[3830] CQWW CW KE1HA SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: KE1HA
Operator(s): KE1HA
Station: KE1HA

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Helena, MT
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0     0        0
   80:   25    11       10
   40:  122    25       49
   20:  114    23       48
   15:   20    11       13
   10:    0     0        0
------------------------------
Total:  281    70      120  Total Score = 129,390

Club: 

Comments:

~ First Time CQ-WW-CW
~ Limited Time + Low Power
~ S&P Throughout The Contest
~ For Log Verify Only

Goal: I don't have a contest station, it's marginal at best for casual
operation, so with that in mind I wanted to use this for learning, try to work
at least one Q in each zone and an work on what I need to do at this QTH in
order to become more competitive. 

Where do we start. I took a few notes during the time I was operating. First
thing I must say is "Thank You" to all the DX for your participation, and your
ability to hear my weak signal was truly amazing !!

When the contest started, 20M's was on its way out here in Montana. There was
only an hour or so of light left, and it seemed to close down right at sunset
not to return untel well after sunrise. On opening day 40M's was rough, as I
don't have descent propagation to the East (EU , SA, AF, etc) until a few hours
after sunset. I could hear many DX stations working the US (Eastern States) but
was unable to get in the mix. Once propagation did arrive in the western half
of the US, I was faced with an unsurmountable number of high ERP stations. I
was consistently seeing 20-40 over signals from one end of the Sub-Band to the
other. Frustration is the word I'll use here, but can assure you, was not the
words I was using in the shack Hi Hi :-)

Early Saturday morning, about 8-10 hours into the test, I actually started
making a descent number of contacts, bare in mind I was not looking for volume
numbers, rather just picking up New Zones & Countries for each band. 40M's even
after sunrise, I was still hearing JA's fairly loud, which is not all that
unusual. I dropped down to 80M's in the midle of the night local and heard a
fair number of DX stations as well. 

Saturday brought a new glimmer of light. 20M's seemed to be in real good shape,
as was 15. However, the same could not be said for Sunday. It was a ghost town
on Sunday compared to Saturday, with strange "Echoes" appearing on many
signals, as if they called were being "re-transmitted" or something, very
strange sounding indeed.

I was amazed with many stations, EA8CMX, HC8GR, FM5CM, ZM4T, AH0/AH2Y just to
name a few, were like beacons, no matter what time it was or where I was at, I
could hear you well.

I did manage to break a few big piles, how I do not know, it's tribute to the
DX stations weak signal hearing ability for sure, but A31A, 9V1YC, 9A1P, HC8GR,
EA8CMX, TX3A, VP9I, ZM1A, ZS1EL just to name a few, you guys are truly amazing
operators as were / are all the DX stations.

With all the good things about the contest, there were a few down marks, some
were mine, and some were from others. PSE don't think I'm complaining, their
just comments or observations:

~ I got skunked in 7 zones: 17, 18, 21, 24, 36, 37 and 39. Need work on this
one.
~ I missed A25NW again !! I got in the mix on several piles, but they just
vanished and I missed the oppertunity.
~ I jumped into a few piles without listening very well first, caused some
confusion and probably aggravation to others. SRI about that, it was a learning
experience for me, and that won't happen again for sure.
~ Self Spotting: Probably an age old issue, but many times I went to a psot
only to find a US operator camped out there. Come on guys, at least move a
couple KC's Up/Down.
~ I saw a few guys running at speeds 35+, where the contact they were making
was struggling at 18-20. They refused to slow down, thus adding minutes in some
cases to the contact. Does it help your score to be the fastest CW OP, who are
you impressing, the guy that can't work you, does it add to your score to be
the fastest CW OP?
~ In several instances, where folks were patiently waiting in line, others
would jump in and just start throwing their call in as fast as they could. Some
didn't even know the DX was split. I was in that bucket once or twice, but soon
leaned to listen a while first !!!, then jump in.
~ Listen to the DX PSE !! - many many times, ops would just keep sending in
their call while the DX station was responding to one he'd picked out. SRI
folks, but while he's TXing, he can't hear you and all your doing is slowing
down the process and adding to the confusion.
~ Key Clicks and Dirty Signals. Toward the end of the contest this seemed to
really bad. I saw signals on the scope that had no business being on the air.
Others with horrible key clicks. A trip to the Rig Doctor is clearly in order.

Overall, it was great fun, and will certainly be back next year, hopefully with
better suited DX antenna options. Thanks to all the DX for their participation
and CQ for putting on this event.

Station Setup:
Elevation: 4200ft above sea level (Very low noise level here)
RIG: FT-2000D (FT-1000MP is Getting an Upgrade)
Power: 100W Class-A ( this was painful :-)  )
Interface: US Navigator with K1EL v2 Keyer
SW: miLog by K7MI - TNX Larry, Great stuff !!
ANT-1: 20M Half SQ, worked ok, needs to be higher.
ANT-2: 40M Phased Verticals. Worked ok, but X is still to High.
ANT-3: 600ft Loop @ 70ft. Horrible for DX, but descent RCV antenna
Tunner: Palstar, AT5K
QSL Info: LoTW & eQSL.cc. If you want paper for Montana, no SASE needed.

73's
KE1HA
Helena MT


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