[3830] CQWW CW W5KFT(N1XS) SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: W5KFT
Operator(s): N1XS
Station: W5KFT

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   18     8       10
   80:  121    17       46
   40:  468    27       65
   20:  581    28       70
   15:   90    17       42
   10:   20     8       11
------------------------------
Total: 1298   105      244  Total Score = 1,042,114

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Thanks to Bryan W5KFT for the use of his excellent station.  And thanks to
Robert K5PI and Ken WM5R for some of the counsel and preparation work.  This
was my first effort SO2R for real...and it is not as easy as it sounds...to all
of you guys who have mastered this, hats off to you.  This was also my first SO
effort in this contest.  Lots of screw ups in plans and a little issue with
Murphy and Telnet I went SO not SO Assisted.  Now that was different but very
neat in many ways. Found stuff or stuff called in instead of being stuck in
packet pileups.  And sometimes tuning the second radio and not getting stuck
DX-ing (well I screwed that up to!) was truly different.  I operated a lot more
than I thought I would (N1MM says 40.7 hours) but there were quick breaks here
and there it did not catch. Finding a spot on 20M was tough...but 40M here was
nothing short of incredible.  I wish that I had stopped and fixed a few tweaks
in N1MM's configuration that slowed me down a little, did that later to...but
running a bunch of JA's and some other great Oceania was great.  T8 called in,
and I can't even remember breaking that pile-up from New England. Many double
mults were found just tuning or called in.  Stumbling into a rather lonely ZL2
on 10m late in the contest was nice.  Being called by CE0Y/OE2SNL for a double
mult  after calling CE4CT unsuccessfully for a long time (one of my DX-ing
moments) was memorable.  Z12 seems rare sometimes. All in all it was very cool.


Operating SO was a hoot, spots may have helped the bottom line, but not sure
how much it would have distracted.  So much to learn.  But this was a real
hoot. SO2R had so many knobs and switches for me to play with that it was
distracting in a way.  But it sure is obvious to me that if one can put an SO2R
station together and get proficient using it that you will open a whole
different aspect to contesting. It clearly takes some practice. 

Thanks to everyone who called and for all of the Q's.  WW CW is still the best
of them all.  Good luck to all, may the log checkers be kind.  CU in the next
contest.


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