CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: N1EN
Operator(s): N1EN
Station: N1EN
Class: SO(A)AB(TS) LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs):
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 4
80: 42
40: 281
20: 530
15: 426
10: 36
------------
Total: 1319 Prefixes = 633 Total Score = 2,459,838
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Well, that was both fun and not-fun.
Work and commitments around the house have limited my contesting this spring.
Sadly I had to skip many spring tests that I would have liked to play in, so I
was really looking forward to having a weekend free and available to spend
contesting. (Even better: it's a three day weekend. I can recover / catch up on
Monday.)
Friday night got off to a mixed start. There were a couple of thunderstorms
that passed by just before the start of the contest, and they appeared to sit
nearby. The high bands were in great condition Friday night. I can't honestly
tell whether everybody stayed on the high bands, because the QRN on 40, 80, and
160 were brutal.
I really should have stayed up later Friday night, to take advantage 20m
staying open late, because conditions were abysmal when I got back on the air
Saturday. Saturday morning and early afternoon were frustrating �" like a
big alligator fest. I heard many Europeans, but I actually had to check my power
level a few times when they just kept calling CQ in my face. The mid-morning
opening to Japan was nicer than normal, however.
15 and 20 recovered late Saturday, but Saturday evening wasn't as good as
Friday evening. The low bands were in better shape Saturday night, but activity
still seemed down on 40 and 80.
Sunday morning was manic-depressive. Very nice opening to the Far East, but
Europe deteriorated back to an alligator-fest (although not as bad as
Saturday). I was having some trouble keeping my but in the chair, when my shack
computer decided to crash. At that point, I decided to take an extended lunch
break.
However, the lure of HF activity eventually sucked me back into the shack.
Conditions seemed to improve slowly Sunday afternoon, but I still had trouble
staying in my chair…at least until I looked at the low-power triband/wires
scores from last year. That provided a bit more motivation to press on to the
finish.
I'm glad that I did press on. The afternoon/evening opening to JA was the best
I've heard since I put up the hexbeam. And, with each prefix a multiplier and
JA offering so many tasty prefixes…it was fun!
A few other miscellaneous comments:
I was surprised to hear several loud stations from the Middle East, and not
having to fight the EU wall to get them in the log.
Thanks to 9G5ZZ for being there. I worked him a few days prior to the WPX for
my 271st DXCC in the log, but I was mighty happy to fill in a couple more spots
on the band-entity grid!
I was a little disappointed to not get a ZS station in the log. My informal
checklist of whether a contest is a good one includes working VK, ZL, JA, and
ZS. I only heard one South African on, and he was mobbed every time he was loud
enough here to take a shot at.
I also missed one of my other "good contest" benchmarks: working 100
countries. I got 98 in the log. I think some of the usual Caribbean Islands
were missing a holiday contester presence.
I am a little surprised by how comparatively few domestic contacts I have in
the log. Perhaps that's an artifact of having a beam now, but in my experience
over the prior couple of runnings…well, one of the nice things about WPX was
the seemingly endless supply of K-land contacts to keep things interesting when
propagation to Europe fades in the afternoon on the high bands, and in the
mid-evening on the low bands. It didn't feel that way this time.
I was disappointed to not be able to work the Crimean station signing as
RA/something. Geopolitical matters are way above my paygrade to opine on, but
geographic oddities have a special place in my heart. I think there's at least
one Crimean station with a full Russian callsign in the log (judging by an
alert I received when logging it), but the RA/something station just seemed
like a very visible reminder of the situation in that part of the world.
Ah well. I got my contesting and DXing fix in, and hopefully it'll tide me over
to IARU/WRTC. Conditions weren't the best, but I still had a fair amount of fun.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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