CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: W6QU
Operator(s): W8QZA
Station: W8QZA
Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: San Diego, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 20.0
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
-----------------------------------
80: 14 7 2 2
40: 58 24 6 7
20: 107 30 26 21
15: 69 14 20 16
10: 11 3 8 7
-----------------------------------
Total: 259 78 62 53 Total Score = 93,991
Club: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
STATION W8QZA:
Radio: Yaesu FT-817, 5 Watts
Antennas:
10-15-20 Meters: 3 el Stepp-IR up 32 feet
40 Meters: DX-LB trap dipole up 30 feet
40-80 Meters: Butternut HF-2V Vertical with 3 radials
-------------------------------------------------------
Well, after 28 years of contesting I finally got hit with a catastrophic
failure during a contest. At 05:30 Z into the second day I went to bed and got
up 3 hours later at 2 AM only to find that my super reliable FT-817 had
developed a problem where it transmits about 100 cycles off the tuned
frequency. This happened a year ago and I fixed it by turning the rig off and
then back on. But not this time. After a few hours of scratching my head I
finally had to give up. So only 20 hours of op time instead of 30+.
The thing that salvaged this contest for me was that I managed to work JT5DX on
20 M finally giving me WAZ on RTTY (QRP). It has taken me several years to get
this last zone, so I was quite delighted with that!
Other good Qs for me were 5T5OK who I found at the top of 20 with no callers.
Also E6AG on 10 and 15 M, and a zone 18 and VR20CC on 20. I also got TF2R which
is a rare zone 40 in a contest for me.
DXCC in this abbreviated contest was only 34 but WAZ was 24 which was the same
as last year's full effort. Only 38% of my Qs were off continent and only 8 Qs
into Europe, all consistent with the bottom of the cycle. I almost never CQ in
DX contests and this was no exception.
So now I have to get this FT-817 repaired. I use it for all digital work,
...and I was just starting to get good at FT-8 !!
Well, I'll be seeing you in CQ WWDX SSB in a month. I use the K-2 for that and
I've never had problems with that! .....but that is what I said about the
FT-817 before this misadventure!
73, Bill W8QZA - W6QU
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|