WAE DX Contest, CW
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 31
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
80: 1 0 1
40: 67 0 29
20: 320 393 45
15: 44 40 26
10: 0 0 0
-------------------------
Total: 432 433 101 Total Score = 201,545
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
My second time in WAE CW, running low power again. Unlike last year I didn't
have a forced break during the prime evening time opening on 20/40 so I was
able to operate both evenings.
Conditions on 40 were much better than last year and I worked more than twice
as many mults. Worked TM6M on 80 and didn't hear any other EU stations on 80
the few times I listened. The rate on 20 had slowed by 0530 on the first
evening so I left to go home and sleep.
When I returned at 1300 I could hear some US stations but no EU until some of
the EU big guns I'd worked the previous evening began to be audible. Then at
1330 I finally heard and worked some new stations on 20. I tried running but
only had a handful of answers during the daytime.
15 meters on Saturday seemed to be spotlight propagation with at most 2 or 3
new EU callsigns heard when I revisited the band. Signals were weak and no one
was brave enough to ask me for any QTCs.
I went home for an hour on Saturday for lunch but ended up watching the
Olympics with my wife and was off for almost 3 hours. Rates were 8 per hour
before and after this extended break so I probably didn't miss much unless 15
opened better during this period.
Rates picked up in the evening but it was hard to find anyone new to work at
first so I scanned 20 for loud stations to whom I could send QTCs. When I was
asked to repeat a QTC callsign for a S570ABC QSO I realized that it had been
sent with the letter "O" instead of the digit zero. I sent the
corrected call and then changed the QSO to match. The corrected QSO was now a
dupe since I'd already worked S570ABC before clicking on a bad packet spot with
the "O". That explains why I have more QTCs than QSOs. I assume DARC
will remove the extra QTC but left it in the log for the receiving station to
get credit.
A few minutes before 0600 I switched to 15 meters and noticed several signals
on the band. I called OG2P and got his exchange but he was off in one digit of
my serial number so not sure he logged the QSO. I also called OG55W, RC5A and
RT4F but none of them heard my low power signal before they faded out. There
were several loud Middle East stations - A6, A9, 4X, 9K, P3. It would have been
nice to have this late night opening during the All Asian CW contest.
I stayed up until close to 0730 when I was getting too sleepy to continue even
though there was a slow rate of new stations coming to 20. It made me wonder
whether there was a good late night opening that I missed both days. When I
returned at 1330 there were signals on 20 but not much new and most Europeans
were weak.
15 meters finally opened after 1500 and I switched between 15 and 20 for the
next several hours. Signals were much stronger on 15 and QTC exchanges were
successful despite my misgivings about propagation fading in the middle of a
sequence. Nothing was heard on 10 during regular checks of the band. I turned
off the radios with a half hour left as I'd only made 2 Q's in the previous
half hour.
Congrats to my west coast low power competition. I regularly heard both K6XX
and W7RM (K2PO) in pileups and their serial numbers were always close to my QSO
count. Log checking will likely determine who comes out on top as I logged
several Q's requiring multiple serial number repeats where I doubled with the
other station and couldn't tell for sure whether the Q was confirmed or given
up.
73,
-Mike, N7MH
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