[3830] CQ WW RTTY VK4UC SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: VK4UC
Operator(s): VK4UC
Station: VK4UC

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Qld
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------------
   80:    0     0       0        0     0
   40:   55   159       7       31    15
   20:  166   477       6       42    21
   15:  224   655      36       26    21
   10:   11    28       5        5     5
------------------------------------------
Total:  456  1319      54      104    62  Total Score = 290,180

Club: Texas DX Society

Comments:

Propagation was horrible from VK4 until 1900 on Saturday when the "effective
SSN" (as reported on IONOPROBE 1.2) shot up to 200 and things became very
interesting for the remainder of the contest with good long path openings,
unusual propagation paths, daytime openings on 20M and massive pileups. Still
very little activity on 10M with most stations probably writing it off without
checking it out. As usual, most northern W/VE stations didn't keep their
antennas pointed south for long; just enough to collect mults.  That is usual
the case even in good times. Judging from some of the qso vs score reports,
there may be some focus on working each like a domestic contest at the expense
of listening for DX. 
Its nice to get this station back on again for the CQWW RTTY after missing last
year. Unfortunately, most of the antennas are down and trees stopped the
rotation of my only working multi-band beam in the direction of W/VE long path
and Africa. I used a makeshift inv-V at 30m for 40m. Due to a personal tragedy
I only arrived down under a few days before the test and had very little rest
beforehand. The best I could do was 18 hours on and 30 hours off. Bad
propagation and empty bands here probably accounted for half of the missed
time.
Most interesting qso was with Bill, KA3PVA in VA at 2145 on Sunday. He was the
weakest stateside rtty station I think I (ever) worked. Just to hear him I had
to have the FTKMP audio full up, and forget about the S-meter. Now I had very
low local qrn and use RITTY, which is hands-down the best weak signal decoder,
and I didn't have much trouble printing him. Knowing what stateside qrn and qrm
is like,  It was amazing to me that Bill was able to get any print on me at all.
In those weak condx I usually give up trying to work stateside even though I can
hear lots of stations, they never can hear me.
As Martin, VK7GN, says, "Its all about BIC (Bum In Chair)"....... I just didn't
have it.
Thanks to all,  73  John  VK4UC/ W6KNC


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