[3830] CQWW CW G3ZQH SOAB(A) LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: G3ZQH
Operator(s): G3ZQH
Station: G3ZQH

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: NOTTINGHAM
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   26     3       20
   80:   92    12       49
   40:  150    16       61
   20:  191    15       43
   15:   81    16       21
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total:  540    62      194  Total Score = 256,000

Club: Chiltern DX Club

Comments:

Second time in CQ WW CW, so hoped to beat last year's score. Into CW only since
a couple of years ago but found this great fun.  Entirely S&P. Apart from
gremlins with installing N1MM on a new laptop) and having to change the feeder
to my vertical (waterlogged), the main problem was a strange one- S7+
interference from my central heating boiler all across all bands- but mainly
affecting 20/15m!  Managed to turn the heating off for a long stretch when the
rest of family were out on Sunday afternoon- made most of my 15m QSOs then (fan
heater + warm coat required...). Nearly all QSOs were made on Sunday apart from
a couple of hours on 40m on Saturday evening. 15m v good on Sun afternoon-
great to make clean QSOs without battling against other EU QRM (found it hard
going on 20m). 40m was best, but seemed to die on Sunday evening. On 80m my
vertical seemed to get out OK but I had terrible trouble hearing DX through the
very high local noise level (S9)-  definitely time for me to make a low noise
receiving antenna.

The cluster spots seemed to have a very short half-life- quite a few were gone
even 10 min after being spotted. In the short term (say 10 min) it was possible
to make a good rate (80+/h) by clicking on spots, but I found that the more
traditional S&P scanning across the band gave a better sustained rate. My CW is
not quite good enough yet to call CQ- maybe next year...

Despite the problems on Day 1 I still managed to beat my score from last year
by over 50,000 pts, so overall I'm satisfied.  Next year I'll looking for 1000+
QSOs but some serious work on antennas and CW speed will be needed.

FT1000MP, 2 x doublets @ 40 ft (at 90 deg), 45ft vertical 24 radials
(160/80/40), N1MM

Dave, G3ZQH


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