CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: KU2M
Operator(s): KU2M
Station: KU2M
Class: SOSB15 HP
QTH: Wayne, NJ
Operating Time (hrs): 25
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20:
15: 1583 32 119
10:
------------------------------
Total: 1583 32 119 Total Score = 687,805
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
DR. STRANGERUN, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE DUPES
I used to be an authoritarian keeping track of the stations that mercilessly
called me in the middle of a busy run, two, three, and sometime four times on
the same band in the same contest. I mean, good grief - just what is going on
with them? Is it too much schnaps? I used to mutter to myself, as I strained to
copy the coat-hangers-in-the-flower-pot-antenna people calling in while 9A1QRO,
40 over nine and with key clix no less challenged my receiver's passband
rejection. This year, however, it was time to relax and just go with the flow,
and I finally realized (duh) that it takes less time to log a dupe than to send
the usual "QSO B4" message over and over again to people who don't
understand what you're trying to tell them in the first place, and anyway, it
makes sense that if they're calling you again, assuming that rigor mortis hasn't
set in (sometimes I imagine their CW hand still wiggling after the rest of them
has gone stiff and crossed over to the great pileup in the sky), they either got
your call wrong the first time or didn't have you in their log, so either way,
it's like insurance... and geez, it took me this long to figure this out? (OK,
cut me some slack, will ya?)
Anyway... condx were pretty good though not great, in that there was a modest
opening to JA. Nobody out there was loud, but at least I logged a few dozen
QSOs. Nothing much else except for the two KH2s that showed up both nights and
7A2A, who I shouldn't have worked through the western wall of kilowatts, but
somehow got through during a quiet moment when he wasn't being called by anybody
west of Hudson River. The JA opening is critical to being able to compete with
the guys further south and west, and years that we get ZERO prop to JA (like
last year), I understand the meaning of futility and realize that I should have
just done chores around the house and catch up on some movie watching instead of
wasting my time on 15 meters. However, this year there was a bizarre nighttime
opening to JA and YB, and had I not been able to work 7A2A earlier on Saturday
night before the band went dead, that may have been the difference. But BY in
any quantity greater than ZERO during CQWW CW? Fahgeddaboudit. What, are you
kidding? Where do you think New Jersey is? Well, one may have shown up before
the band shriveled up and blipped off into nothingness, but as I was running
unassisted, who knows. As the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld might have said had he
been a ham (could be a routine in my next ham contest film, "To Lose the
World"), "NO ZONE 24 FOR YOU!"
Yes, this is the KU2M Triangle, and most years we victims who live in it are
thankful if any JAs at all can be worked. But Zone 24, 26, etc. around sunset is
usually only possible during the Phone test. Fact is, there's little or no prop
that far into East Asia in November except in rare years when the solar storms
stay away and the sunspot numbers go off the charts, and as usual this year, the
band was belly up at 6 PM local time, and that's too early. We can sometimes
work some SE Asia in the mornings, but only when conditions are exceptional, and
that wasn't the case this year. And anyway, if the HSs etc had been around, they
couldn't get through all the European dupes I was working. But on the brighter
side, I was very happy to hear all those nice mults in the Indian Ocean show
up... and I think it was the first time I worked 3B8, 3B9, 5R8 and FR7 in the
same afternoon.
All in all, can't complain, but... wouldn't it be nice if we folks in the
northern latitudes had a little more daylight after the Equinox?
Yeah, I know... dream on.
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