[3830] IARU K4XD SO Mixed HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: K4XD
Operator(s): K4XD
Station: K4XD

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:    3      1      1       2
   80:   44      5      6       9
   40:   95     15     11      23
   20:  190     59     20      32
   15:   11      5      6       3
   10:    1      1      0       1
-------------------------------------
Total:  344     86     44      70  Total Score = 123,690

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Ham Radio meets Reality TV!  "The World's Next Top Contester?"

That's all I could think of in those rare quiet SO2R moments, as I watched the
streaming video from the WRTC site and the real time scoreboard updates.  The
other thought was, "who are all those WRTC guys having all those QSO's with,
'cause it sure ain't me!"

I did manage to find a handful of R3xx's but now I see why there were so many
nice awards being offered for what seemed like a pretty small number of
contacts with WRTCers... no risk from me!

Last year I had just finished my Genesis SDR QRP kit for 40M and did the
contest QRP-40.  I was surprised what you can do with 5W and have done a few
contests that way since.  But this time it was SO2R, crank up the amps, and
enjoy all the bands that would let me enjoy them.  Which turned out to be
mostly 20 and 40, with a a dash of 80 for good measure.

"Doh!" moment of the day:  I noticed a month ago that my K9AY loop seemed to
have gone dead.  I systematically (or so I thought) troubleshot it, going out
to the loop and hearing signals there, but nothing at the radio.  Bypassed the
lightning arrestor, no joy.  Checked the cables at the back of the radio and
K9AY control box - still dead.  Sent the relay box off to Jim Wolf, who did
replace a bad relay (I drilled a hole in it -- don't ask), but still no sounds
from the 756 Pro 2 when on the Rcv antenna.  Really starting to get frustrated,
I traced the cables from the back of the radio thinking that was the last
possible place for a problem... and traced the cable right into a coax switch
... that was switched to short the input to ground!  Doh!!!   But at least I
have nice new coax and a fixed relay...

Random contest thoughts and observations:

* Thanks to NU1AW I had my first "sweep" of a station on every band, every
mode, from 160 to 10.  Thanks guys!  Those guys were everywhere.
* As I sat in my air-conditioned ham shack and watched the fans in the WRTC
tents I was reminded of Field Day and glad I only have one contest in a tent
per year!
* One of the joys of mixed mode contests with SO2R -- SSB in the left ear and
CW in the right!  Talk about twisting your brain around.  Now, I just need a
third radio and a RTTY window on the screen, "all" three modes at once, hey,
why not!  I think I have a headache...
* 15M was a little disappointing, seemed like it was open but not many stations
there, at least not when I checked.
* After 10 hours of IARU here in NC, I am very familiar with the CW sound of
"8"
* Ever notice how time slows to a crawl when someone has sent you part of a
contest exchange and you fat finger something, or the contest software window
has lost focus and you are typing into some other program... it's like one of
those dreams where everything is moving 1/100'th normal speed, and every
millisecond that goes by you imagine the guy waiting on you thinking your LID
Quotient has doubled...

Back home from church and writing up these notes, I saw a QSL card that came in
the mail yesterday from K1BV.  Tore open the envelope and it was EY8MM -- who
was on the screen in front of me on the WRTC Reality Show... even my XYL
thought that was a cool coincidence!

Thanks to all for the Q's and fun!  CU in the next one.

73,
Rowland K4XD


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