[3830] WPX SSB ND0C SOAB QRP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

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

Class: SOAB QRP
QTH: Minnesota
Operating Time (hrs): 32

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   64
   40:   88
   20:  208
   15:  284
   10:   87
------------
Total:  731  Prefixes = 423  Total Score = 755,420

Club: Minnesota Wireless Association

Comments:

I've been anxiously waiting for months for WPX since I had cleared my calendar
for the 2nd year in a row to eliminate all possible conflicts.  And except for
a little family time each day, I stayed in the chair or was napping.  I was QRP
again (and in the TS overlay category) as always and was really hoping to beat
my score from last year.  (Thanks for the great plaque Doug!) 

Propagation on the high bands was pretty impressive.  15 was really wild in the
afternoons, local time.  On Saturday western Europe was coming in to the Midwest
on 15 close to midnight their time! I really gave the rotator a work-out! 
Japan, Australia and South America were all open and then a few Europeans are
banging in off the back or side!  I worked all continents in about 20 minutes
on 15 Saturday afternoon.  Late Sunday afternoon it didn't seem to make any
difference where my beam was pointed.  Signals were very loud off the sides and
I just gave the rotator a rest and called strong stations off the side - with
success!  This included breaking a pile-up on the first call to get P43A late
Sunday.  I was furiously swinging the beam around from Japan and called him
while it was swinging past Europe and nailed him!  

20 was the usual zoo with wall-to-wall splatter.  And when 15 was open to
Europe, it was pretty messy too.  80 and 40 seemed very noisy and were
especially tough on Saturday night and Sunday morning - at least for QRP!

It was nice to work KP2/NE1RD for a 2-way QRP QSO Sunday afternoon.  Many
operators were very patient and persistent in pulling out my call and/or
numbers, but some would bail out pretty quick.  Obviously the QRM was terrible
and would just swamp my little signal.  EI4DW was really great as he hung with
me for what was probably a solid minute or more to complete our QSO - thanks!!

With the exception of a couple little "mini-runs" of 2 or 3 stations, this was
all S&P - pretty much the rule of thumb for QRP in DX contests!  On Sunday
morning things got pretty slow and I struggled to keep the rate over 20 per
hour.  It seemed to me that there were fewer Canadians on this year - at least
not many were running.  I really  missed them on 40 and 80!

I had a blast and succeeded in beating last year's QSO total, multipliers and
score.  I was pleased with the results considering the very modest antennas and
being in the infamous "black hole". It is great to see some solar activity!  Now
I'll just have to see how badly the East Coast QRP guys beat me! 

Rig: Yaesu FT-897D running at 5 watts output; Heil microphone
Antennas (T/S overlay category): 3 element Wilson tribander Yagi at 15 meters
and inverted vee with apex at 14 meters, fed with open wire.
Logging software - N3FJP (works for me!)

73, 
Randy, ND0C

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


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