CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: N2IC
Operator(s): N2IC
Station: N2IC
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: New Mexico
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 45 18 27
80: 224 26 81
40: 1208 34 119
20: 1107 36 127
15: 693 33 113
10: 74 20 45
------------------------------
Total: 3351 167 512 Total Score = 6,371,736
Club:
Comments:
What a great contest weekend ! Every band except 160 exceeded my expectations.
160 - The EU opening never made it to southwest New Mexico. On Friday night,
the band sounded like 20 meters - except it was all east coast stations running
inaudible EU. (Vertical, sloping dipole, beverages NE, SE, NW)
80 - Excellent EU openings, especially Friday night. Worked all of the
first-tier EU stations with 1 call. Tried to run, but that is a joke when your
signal is 30 dB down in EU vs. the east coast. Good JA opening Sunday AM, but
the rate was always higher on 40, so no time spent there. Looked for LP both
mornings for a few minutes at sunrise, but only RL3A heard, who was already
worked short path. (2 el wire beam switchable NE/SW, inv-vee SE/NW, beverages
NE, SE, SW).
40 - Great openings to everywhere ! Hours and hours running EU and JA. It was
particularly crazy from 08Z-11Z, when it was open in both directions. Just
pointed the beam north to split the difference. The beverages were particularly
helpful to sort the pileups in 2 directions. I would have liked to spend some
time here after sunrise, looking long path, but how can you do that when 20 and
15 are wide open to EU at the same time ? (4 el M2 40M4LLDD @ 110 feet).
20 - The lack of sunspots still shows. Only really open from just before
sunrise until 2 hours after sunset, so it competes with 15 meters most of that
time. I was a little worried when I only had 70 countries after 24 hours, which
was way down from last year. But, alas, the 50+ "missing" countries came through
on the 2nd day. (5 el, 40 foot boom @ 60 feet, KT-36XA @ 70 feet).
15 - Despite the continued dearth of sunspots, it performed much better than
last year. A solid, 2 hour opening to EU both mornings, and a 2 hour opening to
JA on Saturday evening. The Saturday EU opening wasn't very deep - farthest east
worked was OK. At least there were many DL, PA, F, EA and G stations to work !
Sunday was a little deeper, filling in most of eastern EU. Still, only worked
one Zone 16 station, an ER4. (6 el, 40 foot boom @ 32 feet - but on edge of
cliff).
10 - Short openings were the game. It would open, to say KP2M for 10 minutes,
then he would be gone, never to be heard again. Just parked the 2nd radio there
all day Sunday and picked off the the short openings. Only PY/LU was in for
hours. Worked 1 EU (TM6M) and 1 JA - both very weak, but direct path. (5 el, 24
foot boom @ 30 feet, KT-36XA @ 70 feet).
As an UNassisted operator, DX stations NOT signing their calls for many minutes
at a time has reached epidemic proportions. That gives me 4 choices - wait, QSY,
work them and ask for their call, or be loud enough to repeatedly send "CALL ?"
and disrupt their rhythm. I did all 4 at various times. I'm not proud of using
the 4th option, but their behavior left no choice. OTOH, I will applaud 8P6A,
who seems to have struck the right balance between rate and signing.
Thanks for all the QSO's.
73,
Steve, N2IC
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|