[3830] CQWW CW VU2PTT SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: VU2PTT
Operator(s): VU2PTT
Station: VU2PTT

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Bangalore MK82tx
Operating Time (hrs): 39

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0     0        0
   80:   36    13       23
   40:  404    25       79
   20:  401    32      100
   15:  628    30       85
   10:  180    11       43
------------------------------
Total: 1649   111      330  Total Score = 1,880,424

Club: VU Contest Group

Comments:

Rig: Icom 746 PRO + SB-200 Amp
Ant: Force12 C3S @ 60', 40m Inv-Vee @ 55', 80m Inv-L
Interface: MicroHAM MicroKeyer II
Logger: N1MM 10.11.2 on old Dell X300 mini notebook
Accessories: KK1L 2x6 Antenna Switch (cool)

What a blast - with all the predictions of poor propagation trickling in
through the week, I really did not expect much. But then I saw my rate meter
hitting 300 a couple of times for a short while and that was fun. Although I
sounded like a LID when using the paddle for fills - i must ask Santa for a new
one :)

This time I tried to practice the saying "If you are not CQ-ing, you are not
winning". The downside was that I missed some mults which I should have got
easily. You don't miss VU2 on 15M or fail to make a single LU QSO. Missed the
usual zones 2, 6, 40. This time I missed 36 and 12 as well - too much action on
the CQ machine I guess :)

10M: Big signals from Europe and a couple of short but interesting runs.
Highlight was coming across a lone SU9HP calling CQ on what seemed to be a dead
band for my Zone 34 :)

15M: Was the money band here and I should have made many more if I was not away
for a close family wedding for about 6 Hours. Good to hear the State-side
signals booming in there - the excitement was high and as a result I worked
K5ZD and forgot to log him. Went back after a few minutes and worked him again.
But where were all the VE stations? Highlight was being called by ZL8X in my
pile up :)

20M: Was a real dampener where I expected much more although I just did DXCC in
a weekend on this band. When I had a run going all the EU signals were S9+ and
calling over each other so much that they could not hear me either. Went split
for the only time in the contest while feeling a little guilty. Then the
utility power went off for 10 minutes - thankfully that was the only break due
to outages. Good to work friends at KH6ZN while W6XB was the only West Coast
station worked, I did not hear any of the other big guns out there. No VE
stations worked, which was a surprise although I had US stations calling on my
run frequency.

40M: Was in great shape and I could have done better. First time after many
years that I worked a few State-side on 40m. Several like D4C called in on my
frequency. K3LR opened the account for the US stations calling in on my Gray
line CQ on the first day while it was good to work Kenny C6ATA towards the end.
ZF1A got away - he was VERY LOUD but never was able to hear me.

80M: This was the killer for me - I got killed. I could not work anything the
first day due to S9 noise with only two QSOs. Then on Sunday, while I attended
an unavoidable family wedding for about 6 Hours I realized the only thing I
added was a second PC in another room in the house. Came back and switched that
off, and voila, QRN only an S2 - I felt very foolish then. Just tried working a
few multipliers the second night - the wedding festivities had drained me out
:)

End of the contest and I looked back satisfied that I had the biggest score
from this location to date with a promise of a lot more. The stretch target was
2 Million points and 2K QSOs which should have been easily possible if not for
the wedding. Improvement is in order for the 80m antenna and something needs to
be done for Top Band - I want to see what Tom N6BT's new antenna is. Thanks to
all the multipliers who called in on my run frequencies, you made the score
what it is. See you all in CQ WPX.

73 de Prasad VU2PTT
VU Contest Group


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