[3830] RTTY WPX WX5S(@W6YX) M/2 HP

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                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: WX5S
Operator(s): N6CCH K6OWL ND2T W6RK W6LD WX5S N6DE
Station: W6YX

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 40

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts
-----------------
   80:  438  1184
   40:  778  2628
   20:  963  1681
   15:  238   361
   10:           
-----------------
Total: 2417  5854  Prefixes = 587  Total Score = 3,436,298

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This is our highest WPX RTTY score ever from W6YX!  It's a surprising result
considering that we were short on operating time.
Out of 48 hours:
2 operators active: 12 hours
1 operator active:  28 hours
0 operators active:  8 hours

The words of the weekend for us were: RAIN STATIC!  We got some much needed
rain in the Bay Area during the contest, but it caused havoc for us throughout
the weekend, as we struggled to hear stations on the bands through S9 rain
static.  The beverage antennas allowed us to salvage the weekend, which worked
reasonably well on 40m and 80m, but they did not work well on 20m.  There were
many QSOs (particularly DX stations) on all bands that we felt we missed
because we just could not hear them with our beverages.

ND2T and W6RK opened the contest.  Tom tried 15m for five minutes at the start
of the contest, but worked nothing and heard nothing.  The second hour of the
contest was our best rate hour of the weekend at 143 QSOs between 20m and 40m. 
It was also our best QSO point hour at 355.  During this hour, VU2NKS surprised
W6RK and called in for one of our best DX contacts of the contest.  Risto was
tempted to dump in his call for what would have been a new country for him on
RTTY, but he decided to keep up the rate with the WX5S call!

Tom stayed an hour longer than he expected, and handed it to me, where I tried
to operate both stations simultaneously for 12 hours straight.  The overnight
shift was a grind, never making more than 60 QSOs in any hour between 08Z and
15Z.  Interestingly, a 57 QSO hour at 11Z translated to our second highest QSO
point hour of the contest at 308.  80m conditions to Asia, and 80m Asian
activity on our Saturday morning, were the best I have ever heard them in this
contest.  

K6OWL took over at 15Z.  Conditions to Europe on 20m were pretty good on
Saturday morning for West Coast standards with no sunspots.  Mark was able to
get Europeans to answer his CQs, as well as attract surprising calls from other
countries such as HZ and 4X!

Rebar arrived around 2030Z.  Between Mark's morning shift, and Rebar continuing
the success, the station ran a CQ frequency around 14116 for over 9 hours
straight!  Europeans occasionally trickled in, as late as 22Z!  Rebar took
advantage of a short opening to Japan on 15m Saturday.  He continued to grind
out QSOs on the bands, running both stations simultaneously until he had to
leave at 0630Z.

The station was idle overnight Saturday until Rebar returned at 1430Z.  I
joined Rebar at 15Z, and was looking forward to a nice European opening. 
Unfortunately, the Sunday 20m EU opening was disappointing.  I tried and tried
to get European answers to my CQs, but it just wasn't working, and only wasted
time.  European contacts on Sunday were almost all S&P.  Saturday was much
better for us to Europe.  Meanwhile, Rebar was cranking away on 15m.  Rebar
left at 2030Z.

W6LD arrived to join me for the last few hours, bringing a much appreciated
lunch!  It was quite a surprise to have EA8 answer our CQ on 40m twenty minutes
before the end of the contest!

Thanks to Matt WX5S for the use of his callsign.  He joined us for a brief
period.

See our continental statistics below.  In total, we had 126 European QSOs.  Out
of 421 QSOs with Asia, 342 were with JA.

73...
-Dean - N6DE


           80M    40M    20M    15M    10M   Total      %

    AS      44    185    176     16      0     421    17.4
    NA     387    538    641    188      0    1754    72.6
    EU       0     21    105      0      0     126     5.2
    OC       3     17     12      3      0      35     1.4
    AF       1      6      8      1      0      16     0.7
    SA       3     10     20     30      0      63     2.6


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