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[3830] CQWW CW K3CR(LZ4AX) SOAB HP

To: <3830@contesting.com>
Subject: [3830] CQWW CW K3CR(LZ4AX) SOAB HP
From: lz4ax@psu.edu (lz4ax@psu.edu)
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 21:27:41 -0800
                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: K3CR
Operator(s): LZ4AX
Station: K3CR

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: WPA
Operating Time (hrs): 45
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   30    11       22
   80:  246    20       77
   40:  483    29      103
   20:  525    34      106
   15:  706    34      110
   10:  699    30      113
------------------------------
Total: 2689   158      131  Total Score = 5,279,807

Club: 

Comments:

Station:

Two FT1000 MP's (all filters and Inrad mods)
NA set up for 2 radios
Alpha 87A, Ameritron AL-1500

Antennas:
160M - Flat offset fed dipole at 175 feet fed at 450 ohm feedpoint
80M - Inverted-V at 100 feet NW/SE, Colinear dipole array spaced side by side
at
180 feet that is NE/SW
40M - 3 el V-Yagi (switchable/rotatable) at 55 feet, 4 dipole curtain array at
175 feet NE
20M - 6 over 6 over 6 48 ft boom OWA Yagis (top at 180 feet)
15M - 6 over 6 over 6 48 ft boom OWA Yagis (top at 190 feet)
10M - 7 over 7 over 7 over 7 48 ft boom OWA Yagis (top at 180 feet)
20M, 15M, 10M - 10 to 30 MHz Log Periodics at 100 ft and at 35 ft.

Beverages for NE, W, SE, and NW  (400 ft to 1600 ft long)

Was aiming at 3000 Q?s and 5 Mpoints ? did the second and will have try again
next year with the first :).

It was amazing to see how many people hated their callsigns this weekend. A
decade ago there were just few of them and you could somehow recognize their
calls without having to break one more pile-up just to ask CL? Now it seems that
this disease is spreading vastly, maybe after some of the bigger DXpeditions. I
wouldn?t bother to ask the CQWW committee to take measures against such
operating habits but I would really love to see a DXpedition turned down from
DXCC desk for doing this and not for some ridiculous reason. Or maybe they were
just getting lonely on the second day and wanted all the guys back ? 
On the second night I went mad on one DX station and after waiting 2-3 minutes
after the QSO (I asked him at the end of QSO and I wasn?t the only one asking) I
gave him a series of 10 (yes, ten) CALL? Apparently I was really loud on his
side so he came back with his call and said he would give his call once in 10
minutes !!! 
Believe it or not but this guy really meant it ? a few hours later I ran into
his frequency again and decided to take break while eating my sandwich. Well, he
couldn?t ignore all the people asking for his call for so long, so he had to
give up but he did it on the 7th minute ! 

On the bright side there were a lot of brilliant CW operators ? for me it was
really a pleasure listening to the crisp CW of Voodoo dudes, they and CN8WW team
of BCC have been my personal favorites for a long time.

Before the contest decided to abandon my M/S habits and try to limit the S&P
only to the second radio. Well, there was something said about the good
intensions and the road to hell ? I ended up using both radios to S&P :) ? was a
little bit confusing at the beginning, called on the wrong radio severall times
but overall wasn?t so bad especially during the last two hours. Despite this
somehow managed to miss the whole Balkanies on the low bands ? SV1NA was the
only exception on 160. Most frustrating for me is that I missed LZ on both 80
and 160 regardless of the fact that I could move there almost any LZ. To
partially compensate this Danny, LZ0A, moved me from 15 to 10 (yes, he moved me
? I forgot to ask him :) ) just to give me a new multiplier. So, I may missed my
country on 80/160 but worked our overseas territories on 2 bands :) (hope the
Antarctic gang wouldn?t hang me for this).

About pileup?s ? brrr, here they are really brutal, almost getting physical.
Forget everything you have learned or heard about European pileups from the
other guys or from your Elmer. I?ve been on both sides on US and EU pileups with
both big station and with just a 20-30 watts and some piece of wire. I wouldn?t
go into a deep analysis of the differences since the main one is definitive. The
goal in the EU pileup is to make a QSO with the station on the other side of the
pileup, not just to emit radio waves. Don?t get me wrong ? I?m not complaining,
furthermore my elbows are pretty tough and Jim, WA3FET, is taking care of my
maze (look at the station description above). And sometimes I have problems with
F4 key too, just like the other guys.

The funniest thing happened on the second day - I caught myself working guys
without bothering to use the computer, even for logging :). I don?t know how
much QSO?s I have made in this manner ? the gap was about 15 minutes, so I
really hope my rate wasn?t so high at that time. However, I have some memories
of working 9M6A and he?s not in the log now :( 

Overall, there is nothing like CQWW CW and I think that?s more than enough to
say. There were a lot of DX?s, DXers, bad operators, perfect operators, guys who
even don?t know CW and use the contest to practice, guys with big antennas and
power supplies, guys with small antennas and no antenna amplifiers, even guys
without antennas ? I never heard them but I know they were there, and there
wasn't even a sign of any NET?s. And of course there was me ? to judge them all
:)

Finally, my sincere thanks to Jim, WA3FET, for letting me use his station ? it
behaved perfectly, not even a glitch besides the operator :), and to his
students Jon, KB3FUN (guess the local birds already think of him as some part of
the towers), James and Mike, N3MJ, who spent a lot of time recovering the
station from my last operation.

73 and CU in the next one !


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