[3830] WAE CW N8II Single Op LP

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                    WAE DX Contest, CW

Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): ~16

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  QTCs  Mults
-------------------------
   80:   24          12
   40:  126          28
   20:  326          42
   15:   32          18
   10:    0           0
-------------------------
Total:  520   519   100  Total Score = 261,828

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

No new incidents of catostrphic failures occured this week after water
 line leak under my paved driveway and failure of central air conditioner
 in June.  But as usual after 5 days at work, I wasn't full of energy.
 Apparently the Europeans weren't either as 20 was pretty well open to
 most of Eu at the start, but very few stations could be run. By 0035Z, I
 was down on 40 M where things were only slightly better, but I did have
 one really good "packet induced run" for about 10 minutes at the bottom
 of the band. The whole contest, finding a very clear frequency for CQ'ing
 with low power was never a problem. Activity just was never that good.
 Getting ANSWERED was the problem. Sigs were quite good on 40 both nights,
 but QRN took out the very bottom tier of callers both nights. On 80, the
 first night acitivty/conditions never seemed better than poor, I made
 about 4 Q's.
   Saturday morning (1130Z) found a few big sigs from the big guns, but
 the little guys were by and large not hearing my CQ's. 15M opened mid-
 morning, but never to a large area of Eu or with great sigs, only the
 CU's and CT7T were loud. It was obvious some Es was present with strong
 sigs from VY2 and W1, so I gave 10M a listen several times late morning
 and early afternoon. The closest I came to a QSO was hearing a weak 
 German answer VY2; CQ's were useless as was the case on 15M. By the
 end of the opening on 15M, I had CQ'ed a total of about 10 minutes with
 1 answer. The other 31 Q's were all S&P and slow rate, but the 18 
 mults were worth it. Saturday afternoon (after 18Z) was frustrating 
 with very few casual ops answering my CQ's. Sigs were OK however, but
 by 2315Z the band had almost closed. I did get EA6 and IT9 with good
 sigs then in S&P mode. The rate was good on 40 from 2335 til about
 0030Z (sunset was 0010Z) when I ran out of callers/fresh meat S&P.
 Quite a few casual ops did find me on 40M. 80M was open pretty well
 with seasonal loud QRN level by 02Z and even about 3 hearty souls 
 heard my CQ's for a total of 12 important countries. Thanks to the
 guys who stuck with me to pull out the NR, noteably IO3P who took
 about 3 minutes.
   The whole day Sunday during NA daytime, I added only 120 Q's quitting
 for family get together at 21Z. Condx were definitely down in the early
 morning with the big gun Eu's starting to come thru at 1145Z. 2 days
 later 20 M was wide open by 1110Z. There were more casual ops around,
 thank goodness, by afternoon, or I would have bagged it altogether.
   Hats off to the weak Eu's who heard my 100W and copied my QTC's well
 under marginal condx. This was a tough test with the low flux and low
 activity; I won't be back LP til condx improve.


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