CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2019
Call: OG7A
Operator(s): OH6MW
Station: OG7A
Class: SO(A)AB LP
QTH: kp20
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 310 9 58
80: 570 26 98
40: 664 28 102
20: 640 32 130
15: 82 20 57
10: 7 3 7
------------------------------
Total: 2273 118 452 Total Score = 1,801,200
Club: Contest Club Finland
Comments:
My first cq ww LOW POWER log and very positive feelings.
A week before the contest I had some problems with my radio A amplifier, whole
amp shutting down itself as a precaution after warm up. That is life, a time to
change a tube probably. With only few days to cq ww I soon got an idea that I
should try low power class. I knew that propagation will be challenging at
least, probably miserable with strong aurora. It was challenging but interesting
and I wanted to found out what is like to operate with low power in this
propagation.
It was great. My score target was old OH SOAB assisted low power record 1,2
million points and I reached it Sunday morning so broke it with good margin.
Before the contest I read many old soab LP logs from previous years and saw many
different low power operating styles. I was going to use SO2R with low power and
I thought what kind of running I am able to achieve and how difficult multiplier
hunting is going to be. Even with this challenging propagation I was very
positively surprised that running was pretty similar compared to HP. When I
choose the right moment and the right frequency, I was able to make nice rates.
There was not any good DX propagation so it was mostly running for EU contacts,
with some US and JA coming to log on the peak of the propagation. DX percentage
is very low and I had to S&P 20m on Sunday afternoon to get more NA to log.
But overall I was very positively surprised that I could run 100+ qso hour rates
even with 100 watts with this kind of propagation on both days. I'am very
grateful to all who called me. Almost 2300 qsos.
I know beforehand that multiplier hunting and surviving in the pileups would be
difficult and it was. At the same time I am very positively surprised about my
multiplier numbers. My target was much lower but finally I was able the break
100 dxcc countries on 20m and 40m and almost on 80m. Very strong aurora, very
weak signals, very hard pileups with many callers and even with my rx antenna,
hi-z 4, I was struggling with qrm and my low power situation. Many pileups were
so difficult that you knew that it is waste of time. You had to come back later
and you had to come back to same pileup many times to try if it is your turn
now. And finally with many skilled operators we made those contacts. They were
able to hear my tiny 100 watt signal. I have nice big antennas but it is
operators who make it happen or not. Thank you very much.
I slept 2-3 hours on Sunday morning and was so excited about good contest mood
that I had almost no problems to stay awake but finally on 20Z on Sunday evening
I fell asleep on the chair and woke up 00.20Z, means after the contest, so I
missed 3 last hours. That is the only negative thing during the weekend. Missed
3 last hours of the fun. Another 160m TX vertical was already broken when I came
home from work on Friday afternoon. Quick fix for the contest in the dark field
on Friday evening, it wasn't vertical but more like 45 degrees and ran topband
with tuner. It worked fine. JT5DX has great ears, always.
Specially nice thing about low power is lower temperature of the ham shack, it
helps staying awake. I thought beforehand that I would have problems with low
band mults but the most important problem was actually high band mults. I was
able to hear many EU stations on 15m who could not hear my 100w signal. I tried
but low power was not enough and it shows on 15m.
Overall very positive feelings about low power, every qso means much more, every
multiplier means much more. Thank you for all qsos.
73 Ari OH6MW OG7A
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