CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: SOSB15 LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 17
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15:
10:
------------
Total: 529 Prefixes = 394 Total Score = 431,430
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Conditions sounded pretty good at the start, 4 EU logged including OG6, KL7RA
booming in, NH2DX S8-9 and easily worked. But there was auroral buzz on some NA
stations and VE9AA was pure buzz/hash; I called Mike who was S8 and he seemed to
be ignoring my auroral signal. Later the next day we worked with no problem.
Several Aussies with 2x1 contest calls had good signals and Hawaii was booming
in as were some SA stations. Skip was long to the states (as it was most of the
weekend), but W6/7's were nice and loud. I finished the evening at 0209Z with 84
Q's and some nice mults. The west coast had faded out right before 02Z.
The price to pay for the solar storm was Saturday into EU, pretty rock bottom
miserable condx especially compared to the last 10 days with no signals to speak
of from outside the Med area or just north. The solar flux was barely above 100
after topping 170 about 10 days before! There was AM sporadic E in almost all
directions with the skip zone not that short which I should have pursued more
intently rather than trying for a few EU mults/Q's as well. By 16Z most of the
Es was gone. Around 16Z EU signals improved with a few farther north/west going
into the log but low volume/activity; A71 had a nice nice signal at 1746Z and I
also worked 5B4. The band was more or less closed to EU by 1815Z. I did pretty
well overall with the hand I was dealt operating off and on through the day and
running a decent number of W6/7's along with S&P. After a break at 20Z,
JH0ZHQ was easily logged with a big signal, but few other JA's were operating as
it was very early in their morning. Around 21Z more JA's showed up, but condx
were not as good. By 2215Z the JA's seemed almost gone, but I was rewarded with
an easy QSO with BA4TB S8 at 2227Z.
The 23Z hour was simply wild and crazy with the band open in most all directions
and most importantly to East Asia. I had not used any spots until 2254Z, glad I
succumbed as it was too much to keep with so many directions. Some of the mults
worked in chrono order were: ZL4(2255Z) LN8 SN2 EC4 JA6 7K4 JF3 JI1 BG5 OH1 3D2
DU3 ZL3 OG3 JA8 E21 BD7DX(S9+!,loudest Chinese) JS2 BG1 JH4 JG1 TO3(Martinique).
In the 00Z hour I added: VK4 ZL1 HL5 VJ5 JA7 VK5 DS4. Most JA's were too weak to
work by 00Z, just a whisper.
Sunday morning 15 was starting to open to EU at 12Z; my sunrise is about 0950Z.
By 13Z after helping XYL with morning routine, the band was actually crowded for
the first time with EU signals. But, I only managed 44 Q's that hour, should
have CQ'ed less searched more. Just before 14Z signals levels seemed to plummet
from EU and again there were many spaces where there were no EU/NA signals. It
was very tedious from that point forward to find new Q's. Some EU signals were
quite loud from 1730-2000Z, but the activity level was pretty low especially
after 19Z.
The band never opened to the Baltic Republics (ES9C was too weak to hear me) or
opened very well to Scandinavia (except very late Saturday) despite a decent
opening to UN9/UP2/UP0 in the AM (only worked UN9).
My operating was was interrupted quite a bit Sunday by chores and food prep for
family picnic Sunday evening. The WX was perfect for the outdoors around 80F
with low humidity. My last QSO was HG22TISZA at 2008Z, a fitting end for the WPX
contest. Most ops did a good job copying numbers and I did fine for the most
part copying those 1000 Q and up numbers. It was not a panacea for LP operating.
Several times I struggled to get my number through, the op copied correctly with
a ?, then I sent RR TU, followed by confusion on the other end with wrong
guesses because the op didn't copy the RR, pretty frustrating! Also, a well know
famous west coast op again was sending an endless repeating CQ sequence and not
listening at all for any replies for over 40 seconds. Please don't do this! I
can see 1 or 2 unattended CQ's, but not any longer.
Thanks for the calls Q's and 73, Jeff
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