CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: LG5LG
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: LG5LG
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Norway
Operating Time (hrs): 35
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 19
80: 133
40: 361
20: 665
15: 336
10: 202
------------
Total: 1706 Prefixes = 640 Total Score = 1,765,800
Club: North Coast Contesters
Comments:
Volcanic ash and Chicago thunderstorms nearly prevented this trip, but happily
the ash cloud died down just in time for my departure and after my flight to
Chicago was cancelled I was able to reschedule and go through Washington DC and
arrive in Oslo as scheduled. Following a two hour drive, I arrived at what is
probably one of the few if not the only amateur radio station straddling an
international border - the famous LG5LG/SJ9WL station at the Morokulien
international peace park. Find out more about this fascinating place at
http://www.sj9wl-lg5lg.com/text1_2.html.
I arrived with less than 36 hours to get ready but the station was all ready
for me and I merely needed to hook up my laptop and Win-Key and I was ready to
go. It was a low power station so I did not have huge expectations but as I
tested out the station Thursday night I thought I would be able to do
reasonably well. The station consists of a log periodic at about 80' for the
high bands and dipoles and a G5RV for the low bands. I knew that 40 would be a
challenge with only a dipole and LP, so I was really hoping to have good high
band conditions. Conditions Thursday night were good and I worked a number of
strong JAs on both 15 and 20. I woke up Friday morning just in time to operate
the weekly NCCC Sprint contest at 0230 zulu (4:30 AM in Norway, about 30 minutes
after sunrise) and I was able to work 7 US stations and K4BAI in PJ4, so I was
hoping for some good runs on 15 and 20.
As everyone knows, conditions took a dive just before the contest start and
high band conditions were challenging most of the weekend for the 3-pointers.
I worked only a handful of N.A. station on 15 during the entire weekend, while
on 20 I only managed about 100 W/VE stations. Very few stations responded to
my CQs so most of these were S&P. 40 was even worse than 15 and I don't think
I was able to work even 5 N.A. stations there the whole time. And zero on 80.
QRN was pretty bad throughout the weekend on all of the low bands.
On the positive side, starting around 1500Z on Saturday, I had five really good
hours on 10 and 15 and managed to push the Q total over 1000. I just pointed
the antenna south and worked huge amounts of stations all over Europe with
rates over 100 per hour for this time. While fun, these were not doing that
much for my score as they were almost all one pointers. Hoping that Sunday
would be equally productive on these bands and that I could take the Q talley
over 2000, I planned my off times to be on during these hours, but the Saturday
conditions did not materialize on Sunday. So the last few hours were extremely
slow and it took three hours to work my last 100 stations. I pulled the plug
40 minutes before the end of the contest.
Overall, it was a fun and interesting weekend and my final claimed score is not
far the LA low power record, so I am reasonably satisfied. Operating from new
locations around the world is very challenging; it's so interesting to see the
world from a different perspective.
Many thanks to ARIM for making the station available and to Odd Westby SM4SXQ
for handling the arrangements.
73, Hal W1NN
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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