CQWW WPX Contest, SSB
Call: WX3B
Operator(s): WX3B WR3R K1RH N8IVN N8II K3AJ K3WI NH7C KB3LLS KK4ODQ N3SB
Station: WX3B
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Maryland
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs
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160: 64
80: 482
40: 1274
20: 2005
15: 1994
10: 266
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Total: 6085 Prefixes = 1481 Total Score = 24,012,934
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
What a fantastic way to spend the weekend, with good friends (and family!!) at
the WX3B Chateau in rural Taneytown, Maryland. A special shout-out goes out to
Iron Man Gary, WR3R, who was the only other full time WX3B operator in this
event this year. Takes a special man to stay up all night on the noisy 80
meter band, and still have energy to operate after 2:00pm on the high bands!!
This was a bad week for pre-contest injuries. My healing wishes go out to our
team regular Ted WA3AER who is recovering from an unexpected stumble on a
stairway several days prior to the contest, and to Bill K3WI’s YL Kathleen
who also had a similar incident….fortunately both are recovering slowly but
surely.
A major tradition for this contest is our Pre-contest dinner and social event;
this year was definitely the best I can remember in terms of the company and
the quality of food. Chef Elizabeth (My wife) gets the credit for the food -
she spent many hours shopping and preparing the food and it carried us for the
entire weekend. It also helped that many of the guests brought side dishes,
drinks and treats. It was a WX3B feast to remember, and for those of you that
like soapbox pictures, please visit my Facebook page titled “Team WX3B”.
I would categorize our effort as a Multi-two and a half, (K3WI coined that
phrase) as there were usually two active operators, and one ‘floater’
trying to make points on a 3rd band…at times. There were two night-time
operators, causing us to ignore 20 & 160 during some time they could have
been productive.
Band conditions were observed as follows:
10m: Nothing happening at all until Saturday afternoon….and Tom K3AJ was
there to grab the prefixes. Sunday was much better �" however we are
mourning the loss of European propagation. Fortunately the band blew wide open
with Pacific, west coast, and loud South American stations, and mid-west USA
backscatter on Sunday afternoon. I felt a single vertical or dipole would have
been an excellent diversity antenna.
15m: I give the band an A+ for European propagation. In fact, there was more
propagation than there were stations to work. The band stayed open after
everyone abandoned it and this was obvious by the occasional loud Europeans
calling in and spotting us long after our rate dried up. This year, however,
there was no juicy JA run that followed and it wasn’t until Sunday night that
the JA big guns were close to S9 on 15 meters. Bill K3WI noticed the band
opened late Saturday but after it did he wasted no time putting about 500 QSOs
in the log and departing shortly after 10:00am, giving me a solid run for
several hours. Rob K1RH and Michele KB3LLS enjoyed several hours of lively 15
meter propagation Sunday. Jeff N8II took over on Sunday morning and rocked and
rolled his way up to almost 2,000 QSOs.
20m: I always forget how great this band is at this time of year with this
contest. With 10 meters being dead in the morning, there was actually more
activity on 20 than I expected during the daylight hours. Signals were good,
and Asians were calling in with the Europeans. 20 was the most fun to hear the
operators run, because I would hear a bunch of European call signs followed by
“Who’s the Hotel Sierra Zero???” “Victor Uniform Two???” Good
openings to the middle-east also yielded some nice prefixes….and the band is
open to the entire USA….and to VK land longpath during the EU opening which
lasted long past sunset. Unfortunately, the 24 hour European opening that we
started getting used to has suffered from the lower sunspot numbers. This was
the first time I can remember exceeding 2,000 QSOs on any single band in the
contest �" our 20m team, including Sunday’s visit by Dennis N8IVN did
extremely well!
40m: I felt the band had even more noise than usual, with weaker signals from
Europe during our gray line (sunset). Our score was similar to previous years.
The Saturday morning Asian and Oceania stations were loud and I enjoy that
early morning DXing. There is some nice equipment on loan on 40 meters thanks
to K3WI. Nick KK4ODQ had his second focused operation on 40m….his first was
at N3HBX. Can you imagine the difference between 4/4 on a 200’ tower and 2
elements at 55 feet? Nick can!! Nick did a good job with my limited hardware
on 40m Friday night. K3AJ, NH7C and WR3R did well on 40 Saturday night.
80m: I spent the least amount of time on 80m this year and noticed that unlike
other years, running EU was practically impossible between the hours of 8:00pm
and 10:00pm when I listened…and even running USA didn’t happen with my
normal 3.805 TX and listening on two frequencies. Somehow WR3R, K3AJ and NH7C
managed to get nearly 500 QSOs out of that band, and a measurable percentage
were Europeans. A big thank you to Sid NH7C for his amplifier loan on 80
meters, it puts out gobs of power…with low drive. Gary reported success
working VKs ZLs and other Pacific stations, as well as having several
productive short runs of 6 pointers throughout the weekend…and he even
reported hearing one JA!
160m: The ignored band at WX3B. Funny thing, I read that N4YDU had a
mini-run of Europe Saturday night �" which makes me wonder what we might
have missed. In a few years, 160 will have more than 100 QSOs…I know Gary
WR3R and Tom K3AJ did take turns on the band and we managed several European
and other DX QSOs. Next year I am going to relocate the European receive
beverage so there is more spacing between the 80m North East TX vertical and
that RX antenna �" and this should help us hear better on 160.
Steve Beckman N3SB and Martha enjoyed their 2nd year of ‘couples
contesting’ at WX3B and took the lead-off operating assignment on 15 meters
Friday night.
Steve Sluz NY3A and Chantal did not operate this year; however they were seen
socializing and exchanging stories with N3SB, John AK3Z and Martha.
We were pleased to break 24 million points at the end of the contest,
particularly with 10 meters retiring from prime time. A hearty thank you goes
out to all of you that called us, spotted us and cheered us on in this great
event.
Very 73,
Jim Nitzberg WX3B
Selected Soapbox reports from WX3B Operators
WR3R Gary
First and foremost, thanks to you and Elizabeth for hosting us at your
home/antenna farm. What a great time seeing old and new faces, exchanging ham
updates and info, operating, and of "course", enjoying the unreal
courses of food, all weekend! If anyone left hungry, it was their own
fault!!!
Operating highlights for me on 80 - 10 mtrs include:
-- On 80 meters it is always great to find the stations in the Pacific. A VK
showed up the first night and we promptly worked him. The second night, I
heard a ZL working someone else, and thought I missed him but a short while
later I found a clear frequency, called CQ, and he came right back to me. Then
about 10 minutes later, for good measure, another ZL that was a new multiplier
came right back to me as well!!! I could faintly hear a JA, but it was not to
be; have to leave that one for 2017. And of course, KH6J, was really LOUD!!
-- On 40 meters about 5 AM local time, I had a great VK run. Must have been 7
- 10 in a row. The 40 meter VK pipeline is alive and well!
-- On 20 meters, I had never worked so many TAs. Many had good signals, but
several times when I was struggling to make out a call out of the pileup, I
would just ask for the TA to call again, and sure enough, another one would
come to the surface!
--- On 15 meter, it is amazing how long the EUs kept coming in the afternoon.
I would work some and then have a dry spell, thinking the band was shifting.
Then BAM, another pileup of EUs came calling. Fun to say the least!
-- On 10 meters, thank goodness for all the SA stations that were on Sunday.
Very, very few EUs, but that looks like the name of the game for the next few
years.
I do have to thank all the spotters. Many times, especially on 75 meters,
when I would have a nice run, it was often due to a spot. Stateside, EU or
even KH6J!
Thanks again and hope all the other ops had as much fun as I did.
Best 73s and contesting, Gary WR3R
K3AJ Tom
Variety was the name of the game playing at WX3B for this one. There was plenty
of opportunity to run 'em on 40M and 20M during my shifts. As propagation
declines, it looks like desperate times require desperate measures. It was
interesting to root out 50 or so SA stations on 10M Saturday afternoon by good
old fashioned tuning. Never got a single response to CQ's, and there weren't
many spots. But there were still stations to work if you tuned. Similarly, when
the JA run failed to materialize late Saturday, pointing S proved to be
productive. The common wisdom that it's a waste of time to try to run SA may be
true when EU or JA is available, but what do you do when they are not? The
result was a reasonably productive hour or so at about a 50-60 rate till that
dried up.
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