[3830] WPX SSB WK4R(K4XS) SOAB HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: WK4R
Operator(s): K4XS
Station: WK4R

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    3
   80:  348
   40:  242
   20: 2189
   15:  845
   10:   41
------------
Total: 3668  Prefixes = 1063  Total Score = 9,037,626

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

The best and worst of conditions, both in weather and propagation.

Score was up 1.2meg, prefixes up 50 and QSOs up around 200 from last year

All Friday night I had the XYL's laptop hooked up to the radar site for Tampa
Bay to monitor the thunderstorms that were roaming around just off shore about
20 miles in the Gulf.  The static crashes were deafening, especially on 75
meters.  The static bleed-off on the 20 Yagis was so bad at one point all I
could here was just a 20 over high pitched buzzy whine.  The storms never did
hit my QTH until Sunday, but they did force a time off strategy.  It seemed like
the cold front squall line was due to hit around late afternoon Sunday, which
meant I could not make up any lost time if I had to QRT at that point in the
contest. As a result I had to burn my time up before they arrived which meant
running out of time at 2130Z....right in the middle of a great run on 20.
It was a bad gamble since the storms did not arrive until after the contest.  So
much for being a weatherman!

Best hour was a 190+ in the beginning of the contest, mostly on 20.  20 was a
bottomless pit of QSOs for me...well over half of my QSOs were there.  

Saturday on 15 was nowhere near as good as Sunday.   Best hour was 140, all
stations being DX, not one W/K. All kinds of goodies checked in, including an
HS.  

10 was, well, 10 meters at this point of the cycle.  Good for S/P and that was
about it, although I felt that with some CQing some EU could have been raised
around 1500Z.  It just wasn't worth it though.

Thanks to K5TR, K4ZW and KQ2M and others making this one a horse race.  Even
with the serial numbers, you can never tell how you're doing, since you can have
a lot of cheap one pointers in there.

See you all in the FQP in a few weeks.


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