CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 27
40: 230
20: 155
15: 574
10: 288
------------
Total: 1274 Prefixes = 717 Total Score = 2,724,600
Club: Orca DX and Contest Club
Comments:
* FT-2000 and SB-221
* N1MM Logger (unassisted)
* Steppir 3-el. at 27'
* 40M -- Steppir dipole and 2-el reversible quad
* 75M -- three-vertical array
Winds are dead calm two hours after the contest ended, but they were blustery
all weekend so the yagi was left at 27' for the contest.
I edged past my previous best from 2012 with fewer Qs but more mults, then
coasted almost to the finish on Sunday afternoon. Near the end 20M was
marginally open to Europe but it wasn't strong, and the band sounded noisy with
weak domestic signals, so I packed it in with a couple of hours remaining after
expending way too much energy getting the exchange across to a loud EC2
station. Band just wasn't playing well from this end.
The big X-1.0 flare at 1740z Saturday was amazing -- 15M was packed with
European needle-pinners and suddenly they were gone. I figured I had found a
supernaturally quiet frequency and started calling CQ with no takers. Didn't
realize we had been hit hard until I flipped the Steppir and worked half a
dozen W6 stations who commented that everyone had disappeared. Checked the
Space Weather Prediction Center to see the flare spike rising to a peak at
1748z, then rapidly falling off. And 15 minutes later, the band was back.
10M was in good shape for a while both days, but 15M was the money band all
weekend. 40M and 75M were better than last year, but not a lot of DX worked.
Made my first phone contact with EU on 75M on Saturday night with a magical
sudden path to G-land, though I heard no others.
DXCC count across all bands was up from 68 last year to 87 this year. Added at
least a couple of new band-slots.
I noticed contest protesters out in fine numbers, complaining about us idiots
using up all the bandwidth swapping numbers. Then after clearing 10 khz of
space for their old farts' net, they's swap local temp and precipitation stats,
number of goats on the porch, etc., and pretend their own version of inane
numbers was somehow of higher value. I laughed at that -- very entertaining to
take a break and listen to the uninformed (and apparently unable to Google)
wonder aloud, "what contest are they in, anyway?" To each their own,
but some guys just have no tolerance for anyone but themselves. Well, except
for livestock in the house.
Thanks for the contacts.
Band QSOs Pts WPX
3.5 27 111 8
7 230 900 114
14 155 427 104
21 574 1640 343
28 288 722 148
Total 1274 3800 717
Score : 2,724,600
Year-over-year...
2014-03-30 SOABHP 1274 717 2,724,600
2013-03-31 SOABHP 1030 504 1,380,960
2012-03-25 SOABHP 1401 663 2,618,850
2011-03-27 SOABHP 907 527 1,482,451
2010-03-28 SOABHP 1172 570 2,014,380
2009-03-29 SOABHP 519 294 429,534
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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