CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2019
Call: WC1M
Operator(s): WC1M
Station: WC1M
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 30.5
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 58
40: 934
20: 1422
15: 202
10: 1
------------
Total: 2617 Prefixes = 965 Total Score = 7,744,125
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Congrats to NN5J (N5DX) for another great performance – not only in this
contest, but in WW and ARRL DX. Amazing run.
This one didn’t go as planned, but it turned out much better than expected.
The details are below for anyone who wants to read the blow-by-blow. Suffice it
to say that an urgent family situation arose a few of hours before the contest
and nearly derailed my effort. While I wasn't able to make up all the lost
ground, persistence paid off.
This was my 20th consecutive year operating SOAB HP in CQ WPX CW (2016 was SOAB
(A)). I always try to win, but my goal is at least a top-five finish, which
I’ve been able to do in at least 14 of those years (and maybe 15 if this
year’s score holds up.) While I can’t say WPX CW is my favorite contest
(after all CQ WW is the King of Contests), it’s certainly my second favorite,
not the least because it’s the contest I do best -- and the only one I’ve
ever won single-op -- but also because my station is pretty-much optimized for
CQ WPX CW, being strongest on 40 and 20. The cool call sign helps, too (it's my
original-issue call sign, not a vanity or club call.)
Given the way the contest started, I’m amazed to be in third place, at least
as of this post. I have a feeling a higher score or two may be lurking, and I
could get trashed by UBNs (I got a little sloppy late in the contest and should
have asked for more fills), but hopefully my top-five goal will be met. I think
I left somewhere between 1M-2M points on the table, maybe even more had
everything gone perfectly, but no way I’d have beaten NN5J. Not enough station
and not enough op. Still, I'm happy with the result.
I'm wondering if I could have done better with 2BSIQ. NN5J's rate sheet suggests
it helped him (100/hr on both 20 and 40 in the first hour!) But I haven't had
time to learn how to do 2BSIQ, much less practice it. To complicate matters,
this was the first contest where I used Writelog's new multi-keyboard support. I
find that two keyboards are definitely superior for SO2R, and my understanding
is that you need two keyboards for 2BSIQ. But the one time I tried dual-CQ near
the end of this contest, it was virtually unusable in multi-keyboard mode and I
quickly abandoned the idea. I need to do a bunch of testing to figure out
whether it's a limitation in the software or the op. One way or the other,
though, if I want to aim for the top, I need to learn and implement 2BSIQ. Old
dogs have to learn new tricks.
Blow-by-Blow
I was well-prepared and psyched for the contest, then virtually all of my
physical and emotional energy got drained as I frantically dealt with the family
situation, hoping to clear things up before 0000z. I ended up missing the first
36 minutes of the contest, then with the situation not quite resolved but
awaiting further development, I was able to operate for a little under an hour,
during which I wasn’t able to fully concentrate and only logged 109 stations.
Normally the rate at that point in the contest should have been closer to
130-150. Then I had to take an hour and forty minutes off to finish resolving
the family situation. I operated for another two hours and forty-five minutes,
then with the rate slowing a bit around 0600z, I decided I was too frazzled to
continue and needed to sleep.
This was a crucial problem because the rates to EU on 40 are almost always best
at the start of the contest, and it’s very difficult to make up lost Qs later.
During that three hours and forty five minutes, I logged 395 Qs. Normally, I’d
log at least 600 Qs in the first six hours of the contest. I figured it was
going to be really tough, probably impossible, to catch up with the leaders.
With my enthusiasm severely compromised by the events of the first night, I
seriously considered a much-reduced effort, maybe 24 or 18 hours. Maybe even 12
hours. Or maybe I'd just quit.
After about four hours of lying in bed and sleeping only short fitful intervals,
I got back on the air at 1000z Saturday. The rates were good on 20 – not
fantastic, but decent enough to run at well over 100/hr for three hours. I
worked more than the usual number of JAs and a few other Asian stations, which
was a pleasant surprise. There was an even better opening to Asia on Sunday
morning. Lots of new prefixes. The rate stated dropping around 1400z, there was
no EU on 15, and I was still really tired. So I took another break. This one
went three hours and 41 minutes. Got back on the air during the 1700z hour and
caught the afternoon opening on 20. The rates were pretty good for 4-5 hours.
Luckily, 40 opened a little earlier than usual, about halfway through the 2100z
hour, and was able to make up some of the Qs lost the first night. I also
S&Ped 20 pretty hard on the second radio until it closed down to EU.
By 0300z the rate on 40 dropped quite a bit and I was pretty exhausted. I was on
the fence about taking a break when rumbling thrunder and a few lightning
flashes decided the questions. I unplugged every lead coming into the house and
hit the hay. I didn't think it would be worth trying to get back on the air
after the storm passed, so I slept for 6 hours and 41 minutes. Got back on the
air at 1000z again, and operated almost straight through until 0000z Monday. I
took only one official break during that 14-hour stretch, at about 1915z. I
could have sworn it was at least an hour, but Writelog says it was only 49
minutes. But it doesn’t matter because I was well under the 36-hour limit –
it’ll count as operating time, even though it wasn’t. Also, my rate sheet
suggests I took some other shorter breaks away from the radio, probably 15-20
minutes here and there.
The big surprise on Sunday was the opening to EU at about 1500z. I fully
expected not to work any EU on 15, and maybe not many NA stations, but kept
finding European stations as I S&Ped the band while running on 20. I
switched to running 15 at about 1530z, and got quite a few 3-pointers along with
many new US prefixes. The ratio of EU:US dropped steading for the rest of the
hour-and-a-half I spent running 15, but the points and prefixes were better than
I had been doing on 20, so it was worth it.
20 came back at about 1800z with some good rate, and I ran the band until about
2200z, when I cut over to 40 for the rest of the contest (hitting 20 hard on the
second radio, of course.
All in all, I was surprised at the Qs, QSO points and prefixes I ended up with.
Definitely didn’t think it would be possible to hit those levels with the
rough start. Just goes to show that when adversity hits you should just power
through and do the best you can.
So that's it. Don't know if I'll be on for IARU -- it always seems like vacation
time is during that contest. If not, see you in CQ WW. Thanks for all the Qs!
Antennas:
160M - trapped vee @90'
80M - delta loop @75, trapped vee @90' (broken, not used in this contest)
40M - Cal-Av 2D-40A @110', 4-square (used together for Diversity RX)
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
Equipment:
Elecraft K3/P3 + Alpha 87A, Writelog, YCCC SO2R Box (never switched for Classic,
homebrew Windows antenna switching/tuning software ("AntennaMaster"),
iPad Pro running Touchmon USB for touch-screen "button box", K1XM MOAS
II USB Switch, TopTen and KK1L SO2R switches (second radio not used), Green
Heron and Hy-Gain rotor controllers, microHam Stack Switch and StackMax
QSO/Pref by hour and band:
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
OffTime
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- 50/48 1/1 --+-- --+-- 51/49 51/49
D1-0100Z - - 57/51 1/1 - - 58/52 109/101
28
D1-0200Z - - - - - - 0/0 109/101
60
D1-0300Z - 1/1 92/64 6/5 - - 99/70 208/171
11
D1-0400Z - 18/15 91/51 - - - 109/66 317/237
D1-0500Z - 7/6 67/43 4/4 - - 78/53 395/290
1
D1-0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 395/290
60
D1-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 395/290
60
D1-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 395/290
60
D1-0900Z - - - 1/0 - - 1/0 396/290
59
D1-1000Z - - 4/4 118/68 - - 122/72 518/362
D1-1100Z - - 4/4 112/59 - - 116/63 634/425
D1-1200Z - - - 105/52 3/3 - 108/55 742/480
D1-1300Z - - - 72/26 3/3 - 75/29 817/509
D1-1400Z - - - - - - 0/0 817/509
60
D1-1500Z - - - - - - 0/0 817/509
60
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 817/509
60
D1-1700Z - - - 24/10 3/3 - 27/13 844/522
41
D1-1800Z - - - 101/37 3/1 1/0 105/38 949/560
D1-1900Z - - - 92/32 1/1 - 93/33 1042/593
D1-2000Z - - 2/1 82/29 - - 84/30 1126/623
D1-2100Z - - 19/6 57/17 - - 76/23 1202/646
D1-2200Z - - 81/30 13/5 - - 94/35 1296/681
D1-2300Z - - 88/17 14/4 - - 102/21 1398/702
D2-0000Z --+-- 8/2 76/20 4/1 --+-- --+-- 88/23 1486/725
D2-0100Z - 12/5 87/29 - - - 99/34 1585/759
D2-0200Z - 9/2 63/12 - - - 72/14 1657/773
D2-0300Z - 3/0 13/5 - - - 16/5 1673/778
31
D2-0400Z - - - - - - 0/0 1673/778
60
D2-0500Z - - - - - - 0/0 1673/778
60
D2-0600Z - - - - - - 0/0 1673/778
60
D2-0700Z - - - - - - 0/0 1673/778
60
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 1673/778
60
D2-0900Z - - - - - - 0/0 1673/778
60
D2-1000Z - - 6/5 58/20 - - 64/25 1737/803
10
D2-1100Z - - 2/1 81/23 - - 83/24 1820/827
D2-1200Z - - - 61/17 - - 61/17 1881/844
D2-1300Z - - - 66/11 3/1 - 69/12 1950/856
D2-1400Z - - - 57/9 9/0 - 66/9 2016/865
D2-1500Z - - - - 69/9 - 69/9 2085/874
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 101/12 --+-- 101/12 2186/886
D2-1700Z - - - 36/6 5/0 - 41/6 2227/892
D2-1800Z - - - 76/20 - - 76/20 2303/912
D2-1900Z - - - 29/4 - - 29/4 2332/916
42
D2-2000Z - - 1/1 77/11 2/0 - 80/12 2412/928
7
D2-2100Z - - 20/2 48/10 - - 68/12 2480/940
D2-2200Z - - 60/10 15/8 - - 75/18 2555/958
D2-2300Z - - 51/4 11/3 - - 62/7 2617/965
Total: 0/0 58/31 934/4081422/493 202/33 1/0
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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