CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: NT5C
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Austin, TX
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 7
40: 519
20: 1046
15: 867
10: 334
------------
Total: 2773 Prefixes = 831 Total Score = 5,297,625
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
I missed the ARRL DX CW Contest due to horrible line noise here, and have been
looking forward to the CW WPX. It's a terrific contest as there is almost
always someone to work. The WPX lacks the strategy of having multipliers on
every band, and the ability to find/move/work them on six bands. It is a
rate-fest and the strategy for a single-op boils down to where can one is able
to work the best rate which has the richest point total. Working lots of QSOs
generates the mults all by themnselves, and if you can work lots of Europeans
and Americans and Japanese, you are on the way to a really good mult total.
Working the DX stations on 40 meters means you are piling up the points as
well.
I didn't get a whole lot of sleep before the contest as my wife and I went out
to see our son and his band (Austin IS the live music capital of the world, you
know!) the night before the contest, and I didn't get to sleep until almost one
AM Friday morning. I tried to nap Friday but could work in only two 30 minute
naps. The contets started off well, and I had 300 QSOs in the first three
hours on 20 and 40. There were no JAs on 15 meters Friday night. That was a
disappointment.
I took a little sleep break from about 07:35 to 09:15 when 40 pooped out to
Europe at EU sunrise, and it wasn't dark yet in Japan. 40 meters was open to
JA when I got up and cleared my head. The JAs were OK but not super. At
11:18Z I moved to 20 and worked that band to EU and Asia, and then was
listening to 15 and noticed the east coast was running EU at an early time. So
I experimented with S&Ping, working up the band calling some stations on 15, and
found an open spot and tried CQing before 13Z, or 8 AM here. The band exploded
for me, and I had a 125 hour in the 13Z hour. I had to take a short break due
to some family issues but still had three good hours to EU, 125-93-126.
Following that, EU died quickly on 15 and 20 was suffering from sun absorption
already, so being tired, I took an early "mid-day" break and slept from about
1600Z to 2230Z, or 6.5 hours. That was a much needed break, and I think it was
a good strategic decision for me. When I woke, 20 meters was the only thing
going, and some mediocore hours followed on 20 and then 40. It's just not
possible to run EU on 40 from here, even with a great antenna, until pretty
close to EU sunrise, so I was content to call the loud stations and try CQs
that never generated much response. Part of the problem is hearing people who
call us, as the QRM is so bad and EU signals are really weak here unless the
stations are well equipped. However the well equipped stations are CQing and
running USA! It's another strong east coast advantage.
At about 0610 some strong static developed on receive. I thought it might be
line noise because it has been dry again, but after a while it became clear a
storm was approaching. Soon the QRN was 10-20 db on every band, so operating
was impossible. Thunder soon was audible, and so I took off and lay down to
try and relax. It became clear we were going to get rain, so I set the alarm
for two hours and took another nap. When the alarm waked me, it was raining
and the line noise was 20 db over S-9. So I re-set the alarm for 1030Z (5:30
local time) and awoke to gentle rain that was ending. I had used my entire 12
hours of off time then, and there were thirteen and a half hours remaining in
the contest. Checking the radio, I found a quiet 40 meter band with big JA
signals. I got only 76 additional contacts on 40 but the band was really good,
with JAs and with YB, VK, HL, S6 (Singapore), 9M6, E21, KG6 all calling in in my
CQ frequency.
By 12Z (7 AM local) 40 meters was pretty well dying, and I went to 20 and
steeled myself for the rest of the contest, twelve hours of a morning run to EU
followed by sheer tedium and bordon during the midday aborption and dead bands
with some USA one-pointers until things livened up around five PM local. 20
meters got pretty dumpy by 14Z and I went to 15 meters hoping for another great
15 meter run to EU, as occured the day before. It started off well, but the
rates were 60-95 the first two hours were not as good as Saturday. The band
stayed in there to EU, but by 15Z signals from EU faded badly. I was listening
to 10 meters on the 2nd radio and picking off some loud stations there. So I
switched and made 10 the run band and 15 the SO2R band for calling CQers. The
QSOs were almost all with USA and VE stations (Exception-three JAs on 10!) on
both 10 and 15, so there was no point difference (both bad!) so I went with the
flow and picked the band with the higher rates. That was 10 meters, which
opened wide to almost the entire USA and Canada. I operated on 10/15 from 14Z
until almost 22Z and had rates of 60-90 an hour the whole time with no
fall-off. That is quite a wonderful change from our usual terribly boring
Sunday afternoons.
Of course the QSO points were almost one per contact, but quite a few remaining
USA mults called in, and it was fun. Ten meters started to poop out at 22Z and
so I ended with a brief JA run on 15 and then the last hour was on 20/15 with
62 contacts. My "fantasy goal" was 2500 QSOs, 800 mults, and 5 million points,
and the good band conditions allowed me to exceed these.
I can honestly say that the sleep breaks were just perfect, and that I got
about the best that is possible from this station and this operator for central
Texas.
Many thanks to all the great operators, interesting mults, and all the fun
activity. Thanks as well for the 36 hour rule which changes the 48 hour
contests from a staggeringly mad fatigue-fest and a attack on common sense to a
tough and strategically challenging event for single-ops. The WPX represents a
super contest and a great deal of fun for those do are not in the eastern part
of the country. We still can't overcome the six pointers on 40 that the east
coast can rack up. I listened to KC3R run 40. Unbelievable! We can do that on
40 to JA but it's three times as far there and the opening is much shorter.
Thanks again to the WPX organizers and all the good operators.
Now, for the numbers:
Average points per QSO per band:
80 meters 1.00
40 meters 3.65
20 meters 2.12
15 meters 2.11
10 meters 1.14
Continents
160 80 40 20 15 10 30 17 12 ALL
--- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---
USA calls = 0 7 224 406 355 300 0 0 0 1292
VE calls = 0 0 34 49 47 19 0 0 0 149
N.A. calls = 0 0 9 8 7 1 0 0 0 25
S.A. calls = 0 0 10 7 8 11 0 0 0 36
Euro calls = 0 0 118 399 366 0 0 0 0 883
Afrc calls = 0 0 6 7 6 0 0 0 0 19
Asia calls = 0 0 9 70 26 0 0 0 0 105
JA calls = 0 0 89 87 43 3 0 0 0 222
Ocen calls = 0 0 20 13 9 0 0 0 0 42
Unknowns = 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total calls = 0 7 519 1046 867 334 0 0 0 2773
rate
HOUR 80CW 40CW 20CW 15CW 10CW TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ----- -----
0 0 0 104 3 1 108 108
1 0 0 104 0 0 104 212
2 0 18 70 0 0 88 300
3 0 76 0 0 0 76 376
4 0 44 37 0 0 81 457
5 0 64 12 0 0 76 533
6 0 7 60 0 0 67 600
7 3 7 24 0 0 34 634
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 634
9 1 40 0 0 0 41 675
10 1 69 1 0 0 71 746
11 0 20 46 0 0 66 812
12 0 0 55 13 0 68 880
13 0 0 0 125 0 125 1005
14 0 0 0 93 0 93 1098
15 0 0 0 125 1 126 1224
16 0 0 0 10 0 10 1234
17 0 0 0 0 0 0 1234
18 0 0 0 0 0 0 1234
19 0 0 0 0 0 0 1234
20 0 0 0 0 0 0 1234
21 0 0 0 0 0 0 1234
22 0 0 38 0 8 46 1280
23 0 4 75 4 1 84 1364
0 0 3 42 39 0 84 1448
1 0 8 70 3 0 81 1529
2 0 20 68 0 0 88 1617
3 0 26 40 0 0 66 1683
4 0 29 38 0 0 67 1750
5 0 6 34 0 0 40 1790
6 0 2 27 0 0 29 1819
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1819
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 1819
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 1819
10 1 22 0 0 0 23 1842
11 1 54 0 0 0 55 1897
12 0 0 5 57 0 62 1959
13 0 0 0 94 0 94 2053
14 0 0 0 75 14 89 2142
15 0 0 3 35 34 72 2214
16 0 0 0 25 49 74 2288
17 0 0 13 53 3 69 2357
18 0 0 0 21 68 89 2446
19 0 0 0 11 64 75 2521
20 0 0 16 0 51 67 2588
21 0 0 6 11 37 54 2642
22 0 0 6 58 3 67 2709
23 0 0 50 12 0 62 2771
0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2772
TOTAL 7 519 1046 867 334
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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