[3830] CQWW CW DL3YM(@DF2PY) SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: DL3YM
Operator(s): DL3YM
Station: DF2PY

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 48.0
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  338    13       52
   80:  570    20       67
   40: 1187    33      109
   20: 1199    32       97
   15:  328    30       78
   10:   14     3       11
------------------------------
Total: 3636   131      414  Total Score = 4,000,845

Club: Rhein Ruhr DX Association

Comments:

My participation in this year’s CQWW was balanced on a knife’s edge as my
eldest son got the flu on Sunday before the test. Fortunately, by Friday he was
ok again and no one else of the family got infected. Still, with very limited
sleep over the week this was not an ideal preparation.
Arrived at Wolf’s place (DF2PY) at 1600 UTC. Had everything up and running
just about 1 hour later thanks to Wolf’s excellent preparation and additional
support from software guru Axel, DK4US. So off we were to enjoy our PCP (pre
contest pizza) together with the boys from DR4A.

I had planned to be at the controls earlier than usual in order to find a good
running spot on 40. With 35 minutes to go I found out that I had a serious RFI
problem, and when the contest went off I was hectically fumbling with the
wiring instead of running. Spent the first 30 minutes S&Ping on 40 while
resolving the problem on the fly. Once settling down on a 40 meter run
frequency rates picked up and after the first hour I could actually start using
the second radio on 80. Stayed with this combo until 0500 when 80 became my
running band and the second radio was used to check 160. While I was ahead of
my personal best QSO-wise from the very beginning I started falling behind on
mults. Spent the first sunrise on 160 and then QSYed the run radio to 20 while
bagging some juicy double mults from the Caribbean on 80 well into daylight
with the second radio. Went to 15 at 1000 UTC and found the band wide open into
deep East Asia and VK/ZL. Yet, I could not get any sustained runs going there
and mainly continued running 20 and picking up mults with Radio 2 on 15.
10 meter was a complete washout. Had 14 QSOs there over midday and that was it
for me. First US was worked on 15 at 1305 and while there were some good
signals on I could not get any further west than zone 04 on Saturday. 20
produced an excellent opening to the US, however, which lasted well into
darkness. As I had neglected 160 so far I decided to look for Asian mults and
was rewarded with my first and only JA at 2000 UTC. Finished the first day off
with cumulated QSOs 150 ahead of my personal best but lacking 36 mults.

Started day 2 running on 40 again and the 3 el wire beam fixed NA worked
wonders. 80 was good for some runs during the night, but once again I found
mults lacking on this band particularly. As 160 did not sound great in the
morning I went to 40 around sunrise and continued on 15 about one hour later.
Worked 4 double mults from zones 24, 25, 27 and 32 within 5 minutes, yet again
no volume. Until midday things were pretty much a copy of day 1 running on 20
and S&Ping on 15. Started another run attempt on 15 at 1240 when the band
opened to the US and I finally worked my first and only zone 03. Running on 15
did not produce any great rates, which is why I had to return to 20 at 1430
already.
It never ceases to surprise me that it seems almost impossible to really wring
this band out completely. After 20 closed down around 2 hours after sunset,
which is considerably later than last year, I found lots of new mults from Asia
and Oceania lined up on 40 one next to the other. Worked double mults from zones
22, 26, 27 and 28 within 10 minutes.
Ran into Murphy one more time around 1920 when I lost my second radio due to a
faulty relay in the beverage switch box, so it was SO1R for the last 4.5 hours.
Maybe this incident was not that bad after all because I was so tired by then
that most likely I would not have been able to operate 2 radios efficiently any
more. Had a super final run on 40 and passed the 4 million mark right at 2359.

Final result is significantly better than last year, yet I fell short of
improving my personal best.
But of course, there is always next year!
I have been doing the CQWW from the QTH of DF2PY since 2003 now, still this
year was very special and I am very grateful for my XYL´s support and
understanding. In addition, many thanks to Wolf and family who one more time
made me really feel at home while being away from home.


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