[3830] IARU W5ZL(@N5AW) SO Mixed LP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: W5ZL
Operator(s): W5ZL
Station: N5AW

Class: SO Mixed LP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Mults
---------------------------
  160:    6      2       
   80:   60      5       
   40:  251     55       
   20:  358    250       
   15:  202     96       
   10:   46     73       
---------------------------
Total:  923    481    172  Total Score = 693,504

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Thanks to Marv N5AW for letting me operate from his wonderful hilltop station
for IARU - second year in a row. My radio, his antennas. What a deal! As last
year, W5EK and I ran two totally independent single op stations (Bob as a LP CW
entrant using his radio under his call and me running Mixed LP) time-sharing
antennas. Needless to say, there isn’t a playbook for how to run this kind of
operation – like who gets to operate which band when, but following my
unexpected good showing last year Bob was more than gracious about letting me
have the best antennas and best band to operate this year. 

Despite Marv's terrific antennas, I am still fascinated by the one-way
propagation that seems to prevail from our part of the country certain times of
day. For example, until pretty late Saturday night I could hear EU stations
LOUD, but were not being heard by them. Same thing for Asia early Sunday
morning. Asian stations just POURING in here, but seemingly deaf to low power
Stateside stations - certainly those of us in the mid-section of the country.

Main observations:
• Early rates better this year, but very few 5-point stations worked until
well into Saturday night.
• Made a few more Q's than last year, but mults more scarce.  Finally pulled
to within 14 of last year's totals at the end, but it took a concerted push
(departing early from run mentality to S&P).
•	Could never get traction with runs this year. As noted above, I abandoned
my run, run, run game plan early. Either I don't have the patience to persevere
through long droughts, wondering if anyone will ever spot me and trigger an
avalanche, or I don't have faith that I can run against the high power guys. My
way is a lot more work, but I have to think that my numbers would have never
caught up had I stuck to my run guns.

High point: after struggling to be heard by Asian stations first on 20
(impossible) and later 40 (nearly impossible) for hours Sunday morning I
snagged XX9A and 9V9HQ just prior to the closing bell - in fact, 9V9HQ was my
very last Q. Some redemption. In golf terms, it's those kinds of magical "TV
moments" that allow us duffers to forget all the frustrating mis-hits of the
round and come back the next weekend for more punishment.

I no longer have the stamina to do 48-hour marathons, so IARU is my kind of
contest (I kept telling myself that in the last two hours Sunday morning). And
with its simple exchange and everybody-talks-to-everybody rules, it’s a good
one for casual and non-contesters to get their feet wet and hopefully catch the
bug.

Rig: IC-756 Pro II
Software: N1MM
Antennas included: 4-el SteppIR, C4SXL, quad, 2-el 40m yagi, 40m Lazy-H, 80m
slopers, and shunt-fed 135’ tower for 160.


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