CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: AB1OD
Operator(s): AB1OD
Station: AB1OD
Class: SO(A)AB(R) LP
QTH: CT
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 4
80: 26
40: 143
20: 327
15: 392
10: 41
------------
Total: 933 Prefixes = 615 Total Score = 1,610,070
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
That was fun, but boy am I pooped. Thank goodness tomorrow is a holiday.
I put as much time into the contest as my wife would permit. This was an
entirely click-and-pounce effort.
I went into the contest with three objectives:
1. Give the new rig its first real workout.
2. Score over 1,000,000 points after log checking.
3. Finally prove that it is possible for a relatively new ham with just a
couple of wire antennas and no amp to work 100 countries in under 48 hours.
4. Break the 1000Q mark.
Well the first one was easy to meet. I've had my K3 less than a month, so I'm
still learning its bells and whistles, but it definitely shone even with my
inexpert skills and limited antennas. I would not have attempted many of the
Q's made this weekend on the 7000 I had been using, and the KAT3 autotuner
provides more frequency flexibility than my prior setup, which made it a bit
easier to drink from the RBN firehose.
I'll wait to see the results of log-checking before I declare the second goal
met. I've written about my struggles with CW in past score reports (I've never
had a good head for languages, code included), so I know that my final score
will be appreciably lower. But let's just say that I did a little happy-dance
in my chair when the score ticked past 1.2 million. (Gotta love prefixes as
multipliers).
"DXCC in a weekend" is something I've wanted to achieve since the first time I
encountered the "DXCC isn't special; you can do it in a weekend" reality-check.
I came close in the ARRL DX contest (97), so I was hoping I could get there
this time. I felt pretty good when I went to bed Saturday night with 94 in the
log (including two new ones). The A6 station I worked before my lunch break on
Sunday brought me to an even 100. Sadly, the tally does not include 8
entities -- China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, India, the
Philippines, and South Shetland -- that I heard, but could not work.
The next time a new or inexperienced ham ties to write off DXCC-in-a-weekend as
something that only a well-equipped DX or contesting station can achieve...well,
I think I've shown quite the opposite. No amps, towers, or beams here; just a
couple of copper wires strung between/among some convenient trees, and a
barefoot rig in the shack. (Admittedly, working the spots so aggressively
would have been more challenging without the K3, but it wouldn't have been
impossible.)
Sadly, I did not achieve the 1000Q goal, but I knew going in that was going to
be a stretch. I had high hopes when I decided to shut down and get some sleep
late Friday night. I had more than twice as many Q's in the log as I had
planned, thanks to 20 being wide open, 15 staying productive late, and 40 being
open and fairly quiet. Even 80 was in good condition and 160 wasn't horrible,
but they presumably didn't produce since everyone was partying on the higher
bands.
But I made a strategic mistake -- I decided to call it quits while I was ahead,
and try to get a decent sleep before getting back on the air for sunrise.
However, the wife had a rough night (read: I got little sleep), and propagation
Saturday morning was disappointing. I probably would have been better served,
both in terms of score and in terms of not being so sleep-deprived, if I had
pushed on till I dropped Friday night, and skipped Saturday morning.
But this was fun. Can we have a big contest every 3-day weekend?
Thanks for the Q's, and thanks to all those who worked at pulling my
little-pistol signal out of the noise.
Transceiver: Elecraft K3
Amp: None
Software: N1MM
Antennas: 80m Carolina Windom @ 20m; 160m Carolina Windom @ 12m
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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