ARRL DX CW Contest Dates : 20-Feb-99, 21-Feb-99
Station Used : Wo4o Operator : Wo4o
Category : SO1R/AB/Un/LP Team/Club : TN CONTEST GROUP
I halfheartedly approached this game. One, because I hadn't
fixed my 160-m antenna and, two, I had other non-radio
commitments to honor throughout the weekend. This meant that
I'd be handicapped playing All Bands by forfeiting the 160-m Qs
and Ms; and, I'd lose some prime EU run time while away from the
station. All things considered, it made sense to choose a
Single Band; and, 15-m seemed to be the logical choice. Well,
that was the plan -- up until about 5 minutes before the gate
opened. It dawned on me that I'd be sacrificing some fun by
neglecting the other bands. I'd operated Single Band a couple
years when I started serious contesting in 1990 and that was fun;
but, playing All Bands (or even 5) had become better than one,
for me. Plus, I reasoned, a 5-band score would be a better
contribution to the Club than a Single Band score. My Band Plan
was for 15-m, though, and that's where I started. Meanwhile, I
scrambled to fill in the blanks for the other 4 bands by marking
up the propagation charts in CQ Magazine with a highlighter and
drawing from my experience. Secretly I wished for another
transceiver and stacked beams to play in this one; especially
after being spoiled @ AA4NU while being introduced to SO2R in
another recent game. However, I tried to focus on doing my
best with what I had. I knew my friendly, local rival K4RO (who
waxed me last year) had already announced his plan to play again
in the same category this year. And, this time he was armed to
the teeth. To add insult to injury, the more experienced K0EJ
had announced his intention to play SO/AB/LP, too. Okay, so I'm
a glutton for punishment. I was going to have fun no matter
what. And, FUN I had. Bottom line: I made more Qs in this game
than any game before it. Unfortunately, my Mult count was down
on every band except 10-m, compared to 1998. Fortunately, 10-m
Ms nearly made up for the loss of Ms on the other bands. When I
had more than 1000 Qs before leaving for Sunday School, with
another couple of hours to play upon my return, I knew it was
worth going from my Single Band plan to the 5-Band plan. It was
a relief to later discover K0EJ chose to play QRO. Kudos to
K4RO for waxing me again, based on the initial claimed results.
(Had my 160-m TX antenna and 80-m RX antenna worked like they
should, I doubt the results would change in my favor, a credit to
K4RO.) It's always good to have a friendly rivalry to motivate
one another; especially when the individual competitors are
contributing to the same Club score. Viva TN Contest Group!
BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Countries Hardware
__________________________________________________________
80CW 43 43 129 25 Inv V
40CW 224 223 669 55 Dipole
20CW 325 319 957 73 Quad/Yagi
15CW 358 356 1068 66 Quad/Yagi
10CW 369 365 1095 71 Quad/Yagi
__________________________________________________________
Totals 1319 1306 3918 290 TS-450SAT
Final Score = 1,136,220 points. On: 38 Hours
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