[3830] WPX CW K7RL SO(A)SB20 HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: K7RL
Operator(s): K7RL
Station: K7RL

Class: SO(A)SB20 HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:     
   40:     
   20: 1312
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total: 1312  Prefixes = 604  Total Score = 2,013,736

Club: Western Washington DX Club

Comments:

My first serious attempt at WPX CW.  Here are several quick observations from a
novice CW contester like me:

1) A humbling experience to go from 1,600+ Qs in the first 15 hours in WPX SSB,
to 700+ in WPX CW.  Guess those CW skills still need more polishing!   

2) Nothing kills a pile-up faster than sending 26 wpm and asking for repeats.

3) Feeling the frustration from sending 26 wpm and asking for constant repeats,
knowing it’s killing your rate.

4) Key clicks really suck.

5) How difficult it is to copy a call sign from several callers at once, all
with the same signal strength.  

6) Leave more than a few seconds of silence trying to dig out a weak signal,
and run the risk of someone calling, “CQ TEST,” right on top of your QSO.

7) It’s one thing to practice CW for an hour in the controlled environment of
a CW contest simulator, and quite another in a real weekend long test. 

8) Did I mention key clicks suck?     

9) Thinking you copied a “K” in a weak signal, until the next QSB wave hits
and now that “K” sounds like a “C”, or was it a “Y”? -- see items
#3, #4, and #8 above.

10) Amazed at all the FB CW ops out there!  This mode is very much alive and
well!

Pleasantly surprised to hear around-the-clock EU.  What more can you ask from
the bottom of the solar cycle?  Speaking of surprises, anyone else hear the
broadband hash on 20m Saturday night?  40+ Khz wide here.       

Thanks to all those patient operators that endured my repeat requests.  And
thanks to all for the Qs!

73 de Mitch, K7RL  

P.S.  Big congrats to W7WA for a MONSTER 20 SOSB QRP entry!  WOW!  A new world
record?


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