[3830] Rus DX N3BB SO Mixed HP

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                    Russian DX Contest

Call: N3BB
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: Austin, TX
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Countries  Oblasts
----------------------------------------
  160:   27      2        9         0
   80:   76      5       32         0
   40:  295      8       47        10
   20:  212    815       40        25
   15:   17      6       10         0
   10:    1      1        1         0
----------------------------------------
Total:  628    837      139        35  Total Score = 745,068

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Very disappointing results after working hard in a contest where operating from
the USA southwest was akin to being at a party but being in the room for the
"other" kids while the in-crowd partied hardy.

Congrats to N2IC and K5NA for good results in a difficult assignment. I haven't
seen KU1CW's score yet but this certainly was difficult for me. 

The schedule turned out to be tough as I had to travel to Washington DC the
week of the contest, arriving home at eleven PM Friday night. But I slept
pretty well for five hours and got up Saturday morning feeling good. The
weather here was perfect, sunny and dry without much wind. The bands were a bit
noisy and that turned out to be a problem as my NE (EU) beverage was inoperable.
A tree limb must have come down on it this last week. I haven't been out yet to
find out what is wrong. So on 160 and 80 meters, I listened to the transmit
antenna to EU. There were some EU mults on 80 that were spotted but I simply
could not hear well enough to call them as I could not get the nuber. In fact,
there were a quite a few stations which I called and worked, but then had to
sit and listen for two or three (or more)Qs which followed in order to hear the
exchange number, and calculate back to what they gave me. I hope not many of
these will be busted, as copy was rough. But those mult numbers were not
bad-they didn't kill me. Twenty meters (and to some extent fifteen meters) did.


I think the problem was in my head, as when I got to the radio room Saturday AM
at 6:30 AM, the Alpha 76 manually tuned amp I use for runs would not work. It
defaulted when it was keyed. That amp has been quite reliable for years, so
that was an inauspicious development. I worked the non-run station with the
FT1000MP barefoot. That may sound like the reason for the very low mults on 20
and 15 but I don't think so. As N5AW, our very own LP king, has stated, LP is
pretty good for S&P. It really hurts in the running capability. There were a
few occasions where a mult didn't hear me on LP, but very few. That definitely
was *not* the reason for my low mult totals. It probably was an attempt to
overcompensate with higher QSO numbers. Of course the right thing is to do
both. N2IC shows how to do both, and K5NA here in town had a terrific effort
with outstanding mult numbers and a solid QSO total. Looking at both their
numbers, I think K5NA's fantastic ability to work mults while doing a solid job
on QSOs simply beat me-solidly-plain and simple.
 
There were portions of the day and early evening where there was very little
non-NA to work. Those portions, for me, were 20 meter SSB SS-like run fests.
Frankly those were the pits. Maybe that's where I missed some spots. I don't
know. But there were many stations who called with numbers of 1 or 2 or so. For
some weird reason, W7s must have some conspiracy against contesting as there
were quite a few who would not give me #1. They would come back and say
"acknowledge" or some other terse one word response. So I would say something
like "thanks OM, I am logging you with #1. Now this technically might make
these non-valid, but I think they will stay in the log. 

One of the DXpeditions, a 5T5, would not give a number, so I took them out of
the log on the one band on which I called. They were lids in my opinion. The
VP6DX operators showed how to do do a DXpedition in the midst of a big
contest.

So congrats to the people who were able to get around the poor conditions. The
WRTC impact on the RDXC was evident here in NA as many top operators were on.
The RDX contest, on paper, is a great contest: 24 hours (not too long, but
still a challenge to stay sharp for 24 hours straight),mixed mode-so both CW
and SSB skills are necessary, lots of mults with both DXCC and Oblasts, a
"real" exchange, and thorough log checking. But the lack of activity here and
no openings on 15 or 10 meters to EU or JA made it tough. As expected, the RDXC
is Russian and EU centered, but I was a little surprised by the lack of more JA
participation. 

The packet thing is still new to me as I almost entirely SO2R Single-op. But my
demonstrated lack of skills in finding mults really jumped out and bit me in
this one. That is a major area for me to improve.  

Again, great results by some of our best W5 operators. Way to go guys!


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