[3830] CQWW CW W6YX M/2 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: W6YX
Operator(s): K6IF,W7SW,N7MH,AA6XV,W6LD
Station: W6YX

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 45.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   16     7        6
   80:   72    18       24
   40:  627    31       89
   20:  603    35      111
   15:  793    34      111
   10:  547    32       87
------------------------------
Total: 2658   157      428  Total Score = 4,281,030

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This was the M/2 equivalent of the Single-op Last-Minute category.  We knew we'd
be getting on the air but didn't have a good idea of who would be operating at
what times.  In the end we had somebody sitting at a radio for all but two and a
half hours and had 2 or more operators for about 24 of the 48 hours.

We didn't work TO4WW on any band.  We tried calling occasionally but it seemed
more productive to find easier mults.  We missed zones 22, 37, and 39 on all
bands.  We only worked zone 12 on 10 meters and we only worked zones 21 and 34
on 20 meters.

We used our 80-meter inverted vee on 160 meters which meant that we couldn't be
on both bands at once.  It's also not a very good antenna for 160 so we didn't
work much there.

On 80 I tried calling 5U5Z between about 0400 and 0530Z on the first day with no
luck.  The second day I waited until 0557Z (just after their sunrise) and got an
answer on the first call.  I heard EY8MM very clearly about 1500Z on the second
day but I didn't hear him respond to any of the zone 3 stations calling,
including us.  A45XR also had a nice signal but I couldn't break the pileup.  I
didn't hear any Europeans on 80, either in the evening or morning.  Maybe we
didn't listen at the right time.

40 meters was great the first evening.  We worked almost everyone we heard
except for LX7I who either had too big a pileup or just wasn't hearing our
signal.  CQing toward EU yielded slower rates than S&P, but we picked up some
mults that answered our CQ including EN1U and LA8XM.  I was very surprised to
have UA3TCJ call at 0845Z with the antenna pointed toward JA, very late morning
for them.  We had QRN on 40 the second evening and signals seemed weaker.  There
was a nice LP opening to EU around 1500Z the second day but we'd already worked
most stations.

20 meters seemed to be open to Europe for the entire contest.  One of the best
openings was late on the second evening with very strong signals from many
stations.  We didn't spend enough time CQing on 20 because we were busy on other
bands.

15 meters was the hottest band from here.  Lots of JA's in the afternoon and
evening and decent EU openings in the morning.  Many strong OH and other
northern EU signals long after the band closed to the rest of EU.

Because all of the other bands were open we probably didn't get to 10 meters
early enough for a good EU opening either day.  On Sunday most EU signals were
very weak, but workable.  We didn't work nearly as many JA's on 10 as on 15, but
most signals were strong.  The normal opening to OH/SM/ES/TF... that we get
around 1930 to 2000Z started much earlier, with 8S2F heard at 1740Z.  The
opening lasted until well past 2000Z with very strong signals and we also worked
several zone 16 stations and UA9AYA for our only zone 17.  We hope this opening
is equally good for the 10-meter contest in a couple of weeks.

-Mike, N7MH


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