ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: WX3B
Operator(s): WX3B
Station: WX3B
Class: SOUAB HP
QTH: MDC
Operating Time (hrs): 18.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 49 38
80: 139 61
40: 139 78
20: 190 83
15: 356 90
10: 790 98
-------------------
Total: 1663 448 Total Score = 2,233,728
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
After carving out a 24 hour block of time to operate this contest, I decided on
two goals – both of which are not relevant for high scores – however I
decided they would maximize my fun in these excellent band conditions!
My first goal was to spend most of Friday night trying to maximize multipliers.
I set the band map to show only new multipliers, and spent time on all 6 bands
– starting from 10 and working my way down and around – to generate as many
multipliers as possible. I was SURPRISED To find all 6 bands in excellent
condition, with plenty of folks to pounce on – and this kept me buy until
close to 3:00am, with short runs in-between – to keep things interesting.
My second goal was to focus on 10 meters – and I made the most of my time by
my running stations on that band alone – during the daylight hours.
10 opened early – just before 6:30am and I was amazed to hear some light
Europeans already calling CQ waiting for the band to open. I started calling CQ
and within 15 minutes, there were pileups 3 and 4 deep for a very long time, all
zero beat of course, and I felt like a neophyte dealing with this big pileup.
The FUN factor was EXACLTY like I hoped it would be and it was INTSENSE. The
first callers were all running KW, 400, 500, etc. and then the band blew
completely wide open with loud 100w stations, and the occasional 5 watt
European. Someone mentioned an EA8 running 5 watts, I actually had to ask for a
repeat because I thought I missed the two zeros or “T”s at the end. What a
magic location that was.
I took a break and switched bands at about 1:30pm (10 was STILL BOOMING to
Europe) to give 15 a try and run a few QSOs and get multipliers on that band.
Finally, I felt like I had my CW legs back and could handle the multiple callers
better – again, mostly zero beat!
I took a second break just after getting off 15 meters, and got on 20 to fatten
my multiplier total up a bit there. Next, I decided to go BACK to 10, and see
how the conditions to Asia were just around 4:30pm. Received an instant, steady
stream of JA callers, with E2A (Surprise!!) in that run. As the sun got lower,
the JA pileup just kept getting BETTER! My memory of this type of JA pileup is
at least 11+ years old. It was like every JA was ON the air, and they were ON
10 meters. There were also the super-loud Asians calling CQ by 5:00pm –
something I have not witnessed for many years. Having a half-dozen 5 watt JAs
call me in this run was a fantastic highlight.
15 was at least as good as 10 was near the end of my effort – and I spent some
time hop-scotching around the bands to work some juicy Asian and Oceanic
multipliers. Again, I noted that it was VERY easy to break huge pileups where I
knew I was loud – as long as I went off frequency, sometimes as much as 300Hz
– because so many folks try to brute force the pileup near zero beat. This
secret, which really isn’t a secret, is worth at least 20dB in the pileups.
Bottom line: this was about as much fun as I have had in a CW contest in a very
long time. I enjoyed the wide variety of good band conditions at my station –
and I was pleased with the way everything worked, including my newly repaired
beverages – which were very quiet on 80 & 160 – letting me here even
better than I could transmit – particularly on 160. Turning off Starlink
(with plans of eventually relocating the dish) was also an important of being
able to hear on the NW/SE beverage!!
I am looking forward to a fun 12 hours in the SSB leg of this contest – likely
a primarily 10 meter effort – and then I am hopeful of breaking our all-time
high score in CQ WPX SSB at month-end – it could happen!!
73,
Jim WX3B
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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