[3830] RTTY WPX K3MM(@N3HBX) SOAB HP

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                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: K3MM
Operator(s): K3MM
Station: N3HBX

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts
-----------------
   80:  596  2088
   40:  799  3678
   20:  933  2368
   15:  332   893
   10:    0     0
-----------------
Total: 2660  9027  Prefixes = 777  Total Score = 7,013,979

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Thanks again to John, N3HBX, for the use of his world-class station!  I had some
technical glitches over the weekend, such as a bad rotator on one of the towers,
disappearing AFSK mod on one of the radios, and intermittent TX power on 15, but
was able to work through most of them and nothing really hurt the score very
much.

The low bands were in very good shape.  No RX antennas needed.  

It seems that this contest more and more is about time management.  There is no
longer a shortage of stations to work.  It's more about making the right choices
for off time.  Of course, it takes a bit of guess work and luck to forecast band
conditions, which always makes it a bit more entertaining.  HamCap wont tell you
that there is going to be a severe magnetic disturbance on Sunday, shooting the
K index to 5 and destroying the few hours of EU bliss on 15 meters we got
teased with on Saturday!  Luckily, 20 did open eventually, although very weak
for a couple of hours. 15 was the pits...barely opening to SW EU. 
Interestingly, on 20 the polar flutter coming in from the northern latitudes of
EU was incredible.

I did very little strategizing going into this weekend, but kept with my basic
guidelines and put in a better showing this year than last.  The QSO total was
marginally better, but the real difference was my use of the lowbands to rack
up those double point QSO's.  I'm guessing I could have done even a bit better
than I did, but compared to last year, I got rid of some real slacker periods
in the afternoons on the high bands.  This year, when the EU runs started
fading in the early afternoon and the US guys started calling en mass, I knew
it was time to take a break.  I did decide to bail out early again, finishing
up at about 1830Z on Sunday.  In summmary, lowband totals way up, high bands
totals down slightly from last year's record breaking 5.5 million score.  Just
broke into 7 mil on the last couple QSO's, so it'll probably fall a bit short
of that mark after the cleanup.

Didnt really keep track of who was going to be on, but heard some really big
numbers from K4GMH and AO8A, so it'll be interesting to see the breakdowns. 
Mike was ahead of me by about 150 QSOs going into Saturday night.  Then on
Sunday he was down by 100 or so most of the day.  It's such a tease cause you
never know how much time anyone has taken off, etc.

73, Ty K3MM


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