[3830] WPX SSB KT5J(N3BB) SOAB HP

webform at b4h.net webform at b4h.net
Mon Mar 31 22:18:23 EDT 2008


                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: KT5J
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Austin TX
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    6
   80:  198
   40:  751
   20: 1268
   15:  194
   10:   39
------------
Total: 2456  Prefixes = 683  Total Score = 2,775,512

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Another difficult "learning experience" for me. Congrats to K5TR and NN5J (N5DX)
for outstanding efforts and results. W5WMU was in there as well. I haven't seen
Pat's score but it's cerain he did well. I'm a bit humbled, as I worked hard
but it just doesn't look good on the scoreboard. The WX report for here was
iffy, with storms forecasted for Saturday overnight. In fact WM5R got knocked
off the air and out of the contest at W5KFT from a storm fifty miles to my NW,
but all we got was QRN Saturday overnight. 

I had hoped to come within 5% of K5TR, who I figured would win the "W5-W0 WRTC
region" but came out well below the cutoff point for being able to salvage any
qualifying score for WRTC. This weekend, along with the RDXC two weeks ago when
I lost an amplifier and was limited to SO1R for the most part, both are
discouraging. Lots of hard work. But they were contests, and I learned some
things.

For some reason, my K1EA DVP card would not accept the usual voice recordings,
cutting them of at one or two seconds. I finally got two QSL Messages" to
sort-of work. The usual one said "Thanks" and I got the F6 key (Quick QSL) to
accept "Thanks Kilo Tango Five Tango" spoken really fast. I got a CQ message to
work. So I limped through the contest with three barely decent recordings plus
the call sign. I had to speak fast and didn't feel the recorded call sign had
the fullest clarity. 

To do well and have fun from this far west and south (Austin, Texas area) at
the solar cycle minimum, we need for 15 meters to open to EU and JA. If it
does, and does not to our north, we can do very well. In this contest, it did
not. We got no JAs on 15 and only a smattering of extreme southern EU. The EU
stations came in at 90 degrees and not the direct path for me. One JA station,
JH7XKO, called me on 15 but he was pee weak and I could never get the number
and scrubbed the QSO. he was "peaking," if that word can be used, at 270
degrees. We can get only the loud EU stations on 20, and it's very hard to run
EU on 20 meters. We can not run EU on 40 meters. 

We can run JAs pretty well on 40 meters CW and SSB but the JAs seemed to
boycott this contest. 40 meters was excellent to Asia and the Pacific but all
those stations seemed content to stay down below 7100 and work one another.
Only a few called CQ and listened up, or called me split frequency. Fortunately
there were some VKs on 15 and 40, and that was a nice group of QSOs at times.
Most were right at the noise level for me.

K5TR called today and we compared notes briefly. He did a great job and managed
points this time, rather than QSO quantity. Of course he had a whole lot of QSOs
as well. But he is right. If I ever do a WPX again, and right now I don't want
to hear anything about any contest for a long time, I'll plan strategy around
points. One can have a better hour in the middle of the night working 15 or 20
six pointers than running Ws on 40 meters or 20 meters in the afternoon or
evening at one point per contact. But I had the flu the week before the
contest, and got pretty tired and really needed to take an off time to sleep.
Oh well. Excuses, excuses. Forgetaboutit!

TR does SO2R well on SSB as well as CW. I have the CW SO2R down pretty pat, but
have a lot to learn about SSB SO2R, On Sunday, I felt I was doing somewhat
better, but still am an SO2R novice on phone. 

Thanks very much to Larry, K5OT, for use of his nice KJ5J call sign.

Some numbers:
                              
Off Times (Zulu):

0617-0911
1243-1346
1713-1812
0215-1316
0549-0956
1533-1632
2106-2205

KT5J Rate Chart:

  HOUR  160SSB   80SSB   40SSB   20SSB   15SSB   10SSB   TOTAL   ACCUM
  ----  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------  ------   -----   -----
    0       0       0       2     157       0       0     159     159
    1       0       0     106      37       0       0     143     302
    2       0       0     111       0       0       0     111     413
    3       0       0      82       0       0       0      82     495
    4       0     104       1       0       0       0     105     600
    5       0      10      78       0       0       0      88     688
    6       1       8       0       0       0       0       9     697
    7       0       0       0       0       0       0       0     697
    8       0       0       0       0       0       0       0     697
    9       0       2      24       0       0       0      26     723
   10       5      10      13       0       0       0      28     751
   11       0      16      16       0       0       0      32     783
   12       0       1      48       0       0       0      49     832
   13       0       0       0      29       0       0      29     861
   14       0       0       0      46       0       0      46     907
   15       0       0       0      94       9       0     103    1010
   16       0       0       0     140       3       0     143    1153
   17       0       0       0      16       0       0      16    1169
   18       0       0       0      36      21       0      57    1226
   19       0       0       0      97       6       0     103    1329
   20       0       0       0      64      18       0      82    1411
   21       0       0       0      17      28      14      59    1470
   22       0       0       0      35       3      15      53    1523
   23       0       0       0      79       6       3      88    1611

    0       0       0       7      21      26       1      55    1666
    1       0       0      73       0       0       0      73    1739
    2       0       0      43       0       0       0      43    1782
    3       0       6      11       0       0       0      17    1799
    4       0      15      11       0       0       0      26    1825
    5       0      25      16       0       0       0      41    1866
    6       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    1866
    7       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    1866
    8       0       0       0       0       0       0       0    1866
    9       0       0       1       0       0       0       1    1867
   10       0       0      27       0       0       0      27    1894
   11       0       0      40       0       0       0      40    1934
   12       0       1      19       2       0       0      22    1956
   13       0       0       0      27       0       0      27    1983
   14       0       0       0      47       0       0      47    2030
   15       0       0       0      49       0       0      49    2079
   16       0       0       0       4      11       0      15    2094
   17       0       0       0      34      10       0      44    2138
   18       0       0       0      82       8       0      90    2228
   19       0       0       0      29      10       3      42    2270
   20       0       0       0      19      18       0      37    2307
   21       0       0       0       0       3       0       3    2310
   22       0       0      19      55       0       3      77    2387
   23       0       0       3      52      14       0      69    2456

  TOTAL     6     198     751    1268     194      39 

73, and thanks for the contacts. There were some very fine operators and
stations in this thing. Congratulations.

Jim George N3BB-KT5J in 2008 WPX SSB


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