ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: P40Y
Operator(s): AE6Y
Station: P40Y
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 333 52
80: 521 59
40: 1002 58
20: 1266 59
15: 1144 59
10: 1010 56
-------------------
Total: 5255 343 Total Score = 5,407,395
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
My score is up by 400k over last year's effort, mainly due to working 20 more
mults. I made concerted efforts to move mults, and generally was much more
attentive to mult counts. I probably created 30-40 mults by moving stations
(though a number of those would later be worked anyway), and had about a half
dozen failed moves. In fact, I ended up with 6 band Worked all States, except
for NV on 160 and WY on 10. Thanks to all who accommodated my requests,
including two stations that I had already worked (N0NI in Iowa and VY2TT in PEI)
who kindly moved when asked while they were CQing.
My sleep strategy needs re-evaluation. Mentally, I was in much worse shape than
last year due to lack of sleep. I basically didn?t sleep at all until Sunday
morning; a much better strategy would have been a longer sleep period on Sunday
morning, or a sleep period each morning. Sunday morning, I was off the radio
from 0710 to 0933Z (0310 to 0533 local). My QSO totals for the next four hours
were 49, 35, 45, and 47. The contest didn?t pick up until I started in on 15 at
1627Z, where I stayed for 3½ hours on 21015 with rates in the 130-140 range.
The problem seemed to be that conditions were so good to EU that the US/VEs
weren?t listening to the South. As a result the usual Caribbean morning
doldrums were of longer duration than usual. This would have been a great DX
contest for us in the Caribbean, but the expected advantage we might have over
the likes of D4B from poor conditions obviously didn't materialize.
[Congratulations to Alex, BTW, on another superb effort.] Query whether my
score would have gone up or down by missing two of those low rate morning
hours.
I plead sleep deprivation for an egregious frequency fight, and apologize to the
station (I think it was K0IR) who was the recipient of my truculence. At about
2245Z on Sunday, I had been on 20 for an hour with a good rate when I tried to
move a VE6 to 10. After several unsuccessful minutes, I returned to 20 to find
the K0 had occupied the freq in my absence. Instead of gracefully slinking off
to find a new spot, I was so tired that I rudely said that this was my frequency
and I was re-claiming it. When he realized I was a DX station, he went away. I
know I shouldn't have done that, but at the time I had no energy and not much
tact left. I was actually falling asleep in between, and sometimes during,
QSOs. I also was convinced for a considerable period of time that I wasn't
logging contacts. Rather, I was helping someone else to choose a good engineer
for our train, represented by the logging screen, and that the exchange received
was the destination the engineer was proposing. Eventually, I realized that I
was the one who had to decipher the pileup, and that it wasn't a life or death
matter, as I was only logging contacts, not running a railroad. Hard to
explain, but there it is.
Rig:
FT1000, Alpha 87A; FT990, Alpha 86
4 el 10-20, 2 el 40: inverted vees for 80/160
Logging: CQPWIN ver. 9.3
73, Andy, AE6Y
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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