CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: KU2M
Operator(s): KU2M
Station: KU2M
Class: SOSB15 HP
QTH: Wayne, NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 33.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 1663
10:
------------
Total: 1663 Prefixes = 864 Total Score = 3,485,376
Club:
Comments:
Great conditions to SE and East Asia for most of the contest - hearing XW1EC,
XV9NPS, E2X, 9V50DX, VR2CO and others quite loud was wonderful and welcome. In
addition, there were numerous HSs and BYs in attendance, and I'm all for more
activity out of that part of the world, something rarely heard here in the dark
recesses of New Jersey. The band stayed open very late Friday night and I was
working Europe long path 'round midnight - something I don't remember doing
before. So, it was with great optimism that I got on the radio bright and early
Saturday morning to hear - BUPKIS. As in, "did the tower and antennas fall
down overnight?" It turns out that conditions were disturbed, and a very
weak EU path was coming in from 170 degrees, severely bent. Guys normally 30
over nine were barely audible and barely workable with the antennas pointed at
downtown Buenos Aires, and I was only having luck being heard by a few of the
biggest stations, like OL4A. Meanwhile, stations down in Florida were happily
running loads of Europeans that I could not hear - AT ALL. I mean, ZIPPO copy.
As my sports-oriented, football and basketball playing athlete father used to
say, "those are the breaks of the game!" A more normal, direct path
finally came back, more or less, a few hours later, but it was with a
lackluster opening with generally weaker signals and in any event, too late to
repair the damage. It was indicative of the hard work that lay ahead for most
of the weekend. In some ways, the band was amazing - after Europe closed,
signals to SE Asia and BY were even louder Saturday night than they had been
the night before, but during most of the Saturday, activity to Europe and even
to USA seemed down and a bit disappointing. On Dupeday (some people call it
Sunday) afternoon, the morning condx were back to normal, and I was able to get
a good run going - for about 15 minutes. Then the crowds just petered out.
Things went downhill from there - I hit a low hourly rate of 19 during the
early afternoon ("nobody knows the trouble I've seen") and was
realizing that "this wasn't my year." However, as the sun set in
Europe, and they got done with dinner over there, the sun came up in Japan and
things picked up a little. For most of the rest of the contest, the band was
open to most parts of the world simultaneously. Japan, Europe, South America,
even the Left Coast and Hawaii were all calling in, and you never knew what
part of the world the next QSO was coming from. I even got called by a dupe
from BY - a KU2M first (well, it was Dupeday, after all, but CHINA?). I was
surprised how late the path stayed open to Europe... just when I thought it was
closed for good, someone would call who was S9+. And I sat there and wondered,
"well, where the heck is everybody else?" (Answer: all watching 'Game
of Thrones.') Interesting conditions, but also nerve wracking, because signals
were not loud in any event, and with the thunderstorm activity that had moved
in to the area, static crashes all afternoon made copy even more difficult. All
in all, in spite of the great fun of working all those rare ones (in a contest
in which JT5DX is practically as rare as a WB2), I was glad when it was over!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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