[3830] CQWW RTTY AA5AU SOAB LP

[aa5au at bellsouth.net]

                     CQ/RJ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
                    
Call: AA5AU
Operator(s): AA5AU
Station: AA5AU

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: LA
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band     QSOs   Pts  States   DX   Zones
------------------------------------------
   80:     97    122     35     12     10
   40:    184    304     42     40     17
   20:    606   1280     54     84     28
   15:    601   1282     51     92     35
   10:    400    937     44     73     24
------------------------------------------
Total:   1888   3925    226    301    114  =  2,515,925

Club/Team: 

Comments:

Barry, W2UP, and I engaged in a friendly 1-on-1 battle this year in SO LP.  
Barry won as expected, but I had him worried early Sunday when I was nearly 200 
QSO's ahead of him.  However, as the bands turned sour Sunday, so did my 
chances of beating him.  I watched helplessly as he ran European stations on 
20M Sunday afternoon when I couldn't even hear them.  His geographic advantage 
was the deciding factor.  Congrats to him on a SUPER effort!  I think the 
competition pushed us both to greater heights.

I increased my score a half million points over last year - that is dramatic.  
It was one of the most fun contests I've ever operated although this year's WPX 
RTTY is still tops in my book.  My 1888 QSO's are an all-time high for me in 
ANY contest as single-op (we had 2222 QSO's from P40RY as MS in '92 CQWW RTTY).

There are two things that I will remember most in this year's contest.  The 
first one is the hellacious run of EU and JA I had on 20M starting at 2 am 
local time (0700Z) that lasted two hours.  I had finished up on 80 and switched 
that radio to 20 for a last look around before taking some much needed rest.  
Friday morning before the contest I woke up with a stye in my right eye.  It 
had swollen nearly shut by Saturday night and was hurting quite a bit by then.  
I was dog tired, but wanted to check 20M one last time.  The band was full of 
LOUD European signals.  I called CQ on 14094 and instantly had a pileup going 
with sometimes 3-5 calling.  By 3 am local time, I began wondering when the 
band was going to die.  At 0815Z, an hour and 15 minutes into the run, I CQ'd 
with no response.  Had the band died?  Can I go to bed now???

One more CQ and BANG - JA's calling me.  Oh wow, here we go again, JA after JA, 
but that lasted only about 15 minutes, then more EU.  At 0830Z, I was wondering 
if I was going to have to work the rest of the contest with no sleep.  I was 
bound and determined not to rest until the band died.  What if it stayed open 
'til sunrise?  Both JA and EU now calling all mixed in.  I put the beam due 
north over the pole to split the difference.  JA is exactly NW and EU is 
exactly NE from my QTH.  I shut off the other radio, reached into my ice chest 
and applied ice to my swollen right eye.  With one hand, I worked the pileup 
while dripping cold water from the melting ice all over my face and chest.  
Someone should have had a camera!  The ice helped and the eye was better 
Sunday.

Finally at 0900, I went 3 or 4 CQ's with no answer, but I could sense nearby 
signals, so I took a quick tour of the band to find that indeed, signals had 
diminished with only the EU big guns coming through, so a finally pulled the 
plug for a 2 hour nap.  Whew!

The other memorable happening was my contact with TR8CA on 10M on Sunday.  When 
I came across the pileup, I couldn't hear him.  I was using my lower A3S that 
is fixed at 20 degrees.  I switched antennas with the 15M radio and as I swung 
it due east I started hearing him but it was difficult because the pileup was 
huge and vicious.  I didn't call, I watched a minute to see what was happening 
when I saw someone send "28117" two times.  Since he was working station after 
station without any affect from the pileup and rude callers, I figured out he 
was operating split!  He was on 28094.8 and I listened at 28117 but didn't hear 
anyone calling.  That was because the band was crap on Sunday.  I was lucky 
just to hear TR8CA.  I called 3 or 4 times and he came back to me.  It must 
have freaked out the rest of the pileup that a Low Power station would make it 
through.  Hopefully they figured it out that he was split. hi

One other thing that I hope I remember that was a big lesson for me was to 
check the difference in signals between my higher A3S at 62 ft. and my lower 
A3S at 45 ft.  Normally when I run 10 and 15 meters at the same time, I'll put 
the higher antenna on 10M and the lower antenna on 15M.  They just seem to 
"play" better that way.  About an hour or so after my restart Sunday, the bands 
seem extremely bad and I had trouble copying just about anyone.  When I needed 
the higher antenna on 15M (the higher antenna is rotatable, the lower is not) 
for a multiplier, I noticed that all of sudden I could copy much better.  The 
noise was lower and signals were much better.  I guess that is expected of a 
higher antenna, but then I put the fixed antenna on 10M and also noticed the 
signals were much stronger and clearer.  Wow!  I wish I had looked at that 
earlier.  A lesson learned.

All in all it was a great contest.  I want to thank everyone who worked me and 
especially those that moved to other bands for me.  I didn't have much success 
moving people, I waited to do that on Sunday and the bands were poor.

I'm hoping for 3rd place World Low Power behind P40MM and W2UP.  That was my 
expectation before the contest, so I'm happy with my results.  See you JARTS!

73, Don AA5AU

 




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