CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW
Call: VE6TN
Operator(s): VE6TN
Station: VE6TN
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: AB
Operating Time (hrs):
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 34 3 2
80: 41 11 13
40: 133 22 37
20: 612 32 88
15: 248 24 54
10: 176 13 13
------------------------------
Total: 1244 105 221 Total Score = 927,470
Club: Alberta Clippers
Comments:
Awesome time, I just missed the 1M point mark . . . again. My kingdom for
another hour!
It is a tough decision, to hunt multipliers and load them into the bandmap to
work with the second radio later, or stay and run and possibly miss out on some
juicy multipliers? I made some bad decisions at times. Also, the second radio
on a vertical antenna while Low Power is simply not very effective for transmit,
the best it did was allow for some other-band scanning for multipliers although
it did come in handy a few times.
It was heartbreaking to hear Europe at S9+ on 40m calling CQ without an answer
and they "just-don't-hear-me" . . . Aarggggghhh. This is why the LP class is so
frustrating. If low power is for those who like disappointment, then QRP class
must be for Masochists!
Looking back at this contest, if I hadn't spent so much time on 40m Sunday
morning trying to work Europeans with apparently one-way skip, or if I had
gotten up an hour earlier, or maybe if I had been running US on 15m at the
beginning of the contest instead of mapping out the dx stations into the
bandmap, well that is lots of "if's", but this sort of reflection is good for
remembering the experience and learning from it for next time.
Several valuable lessons learned include:
1. Technical. Improve my second radio performance by adding band filters and
improve on the switching system to be more flexible to swap radios so that the
multiplier can be worked on the main station while running US on the vertical.
2. Operating Skill. I need to train my brain better to work the second radio
effectively while still operating the primary one. I have trouble splitting my
brain into two distinct modes to listen to both. I have to discover the trick
in adapting to concentrate on two things at once.
The best-ear award goes to James Brooks 9V1YC who picked my low power station
out of that massive pile-up just before the contest end. My timing was good, my
CW speed was at 38 wpm because I know James can hear the distintive rythm of CW
that sticks out from normal calling. James, thanks for that mult! By the way,
when are we going to see another great video?
All in all, this was another very good contest and I would like to thank
everyone who called me and all the DX who recognized my callsign in the
pile-ups.
73'
Barry Middlebrook, VE6TN
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|