[3830] CQWW SSB ND0C SOSB/15 QRP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: ND0C
Operator(s): ND0C
Station: ND0C

Class: SOSB/15 QRP
QTH: Minnesota
Operating Time (hrs): 14

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:                    
   40:                    
   20:                    
   15:  237    27       74
   10:                    
------------------------------
Total:  237    27       74  Total Score = 66,256

Club: Minnesota Wireless Association

Comments:

I had decided a couple weeks ago to go single band on 15 this year - hoping that
it would open up a little, as it had shown pretty good signs of life here in the
black hole for the last few weeks.  Wow!  I was pleasantly surprised at how good
it was!  Before the contest started I never would have imagined I'd work 74
countries and 27 zones on 15 with 5 watts! The band was packed top to bottom in
the mornings - it sounded like 20!  At times it was really brutal trying to make
my pop-gun signal heard.  I didn't go real hard-core this time, taking time out
for some family stuff, but as the weekend progressed I got more "into it".  It
was a real blast.  

As always, my compliments to the patience, persistence, and good ears of the DX
ops out there in pulling my QRP signals through.  AH0BT was especially notable
in hanging with me.  And usually most of the stations in the pile-up stood-by
and demonstrated good manners.  

But there are way too many exceptions: stations that continually call on top of
the station that is trying to work the DX.  Some of these are just inexperienced
or poor ops that are over-anxious and demonstrate poor manners, and this is
exacerbated by the hordes of packet lizards that descend on a DX station,
calling without even listening.  

But some of these are well-known big guns that definitely know better and
apparently feel that a huge signal means they can ignore ethics and civility. 
For example, I think it was the pile-up for the afore-mentioned AH0BT: I was
calling for about 5 minutes before I finally got him and listened as a certain
VY station called on top of every single station that the AH0 came back to,
before he finally got through.  Unbelievable and totally uncool.  

But in spite of a few "bad characters" I had a blast and there are definitely a
lot of great operators out there.

Station: FT 897D running 5 watts out to a Wilson SY-3 3 element tribander at 48
feet.


73,
Randy, ND0C

"You don't have to be crazy to contest with QRP... but it helps!"


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