run and ultimately the discomfort and
pain forces me to qrt. At times the arrhythmias morph into AFIB - which is very
dangerous.  If  you have experienced this then you know what I am talking about
and what it does to you and if you haven't, then I hope that you never do!  I
had to take multiple off-times both days during high rate hours and was not able
to tune for easy SA/Carib/US mults. This really shows up in my 15 M total and
hurt my score overall.

Cndx were good on Friday evening but then slowly deteriorated throughout the
rest of the weekend. The low bands were also good on Friday but then became much
noisier on Saturday and Sunday.  Sunday had very loud Western EU signals on 15
for hours but no volume and poor rates as though no one was listening there.
I had a few brief burst of excellent rate during the contest - some 10 minute
rates over 230 and a top last 100 rate of 173, all with one radio, but with 
stations constantly asking me to repeat my number, there were no sustainable
high rates for any length of time.

With a full time SO2R effort with two radios, a 10.5 Meg score was possible
NON-assisted at my qth this weekend without 2BSIQ.  Something to look forward to
if I can ever get my heart problem under control.

One of the interesting things about WPXCW Summertime propagation is that bands
can open and close spectacularly fast as the ionosphere has more hours of
sunlight to ionize it - but the sunlight overhead is at a higher angle than in
the Winter so the mid-day fadeouts are quicker and more intense.  Sometimes
however, when that fadeout occurs and Europe fades away but the polar path is
open because the Auroral Oval has almost disappeared and SE and Central Asia is
in darkness, you can find lots of rare Asian mults - 9M6, 4S7, HS, JT, BY
(many)and some of the more unusual JA and Russian Asian prefixes.  That always
makes it fun and exciting, and with a Sunspot count of about 30 this year a K of
ZERO on Friday night, that wonderful path was open for a few hours Friday night
and Saturday morning. 

The not so good part of Summertime propagation is that there are higher levels
of QRN from rain and Thunderstorm activity and when you combine that with the
rapid qsb we had on Saturday - thanks to a higher K index of 2, auroral oval of
3 and negative Bz, the openings become shorter and more marginal and signals are
much more difficult to copy.

I have noticed a significant uptick in frequency fights over the past 2 years as
we are all crammed into one or two open bands - I am not sure whether that is
because people are becoming more less considerate ops  
- less interested in actually finding out if a freq. is in use before endlessly
calling cq on it and then REFUSING to move away when immediately asked to do so
- or just unintentionally sloppier in how they operate?  One particular station,
VA2EW, gave me problems on both Saturday AND Sunday - calling cq on me and
refusing to move BOTH days!  On Sunday he was particularly obnoxious as he
repeatedly alternated cq's on either side of me back and forth - never more than
70 - 100 hz away and impossible to filter out.  There is simply NO EXCUSE for
this type of behavior.  It is intentional and spiteful and reflects poorly on
him.  It is rate-lowering for both of us - and not considerate or smart
operating and certainly NOT within the spirit of the rules. Misunderstandings
are one thing, but this has no place in our hobby.    

On the other end of the operating spectrum in quality and skill, it was cool to
briefly listen to KL9A operate as KM7W in dual radio run mode. Most impressive
and efficient operating!

As always, it was great to say hi to so many old-friends on the air – just
like a big worldwide annual reunion! I love this radio stuff!

Thanks for all the q’s and mults.
Best of luck to all at WRTC 2018!


73

Bob KQ2M

kq2m@kq2m.com

www.rlsfinancialgroup.com

BREAKDOWN QSO/mults  KQ2M  CQ WORLD WIDE PREFIX CONTEST  Single Operator

HOUR      160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT  CUM TOT  

   0    .....    .....  158/135    .....    .....    .....  158/135  158/135
   1      .        .     142/83     3/3       .        .     145/86  303/221
   2      .        .     123/80      .        .        .     123/80  426/301
   3      .        .      15/10   102/64      .        .     117/74  543/375
   4      .        .      93/44      .        .        .      93/44  636/419
   5      .       1/1     69/34     3/3       .        .      73/38  709/457
   6      .        .       1/1       .        .        .       1/1   710/458
   7      .        .        .        .        .        .        .    710/458
   8    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....  710/458
   9      .        .        .     108/28      .        .     108/28  818/486
  10      .        .        .     115/39      .        .     115/39  933/525
  11      .        .        .     124/39      .        .     124/39 1057/564
  12      .        .        .     123/41      .        .     123/41 1180/605
  13      .        .        .      15/5     73/17      .      88/22 1268/627
  14      .        .        .        .       1/0       .       1/0  1269/627
  15      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   1269/627
  16    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    ..... 1269/627
  17      .        .        .      11/2      4/0       .      15/2  1284/629
  18      .        .        .      66/25    14/2       .      80/27 1364/656
  19      .        .        .      70/18      .        .      70/18 1434/674
  20      .        .        .     102/31      .        .     102/31 1536/705
  21      .        .        .      99/24      .        .      99/24 1635/729
  22      .        .      70/12     5/2       .        .      75/14 1710/743
  23      .        .      68/9     11/3       .        .      79/12 1789/755
   0    .....    47/10    12/2     .....    .....    .....    59/12 1848/767
   1      .      13/4       .      41/15      .        .      54/19 1902/786
   2      .      11/1       .      68/14      .        .      79/15 1981/801
   3      .        .      84/22      .        .        .      84/22 2065/823
   4      .        .      68/13      .        .        .      68/13 2133/836
   5      .        .      54/11      .        .        .      54/11 2187/847
   6      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   2187/847
   7      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   2187/847
   8    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    ..... 2187/847
   9      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   2187/847
  10      .        .        .      73/24      .        .      73/24 2260/871
  11      .        .        .      85/22      .        .      85/22 2345/893
  12      .        .        .      64/13     1/0       .      65/13 2410/906
  13      .        .        .       3/0     16/1       .      19/1  2429/907
  14      .        .        .        .      47/5       .      47/5  2476/912
  15      .        .        .      12/2       .        .      12/2  2488/914
  16    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    ..... 2488/914
  17      .        .        .        .        .        .        .   2488/914
  18      .        .        .      60/11      .        .      60/11 2548/925
  19      .        .        .      74/12      .        .      74/12 2622/937
  20      .        .        .      52/7       .        .      52/7  2674/944
  21      .        .       6/1     47/12     1/0      2/1     56/14 2730/958
  22      .        .      50/14      .       3/0       .      53/14 2783/972
  23      .        .      47/7       .        .        .      47/7  2830/979
DAY1    .....     1/1   739/408  957/327    92/19    .....    ..... 1789/755
DAY2      .      71/15   321/70  579/132    68/6      2/1       .   1041/224
TOT       .      72/16 1060/478 1536/459   160/25     2/1       .   2830/979


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