[3830] WPX SSB NV1N(N1UR) SOAB LP

[webform@b4h.net]

                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: NV1N
Operator(s): N1UR
Station: N1UR

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    5
   80:  159
   40:  172
   20:  698
   15:  346
   10:   71
------------
Total: 1451  Prefixes = 671  Total Score = 2,442,440

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This was the first competitive attempt at WPX SSB for me.  I didn’t really have
any expectations.  I knew that you needed a good mix of US and DX stations to
win and that I wouldn’t be able to trade Qs into the US with the Southeastern US
boys and had make up for some of that with DX Qs, maybe even 6 pointers on 40
and 80.  20M would obviously be THE band but I was hopeful for 2 good DX running
days on 15 to really maximize the potential of my station.

I started off trying to run 20 into JA/UA0 and that failed miserably so I swung
the beam around to the west to run the US.  Rate picked up but I felt I could do
a lot better S & Ping so I was doing that by 0030Z (which isn’t a good sign).  I
was able to run on 80 on radio 2 while I was doing it so combined rate of 60 –
70 was actually pretty good, I thought.  From the looks of people’s posts I
should have stayed on 20 and just kept moving around until I found a better
producing run frequency.

So that was my mistake for the rest of the evening.  I went to 40 and 80 and
grabbed fairly easy 40/80 EU 6 pointers and ran fairly well on 80M for a while. 
Shut down at 0800Z as the rate was dropping into the 30s.

I was back at it at 1000Z immediately running EU on 20 with great rate (90 –
120) for a sustained period of time.  This was the best part of the contest.  I
was S & Ping 15 as well starting at 13Z but not hearing any EU.  Then all of a
sudden my SWR on 20M goes crazy and kills the run at 1310Z.  I thinking, this
doesn’t look good.  15 minutes of debugging determines that something has let go
on my Radio 1 feed line to the tower switchbox and I decide to take an off hour
and see if I can fix it.  In retrospect, I should have just run 20 for that hour
and fixed later on in the day but I was assuming 15 was going to open any time
and really wanted both radios to be going.  Well, in 20mins I had fixed the
problem (a slightly disconnected hardline connector which had been worked loose
in the melting and contracting snow that is still on the ground here).  I
figured I could have lost the contest right there.  I now can see that it hurt
me but I really missed out on not running 20 A LOT more, especially into the US.


Well, I was back up and running at 1411Z on 20M and the rate was already down
into the 80s to 90 but still fine.  I was constantly looking for EU to open up
on 15M but it never did.  Was happy to see that 10M was open as much as it was
to SA.  Some very strong signals there.  All Qs on 10 were 2nd radio Qs so, I
felt good about having 71 on that band and not having left any rate to get it.

I spent too much time on 15 trying to get something going and should have just
kept plowing on 20 later on in the afternoon.  Never heard any JAs on 15.  I
think KH7 and ZL1 were my only Pacific on 15.  20 meters into JA and UA didn’t
sound great from here around sunset so I decided to try and run on 40 before
things got too noisy there.  I actually had a nice 45 min run around 23Z with
50% of it coming from EU (both split and on TX freq).  I felt that that was one
of my better decisions of the contest.  60 rate with half of them 6 point Qs was
pretty good.  I went to 80M too early each night when I should have stayed on 20
but kept a pretty decent run going (50s rate) until around 05Z.  Took a 2 hour
off time but wanted to be up for EU sunrise to take another shot on 40 and 80
for the 6 pointers.  Again that worked pretty well as I had another 45 min run
on 40 with 60s rate and about 75% EU.  I was able to sweep 80 S & Ping pretty
quickly of EUs and  took another 2 hour off time.  I started again on 20M around
1045Z and 1 hour of off time left as I started Sunday.  

Like everyone, I was happy to hear 15 being a different band but found it very
frustrating for the first couple of hours as the band was full of signals and I
could S & P well but could not get any rate going on CQ.  I actually went back
and ran 20 at 90 rate while I was S & Ping 15 and hearing S9 plus sigs from EU
(I have never abandoned running 15 with S9 plus sigs).  I finally had a
successful try on 15M around 15Z and then had a great run for about 3 hours into
EU with good solid 90 rate.  EU on 20M was also pretty decent after that but
finding a run freq by then was tough.

I took my last off time at 22Z figuring that the last hour might have a surge to
it.  Rate was actually pretty good but I think I missed part of a good JA/UA0
opening because I worked quite a few pretty quickly as I got back on at 23Z for
the last hour.

All in all I was happy with this first full WPX SSB effort.  The contest was a
lot of fun.  I need to change my strategy somewhat and just keeping running and
running on 20, for this one.  There is no question that if you don’t cross 1000
Qs on 20, you will have a hard time winning this one.  There aren’t enough 6
pointers on 40 and 80 to make up for that.

See you in May.

Ed  NV1N/N1UR

Radios: FT1000MP and FT990 SO2R with TRlog and DX Doubler.
Antennas:

10M 3el NE, S, W
15M 8 el EU, 3 el rot
20M 4/4 EU and rot
40M 2 el rot
80M inv vee and 2 el wire beam EU
160M inv vee


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