CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2021
Call: ON3DI
Operator(s): ON3DI
Station: ON3DI
Class: SOAB LP
QTH:
Operating Time (hrs): 31
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 179
40: 350
20: 354
15: 130
10: 35
------------
Total: 1048 Prefixes = 496 Total Score = 928,016
Club: Italian Contest Club
Comments:
Hi everybody
I had some goals set before the contest:
1. making QSO number 40000 in my career.
2. making more then 750 qso's in a day, what is my personal record in one day.
3. making more then 1300 qso's in 1 contest what would also be a personal
record.
4. working Wyoming, still miss that state.
Am someone who needs some targets, makes it more fun... Anyway decided soon in
the year that I would do all band and low power, not QRP. Low power means with
my license 25w. Reason why I did all band is when you made the choice for a
single band and the conditions are not good, more difficult in the mind to do
all band for the rest of the contest, call it a bit autistic. Practised cw a lot
the last months with morse runner, had fun with it. So wanted to see what I was
worthed.
Anyway, weeks before the contest my dad and I had to do some antenna
reparations. The dipole for 80m needed to be replaced and also on the verticals
was some work. Enjoyed the time to do the reparations, learned a lot. In
covidtimes, it was qualitytime with my dad. Happy that I could convince my dad
to make another antenna for 20m. We have a (multiband) vertical for 20m, SWR
isn't that good. Last year I made 580 qso's QRP on 20m but had the feeling that
I worked to less close Europe during cq ww cw on 20m so I wanted an antenna
upgrade. The bad news the day before the contest was that I lost the vertical
for 10m, so I had to rely on the mutiband vertical. Nevertheless I was happy
with the my antennas, thought that would be enough to get my goals.
An hour before the contest everything was set, everything worked. After 10min in
the contest, N1MM was keying again my call or my serial number wrong. Had that
problem in the past and knew that this is a interface problem compared to
windows updates. Did the same things as in the past but now the interface
program said that I had to connect my interface, but everything was put in
place, the program didn't recognised my interface anymore... Thought I went
crazy... Didn't found the solution soon. Did a reinstall but that wasn't a
help... Tried different things. After some frustrating time I found out that a
had to update the drivers. Finally I was back in business, important time that I
lost, normally my best hours in the contest... Wanted to worked USA on 20m on
the start, bang gone...
The first 3 hours I had an average of 50qso's/h, happy with that. The new dipole
for 80m worked great, USA and VE were logged. The first 10 hours the rates was
between 25 and 58 qso's. Have done it worse. The plan wasn't to focus on nice
(DX) qso's but on the amount. Must say that I was curious on the conditions on
15m and 10m. 10m wasn't really open, honestly was sometimes surprised that
stations heard me, they were self so weak. On 15m was it nice to work WW1X and
PT5T as DX.
But Saturdayafternoon I went sick, heavy stomachissues, not my first rodeo but
couldn't eat or drink and quite 'lethal' during a contest with less sleep. After
550 qso's on saturday I felt that I needed rest and around 19utc I went to bed,
way to early but had the feeling that I had no choice. Wanted to sleep a bit
(5h) and be qrv till the end... Around 0utc I was awake before my alarm, the way
out of my bed wasn't to the shack but somewhere else if you know what I mean...
So I went back to my bed and knew I had to forget the goals the that I had set
before the contest.
Around 5utc I was awake, feeling ok and went back to the radio. Hoped that there
was still some live on 80m and indeed had a pile-up, also on 40m. 1300qso's was
out of reach but 1k qso's maybe not. I called a lot of cq even on 15m and had
more respons then expected, happy with that! I was feeling ok but the later in
the afternoon/evening the worse I felt. Hadn't eat much, definitly the last
hours were hard. Handling pile-ups were challenging, had it hard to focus, so
sorry to the guys who had to repeat their call and serial numbers. Like I said,
I like goals and felt that the 1k qso's were coming closer and honestly the goal
was 1048 qso's, 1048 because that was qso number 40000 in my career, a new
milestone. Around a half hour before the end I worked OR5T, Xavier and he was
qso number 1048. Happy it was with him. He likes to contest, is a good cw
operator and he is someone who supports me all the time, so tnx Xavier! Didn't
had the energy to do the last half hour...
Summary:
1. Did I get all my goals? No, pitty enough not. 1300 will be for another time,
I know it is possible when the conditions are better, my shape is better and I
know now that I have the antennas to do it. It was nice that California came
back at my qso on the 20m dipole! Had more then 750 qso's on 24 hours, but I
would like to have once more then 750 qso's on just a Saturday. And Wyoming will
be for another time. Bob K8IA said that K9DR would be active and he was but not
on the time I was qrv.
2. Except for 10m, on the other bands (more then) then half of the qso's are
running. With 25w and limited antennas it is possible! And love to call CQ ;-)
3. Worked to less DX compared to other stations but I knew that, partly depends
on the fact that I was sick when 40m was opeen to USA, but also because I have
no beam... So knows that all this has an effect on the score but like I said,
the focus was on amount, not quality.
4.Top countries: DL 124 I 75 OK 66 K 59 SP 55 UA and HA 54.
5. Enjoyed to worked some friends and also some Belgians like ON6NL, ON4CT, OR5T
and OQ5M on 5 bands. Worked severall guys on 5 bands, happy with that!
6. Missed qso was with HV0A, pile-ups were to big, but respect for the operator.
He sticked with calls!
7. Tnx for the spots (or5t, ta2se, s58y, m3awd and iz8jfl)!
Would like to thank my parents for everything they have done, like always they
are a big support for me!
See you during IARU HF all band CW like last year!
73
Pieter ON3DI
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