[3830] CQWW CW K8CC M/M HP

[k8cc at comcast.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: K8CC
Operator(s): AC8W, K8CC, K8DD, K8JM, NU8Z, W8MJ, W8UA, WD8S, WX3M
Station: K8CC

Class: M/M HP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   55    14       29
   80:  250    25       94
   40:  808    35      131
   20:  947    38      140
   15: 1281    36      144
   10:  968    32      127
------------------------------
Total: 4309   180      665  Total Score = 10,200,840

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Condx very poor on Friday PM.  Raised one JA apiece on 21 and 28 MHz at start
and that was it.  Paths from east to west through north were non-existant after
first hour.  9V1YC and VR2BG would get spotted but we couldn't even hear the
pileup calling them!  THe 28 MHz op was in bed by 0230Z and the 21 MHz op (me)
an hour later.

Condx started to improve on Saturday AM, but both 21 and 28 MHz were slow to
open.  Eventually, both got to be pretty good to EU but 28 closed down early. 
Saturday evening was pretty good on 21 MHz to the Pacific.  Sunday was more or
less a repeat of Saturday with regards to 21/28.  For us, 21 MHz was a big
improvement over last year, while 28 MHz was down a bit on QSOs.

14 MHz was the disappointment of the weekend.  With the band shutting down both
evenings, it limited the opportunity to run up a typical QSO total.  Mults were
about the same; surprising since we only had about 2/3 the QSO total of last
year.

The low bands seemed productive, even though condx seemed to be unimpressive -
improved country totals for us on all three lower bands.  QSOs were up on 40,
flat on 80 and up on 160.  We lost our usual 160m op to a death in his family on
Thursday, so all the ops spent a little time there.

The pileups, fueled by spotting via packet and internet are getting to be
something else.  Even with big antennas, these prove to be huge time wasters. 
And everybody seems to be consumed with an urgency to get thru so they call and
call and call.  Before anybody flames me, I'm sure that K8CC is no better than
anyone else at this, however I think something needs to be done.  Will Internet
spotting be the death of DX contesting?

Nothing broke this time, and we had virtually no computer trouble.  For the
first time ever, the station was ready to go three hours before the contest. 
However, I won't tell you how hard I had to work to get it there - I joke that
the best thing about one of our multi-multis is that everything in the station
gets fixed and the basement gets cleaned :-)

73,

Dave/K8CC


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/