[3830] WPX CW VU2PTT SOAB(TS) HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: VU2PTT
Operator(s): VU2PTT
Station: VU2PTT

Class: SOAB(TS) HP
QTH: Bangalore MK82tx
Operating Time (hrs): 36

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:    0
   40:   96
   20:  554
   15:  166
   10:  151
------------
Total:  967  Prefixes = 491  Total Score = 1,320,299

Club: SCCC - DX Member

Comments:

Rig: Icom 746 Pro + SB-200 Amp = 400 W
Ant: Force 12 C3S Tri-bander @ 60', full-size 40m wire vertical with 1 elevated
radial
Log: N1MMLogger + Winkey USB

WOW, what a contest! 

Just recovering from a bad flu and heavy doses of antibiotics after last week's
Bangalore Marathon run in which I participated. My 80m antenna could not go up
due to the illness. 

Therefore, reduced my goals to:

1. Occupy the chair without dozing for 36 hours of the contest - DONE
2. Make at least 1 Million points - DONE
3. Shoot for 1000 QSOs - MISSED by 33 QSOs

DAY 1 of the contest was pretty bad. Expected to have 800+ QSOs but ended up
with only around 500. 

15m which was supposed to be the money band never took off, despite repeated
attempts at starting a run there. I certainly wasted a lot of time trying to
call CQ there. 

In fact, most of my time was spent on 15m for only 167 QSOs. It was like
banging my head against a brick wall :0)

Band   Time   Qs
40m     24%    96
20m     23%   554
15m     42%   166
10m     11%   151

All bands had weak and watery signals on Day 1, which was not expected. 10M
opened between 0700-0900z to EU with good signals. 15m never real had much life
and even the JAs were missing. In WPX SSB, the strategy of running JAs for
prefixes worked, but not this time. Towards nightfall, 20m was staying alive
with loud EU & US signals, well past the usual 1600z shutdown in this part of
the world. Around 20z, over 30 US stations were worked and EU was also
available. 

DAY 2 was pretty good with 10m open through the day to EU from my morning to
night, around 0400-1400z. WOW! This sounds like the old days and the sunspots
are certainly coming back with big signals out of EU. 

15m never took off on Day 2 as well and failed to live up to expectations of
the experience of other recent contests. 

20m always gave a stream of QSOs but never at a rate greater than 70/hr. This
was aggravated with most of EU pointing their beams to USA, and I was always
fighting to get in through the back of the beam for many stations I called. 

40m was a bit noisy and I was not in a real frame of mind to fight the QRN. A
station improvement is planned in terms of a low noise receiving loop as the
vertical is certainly noisy on receive.

HIGHLIGHT: Finally worked California, USA after many years! The stations worked
in quick succession around 1430z were K6TA, WO6T and W6FI with my beam on the
Short path to the East coast. 

LOWLIGHT: As many noted, I needed many more repeats than usual this year with
deep QSB & QRN. This seems to have been feature for many stations in this
contest. Am I growing old at 43 or wa it just conditions?

Less time was spent on S&P which used to be my bread & butter in the LP
category. In the HP category, I wanted to see how much of an improvement the
amp and tribander were compared to the past 20+ years on LP with wires :) I
think I can do better.

And of course, occasionally fell into the DXing trap - finally worked OJ0J of
all places, on 10m :) Ended the contest with a nice QSO with John K6AM @ ZF2AM.
It was fun!

Thanks for all the QSOs and hope to see you all in IARU.

73 de Prasad VU2PTT, W2PTT (ex-AF6DV)


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/