[3830] WPX CW 8P7A(W2SC) SOAB HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: 8P7A
Operator(s): W2SC
Station: 8P7A

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Barbados
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   26
   40:  893
   20: 1049
   15: 1298
   10:  443
------------
Total: 3709  Prefixes = 913  Total Score = 11,121,253

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This year’s WPX was intended to be a low stress affair.  Since my younger
daughter wanted to return to Barbados before heading off to college, this was a
chance to lug down all the broken gear I repaired since the Post-Valentines Day
massacre of an ARRL DX contest, where I lost 4 amps, a radio and a rotor.  My
goals were to get the stuff there, test it, and operate, in that order.

Fortunately, all the antennas and rotors were working fine when I arrived on
Thursday afternoon and I set up the station that evening.  All was ready on
Friday morning and my wife, daughter and I went to the beach.

The contest got off to a good start but started to slow down so I took some off
time.  I wanted to be on for sunrise since it was nearly a perfect grey line to
Japan.  The result was a massive JA pileup that was hard to manage with the
summertime noise levels.  After the sun came up, it was a long time until the
high bands were runnable.  With sunrise at about 930Z, I did not have a good
hour until 14Z.  However, once 15 became runnable the rates were very good and I
was shocked to have a solid 10 meter opening that, although not as long as the
15 opening, seemed to have better signal strength from more of Europe.

With eight hours of off time to take the second day and my  motivation more
elevated, I took it all in short 1 to 1.5 hour increments so as to not be off
the air for any length of time.  It seemed that Q’s came easy all night long and
it was hard to step away.  Once again the high bands opened late and rates were
lackluster all afternoon.  A pleasant surprise was another 10 meter opening.

All in all, it was fun. 10 was a definite surprise.  80 had good signals from
Europe but was too noisy to sustain any rate.  The better news is that the
repaired radio and amps worked perfectly all weekend and there were no other
failures.

Busted spots and dupes were still a frustration.

Great jobs by D4B, P40W and P41P.

Thanks to everybody for the Q’s and my wife and daughter for their support and
suitcase space.

QSL via NN1N

73, Tom W2SC 8P7A

http://tgeorgens.home.mindspring.com


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