Great!
What a contest! I assume everyone enjoyed it?
I had a somewhat busy Friday, even though I had taken the day off to
prepare, and to get a few of those household chores out of the way, and it
seemed as though everything happened at once, and all late in the day! Oh
well.
I started out with the aim of beating last years score of 480Q's, 480k
points, with 366 mults. After thinking about it, I decided that was a little
vague, so I decided upon 500 Q's and 500k points.
Got up later than planned on Saturday morning, but we had a frost here, and
the warm bed won an extra hour!
Started on 80m just after sunrise, and actually saw ZL2AMI in S&P mode, so
went and called CQ. I was extremely happy to see him call me, and we worked
easily, with no repeats needed.
I was so happy that I could have easily called it a day there and then! ZL
on 80m for me was pure pleasure! If only you could see my small inverted L,
with the horizontal part only about 5 - 6m above the ground, hemmed in by
granite walls, you would realise how pleased I am!
I didn't call it a day, but carried on, and spent most of Saturday S&P,
picking out the mults. I had to pack in about 2100 UTC as I just couldn't
stay awake and concentrate, but I ended with 250 in the log, and 249 mults.
I got up around the same time on Sunday, and was in the shack just after
0700. Did the same and checked 80m for any close mults, such as G, ON, PA
etc, that I can't always work on 40 or 20, but instead, I found Dean 8P2K
calling, and that was another new band slot for me! TNX Dean!
The rest of the day was spent CQ'ing as much as possible, interspersed with
bouts of S&P, trying to pick up the extra mults. Here, 15m was very poor,
and didn't really net me much in the way of mults, only extra QSO's with
folk I had already worked.
I had a couple of occasions of blatant frequency stealing, most of which
made me QSY. I also had the usual habit of a few stations that work me, and
then sit about 150Hz up from me, in the hope of catching whatever DX calls
me.
I don't have a problem with changes in propagation that happen, making one
or both realise there is a battle for space, but on more than one occasion,
I heard QRL? then a one second break, followed by a CQ. I didn't even have
time to hit a key to say yes!
20m was certainly getting a hammering! I worked from 14052 up to 14137, and
there was one comment on the cluster that amused me! It said something about
being so high up it was "nosebleed area".
I found 5N8NDP calling CQ on 20m at one point, but I don't think he realised
there was a contest, and after I called him a few times, he just went.
By around 2100UTC on Sunday evening, I decided to call it a day, as I had
exceeded my target for Q's and points, but missed out on the prefixes!
I was pleased to add quite a few new band-slots, ZL2AMI, 8P2K, and T77CD on
80m, EK9WA on 15m, which I know about, but it seems that I also have 2 new
ones on 40m!
One thought about WPX rules............... I wonder how much the rule about
mults count once, not per band, made folk sit on 20m and not bother with 15?
Highlights: Working Bob ZL2AMI and Dean 8P2K on 80m, but also working Dick
KS0M, and Bob VE6YR on 20m, as that isn't an easy path for me. I am
surprised at how many times I have worked VE6YR since the cycle declined!
Lowlights: Not many really, apart from those who try to muscle you off your
frequency, and the idiots who send QSY QSY over and over in CW on 40m.
Band QSOs Pts
-----------------
80: 60 250
40: 136 566
20: 324 771
15: 23 62
10: 0 0
-----------------
Total: 543 1649 Prefixes = 351 Total Score = 578,799
My log is now on LoTW!
Thanks to all for the points, and the great fun!
73 for now
Phil GU0SUP
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