CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: West Virginia
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 753 State/Prov = 57 Countries = 42 Total Score = 219,186
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
It was a different kind of CQ 160 contest starting with a very negative
attitude. I was fatigued after chasing VP8SGI and other house chores when I
went to pick up the mail at 2140Z only to discover that my carrier decided my
bulky 25 lb package I needed fairly badly was just too much for him to deliver,
so I was p.o.'ed and off to the P.O. Back at 22Z after line wait to complete
minor assembly and by then dinner was nearly ready. As it turned out I did not
miss that much as my working range was pretty limited through 24Z, IL was even
on the weak side as were W1's which are only 300-400 miles away, so my starting
rate seemed down compared to most years. The same was true the 2nd night.
Fortunately 01Z was better, but still barely reaching TX it seemed. By 0413Z
after nearly 2 hours off I started running on 1845 KHz. The band was finally in
pretty good shape out west except to the Pacific northwest. At 0442Z finally, EU
stations started to call in numbers. I stayed on until 0616Z after a nice run of
mainly distant/DX stations. RK4 was the most distant station worked to the east
and KH6 called in from the west just after his sunrise. I felt like I had been
run through the the heavy duty washer cycle by the time I quit, hard work
sorting out weak EU/west coast through some off the side QRM as well as a Cuban
who decided to try and use the same spot. Over the 2 nights I logged 14 DL's,
most the first night. Conditions seemed a bit better to northern EU vs. south
and British Isles.
Night two can only be described as slow until late with very limited range
early evening. Around 0025Z I started a decent run, but I was out of stations
to work except a few S&P and took a big break at 0130Z. At 0330Z, I found a
clear spot on 1830 and started a really nice run of stations west of the
Mississippi and DX. EU was much easier to copy and would have stayed on later
but was out of callers by 0430Z (one QSO in about 3-4 minutes). One last sweep
for Q's mults from 1830 up turned into very hard work with most DX buried under
very adjacent loud stations. I did find OZ and XE, but most EU were getting
weaker or gone.
I think the 42 DX countries was a personal best or nearly so, I definitely ran
more DX than ever before and most of the domestic/DX mults called me, sweet! P3
called and EU countries worked were CT,CU,DL,E7,EA,EI,EU,F,HA,IT9,LX,LY,OH,OK,
OM,ON,OZ,PA,S5,SM,UA,UA2, and UR. NA DX was C6,CO,HH,HI (called by 2),KP2,V3,
XE and ZF. I was called by a nice tour of SA: FY,CW5 (at least as loud as the
loudest EU),HC, and YV and found PJ2 and HK.
W/VE activity seemed down a bit, but I only missed VO1/2 and BC (nearly always
get one). Thanks for the Q's and hope to be better rested and put in more time
next year. The week prior was not normal thanks to our record 40 inch snow
fall.
73, Jeff
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