[3830] CQWW CW N1UR SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N1UR
Operator(s): N1UR
Station: N1UR

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 44.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   31     8       17
   80:  184    18       70
   40:  418    29      105
   20: 1268    30      103
   15:  125    20       65
   10:   32     9       14
------------------------------
Total: 2058   114      374  Total Score = 28,032,046

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

This contest is always a blast and this year was no exception.  Conditions here
in Vermont sounded similar to other people in the New England area.  80 and 160
were really never very good for the whole contest.  They were especially bad
Friday night where CQing in my face became routine.  The opening of the contest
on 40M was pretty much as expected…a 70 hour S & Ping into EU and then
starting to close down for lowering MUF by 01 - 0130Z.  The whole first night
was a slog actually but I was able to keep up with last year’s rate despite
what felt like worse conditions.

20M seemed to open 30 - 40 mins later than last year to run but once it did…I
was off with gusto, just like last year.  Logging 4 straight hours of 100 - 150
rate and decided to skip 15M EU essentially other than picking off a few mults
until Sunday when the rate would be slower (I thought).  After reading the post
from K5ZD and hearing the very light signals from much of EU (although a few
locations were loud…just not many), I think that was the right call.

Went to 40M early and even though the sigs were loud and I was working many on
first call, the rate was actually disappointing on run.  I should have stuck
with it longer but didn't.  20M into JA was thin but worked a few but heard no
other Asia Sat night on 20.  Did work KL7 and KH6 and ZL but not much more
Pacific.  80 and 160 really were not a whole lot better Saturday night either. 
Got nowhere CQing on 80 even at EU sunrise and that is usually a productive time
for me from here.

20M actually opened earlier on Sunday morning and was full of sigs from 0945Z
but EU was still working each other so a lot of relatively strong EU was not
hearing me.  I started running again on 20 around 1030Z and thought “this
won’t last at this rate for too long” but actually it never let go….4+
more hours at over 100 rate.  I decided to really push the second radio for
everything I could but not abandon the 20 run unless 15 sounded great…which
it really didn't from here. Again there were many loud sigs from few regions
but the other regions from EU were just not there so I kept up with 20 on the
run and swept 15 end to end 3 times during the period.  I also swept 40 and 80
picking off the loudest 40M JAs ever heard from here around 1230Z as well as a
number of zone 19 UA0s.  Also heard 3 JAs on 80 at sunrise but none could hear
me as I took shots at them while running 20 ( really don’t have a good 80M
north antenna).

Went to 40 very early and grabbed a number of easy mults including TA A7 5B. 
Then started CQing and did okay finally on 40M with a few 70ish hours.  Was
able to knock down a few more JAs on 20 and heard zones 26, 27,and 28 but
couldn’t work any of them.  Tried them all, on and off, for almost an hour
while CQing 40.

Finished on 80 and did grab a few more mults but even then, for the third shot
at EU, the band still was not good.

Like Randy, K5ZD, I questioned my 80M antenna (a 2el phased array) but I have 2
other slopers on 80 and none of them produced better so I new the antennas were
fine.  And I heard many people being CQed over, so the overall conditions were
not good on 80.

10M was as expected.  Grabbed a few Africans Sunday morning and worked the
usual CX, PY, LU crowd plus a handful of Carib and Central America.  Almost
everyone I heard was worked. I heard K1BX work TI8II right over the top of me
and he never did hear me….so it goes in the low power world especially with
low sunspots.

In the end, the best score ever posted from here in CQ WW CW.  Beat last years
score by over 15% and posted a number of Qs only bested by K1TO’s 2002 record
(I believe).  Easily set the highest QSO count ever on 20M by a LP effort even
single band.  In fact my 20M QSO total  is better than the combined 20/15/10 Qs
ever posted from here.  That was a heck of a 2-day 20M run.

The mults are down on 15M probably by 10 or so vs. the dedicated 15M S & P
effort I did last year on Sunday morning because the run on 15M wasn’t
working.  Given the Q result and the final score, I am happy with the decision.
 Was hoping to bust 3 Meg with a 40M EU run at the end but it was not to be with
enough Qs.  

Last year, I won on gross points and lost on net.  This year, I paid a lot more
attention to making sure I had calls and didn’t log a few that were not sure. 
Hopefully this extra effort changes the net.  Gross was up 15% and hopefully net
was up 20%.

I still love this game.

Ed  N1UR


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