CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
Call: N1SNB
Operator(s): N1SNB
Station: N1SNB
Class: SOAB HP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 49
40: 451
20: 217
15: 43
10: 0
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Total: 760 Prefixes = 365 Total Score = 805,860
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
This is one of the strangest band line scores Iâ??ve turned in. Nearly 30 hours
and so little on 15 and 80. Whenever I went to 15 or 80, I went right back to
20 or 40 because I felt louder into multi-point territory. Anyways, what a fun
contest. Iâ??m still quite new to the RTTY contesting world, but this seemed
like an epic contest with high DX participation, some funky callsigns, and
some amazing band congestion (and conditions).
Best Hour: 60
Best DX: A61BK
Murphy visited several times and partially derailed my visions of 1,000 QSOs
and 1 million points.. One visit was to cause a PC failure 10 minutes before
the contest started. This caused me to swap in my work laptop. I wasnâ??t
ready and quickly needed to download the needed software and reprogram my
carefully crafted macros. It wasnâ??t until 0020 that I was ready to go.
Also, Rags, my cat - knocked over a heavy space heater that managed to sever
the heavy duty extension cord that powers my entire basement shack. Yikes.
I also had some serious self inflicted wounds. One, not knowing the band plan.
This really hurt me on Saturday morning on 20m. I stayed in the congested
areas not knowing how high I could really go. For some reason though 14125
was the ceiling. On Sunday, I had an excellent run on 14137.5 - the frequency
was clear and things were rapid fire. Second, not really knowing my off times
- causing me to miss three hours of operating time. When I shut down on Sunday,
I thought I had worked a full 30 (turned out to be 27 upon further review)
These two errors, I feel, certainly cost me my goal. .
Band Notes:
80m // 80m was really a bust here. I couldnâ??t cut through the EU QRM to
work 6 pointers at any sort of rate. I also couldnâ??t drum up any business
CQing. My time would have been better spent on 40. Most importantly, I
overstated my goal for 80m QSOs substantially. 200 QSOs there for me, was not
possible.
40m // 40m was it for me. I should have been more persistent CQing on
Saturday night. I cut the run to S & P too many times.
20m // Shame on me for a horrible performance on Saturday. I lost focus and
the rate sunk to abysmal lows - just 12 QSOs in 2 hrs of contesting. This hurt
my pysche and motivation. I felt like no-one could hear me answering their CQs.
The motivational loss also hurt as I started thinking I wouldnâ??t reach my end
QSO goal and that I should call it quits. I had had a great night Friday on 40m
and woke up pumped up - only to not be able to establish rate on 20 or 15. To
me, Europe was workng Europe. 9A1A, surely beaming stateside, was working UAs
and URs. An OK had a G pileup. This persisted for most of the morning. When
I did find a CQ frequency I had some luck - but couldnâ??t hold the frequency
for more than a handful of QSOs. Bottom line - I needed to be higher in the
band. A lesson fully learned on Sunday. The one highlight was a late
afternoon run on Saturday into Southern European and of course, all of Sunday
which was much much better for me.
15m // 15m really sucked for me. Iâ??m louder on 20m into 3 point territory so
tried to spend more time there. I also couldnâ??t get my amp to tune properly.
Shouldnâ??t have checked before the contest.
10m // Nothing here, didnâ??t even listen. I guess I will learn the extent of
this mistake when I reas scores on 3830 tonight.
All in all, what a blast. Thanks to W0YK, AA5AU, W6SX and others that gave me
some pre-game tips on the RTTY reflector. The RTTY camaraderie is really
awesome. Iâ??m hooked. With some great websites and personal help, this would
be much less fun and engaging.
I have still have so much to learn that Iâ??ll be relying on others for some
time come to answer my silly questions. Tuning in stations quickly and
correctly, finding open frequencies, tuning in callers off frequency,
responding to multiple stations coming back to a CQ are some of the basic
things Iâ??m still learning.
Also, my S & P rate canâ??t come close to my run rate. Iâ??m not sure how
material this is in a run contest like WPX - but it concerns me for CQ WW in
the fall. Iâ??m also going to publish more details on this contest on my
website, n1snb.com, soon so I can remember my learning and share with others
that might find my experiences interesting.
ARRL CW is next!
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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