CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: VK8PDX
Operator(s): VK8PDX
Station: VK8PDX
Class: SOAB(R) LP
QTH: Alice Springs NT
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 0
40: 91
20: 228
15: 226
10: 69
------------
Total: 614 Prefixes = 346 Total Score = 646,328
Club: VK Contest Club
Comments:
This was only my second WPX SSB contest and after my first year score of only
48312 points, I am really happy with this yearâ??s effort. I know my score
isnâ??t earth shattering, but at least I improved a lot from last yearâ??s
station set up. I hope with more antenna improvements, especially on 40m and
10m, that I might go a lot better next year.
The low lights of the event:
â?¢ Non-existent propagation to Europe on 20m on the short path on the
second
evening â?? this path is normally reliable for me and a real winner. The night
before was pretty good.
â?¢ Poor propagation from here to USA on 20m. Only made 13 Qâ??s long path
in
the morning and 15 Qâ??s short path in the early afternoon.
â?¢ Poor propagation from here to Europe on 15m â?? that was a big surprise.
â?¢ Average propagation from here to North America on 15m on the second and
third morning
â?¢ Only being able to make a handful of QSOs into Europe both mornings on
40m
The highlights of the event:
â?¢Great propagation from here to North America on 15m on the first morning
â?¢Nice runs into Asia on 15m in between search and pouncing for North America
â?¢Spectacular long path signals from Europe on 20m on the second afternoon
that ran very very late into the early evening.
â?¢Great little run on 10m into JA with lots of new multipliers
â?¢Exciting to see 10m open up to Europe on the second evening where I had
could have a brief run for 30 minutes and make 20 Qâ??s. During which time I
was called by a station in Benin â?? amazing!!
I really did have a great time during this event. With low power, I spent
probably 85% of my time search and pouncing. I managed to operate the whole 36
hours. I did start losing motivation and get really tired on the Sunday morning
around 0100 UTC. At that time the band closed to North America early on 15m, I
couldnâ??t get any runs into Asia/Pacific on 20m or 15m and so in desperation I
checked out 10m. There were only two JAâ??s on the band, so I gave a few CQâ??s
and then spent the next hour working 42 stations in Asia. For most of the
contest I could keep a rate of 20 QSOâ??s per hour going. This only dropped off
to 17/hour on the Sunday evening when I had no propagation to Europe on 20m
short path and I couldnâ??t find any new North Americans on 40m. Iâ??m kicking
myself I didnâ??t visit 10m an hour earlier on the Sunday night, I reckon I
might have had a lot more Europeans in the log. Just goes to show I need to
check 10m a lot more. But Iâ??m glad for the 20 Europeans I grabbed in my 30
minutes of fun there.
Anyway, with these big contests I learn more about techniques, improving my
operation style and understanding how to improve my score. So itâ??s just a
matter of improving my antennaâ??s before my next big international contest,
which will probably be the IARU World Championships in July.
I tried to give VK8 to as many people as possible. After 614 Q's in 2010, I
hope to give out VK8 to over 1000 Q's next year!!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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