[3830] ARRLDX CW K1KD SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: K1KD
Operator(s): K1KD
Station: K1KD

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 13

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   21    19
   80:   67    36
   40:  144    42
   20:  425    56
   15:   36    21
   10:    8     7
-------------------
Total:  701   181  Total Score = 379,014

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

I wasn't able to put in as big of an effort as I normally would because I was
tasked with watching my 3 month old daughter while my wife worked both days of
the weekend.  Being a new parent has brought a different, new level of
complexity to contesting that I didn't know before.  Now, aside from planning my
operating time to maximize my score I must also plan around the nap schedule of
my baby. It actually worked quite well to sit her in her swing right next to my
operating chair.  As if she somehow knew when things got cranking, she took a
nice nap both mornings around 10am which allowed me to run EU.  A funny thing
was when I had a great 120/hr rate going on Sunday morning and then she suddenly
awoke and started generating lots of QRM.  I actually maintained the run for
awhile longer while feeding her a bottle!  Eventually, I had to walk away from a
pileup so I could calm her down.  Unfortunately, there is no cw abbreviation
that I am aware of that means, "Please standby while I burb my baby".  Anyway, I
hope this early exposure to the hobby will foster an interest in her later in
her life.

I normally enter this contest in the high power assisted category, but after
reading all the debate prior to the contest about using packet versus not using
packet I opted to go without.  I'm really glad I went without.  Since I knew
that my operating time was really going to be limited, I treated each hour that
I could sit down and operate as though it were a mini sprint contest... a
contest within a contest.  When it wasn't the right time to try running I would
search and pounce, but instead of leisurely clicking on the spots from the
bandmap, I manually swept the band as fast as possible.
I found I could go much faster than I ever could by using the packet spots.  I
really focused on using the memory buffers to store the frequency of stations
that sounded like they would take too long to make the contact (i.e. sending
slow, packet pileup).  I found that I could load up my memory with a couple of
stations as I swept my way up the band.  This allowed me to knock off contacts
one after another without having to hang out on one frequency very long.  

Highlights of the weekend included a very nice 20m run at 1600z on Sunday and
working some good DX including an A4 that called me Sunday afternoon.  Thanks to
all the QRP stations from Europe that kept the runs going on Sunday.


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